Digital fabrication for retroreflective ceiling treatment: Reducing speech distraction in an open work environment

Abstract

This paper presents a case study for the production of retroreflective ceiling treatment in an open work environment. In this setting with multiple talkers, speech distraction can be a significant cause of dissatisfaction and loss of productivity. Ceiling treatment in open plan work environments can provide an important way of ameliorating distraction from unattended speech, and rather than absorbing the sound at the ceiling, this paper examines the possibility of reflecting sound back to the source. Computational design and digital fabrication are integrated in this research for a site-specific deployment of the ceiling treatment and physical testing of prototypes in an acoustics laboratory. The contemporary possibilities that open up with new technologies to understand and resurrect faceted geometries and potentially vary historical precedents via new manufacturing techniques are demonstrated in these novel acoustic reflective ceilings that reflect sound back to their original source.