Acoustic ceilings ensure a positive learning environment

Datum: 10 Okt 2018

Even the Federal President was already there. In April 2018, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender visited the new location of the vocational school complex on the Anckelmannstraße in Hamburg. Here, around 4000 students learn theory and practice for various occupations in retail and administration. Knauf AMF has supplied around 18,000 m² of TOPIQ® Prime acoustic ceiling tiles for common rooms and classrooms.

The competition, launched in 2010, for the construction of a vocational school in the context of a public-private partnership (PPP) process, saw the concept of Carsten Lorenzen from Copenhagen emerge as the winner. After planning by APB.Architekten BDA from Hamburg and the project being awarded to Ed. Züblin AG and Otto Wulff Bauunternehmung GmbH, implementation of the project began in July 2015 under the leadership of the HEOS Berufsschulen Hamburg GmbH, which was founded specifically for this purpose.

€70 million total investment
After around two years, in October 2017, the new building complex was completed on the 19,000 square metre plot between the Anckelmannstraße, Eiffestrasse and Ausschläger Weg in the central district. The Hanseatic City allowed 70 million Euros for the spacious new build. Housed in the complex are two schools that cooperate closely: the Vocational School Anckelmannstraße (BS 01) and the Vocational School for Economy and Trade Hamburg-Central (BS 02). The vocational school complex consists of three buildings grouped around a piazza. The two-storey foyer as the hub of school life is oriented towards this central place. In addition to 101 classrooms, several common areas provide students with opportunities for mutual exchange and breaks between lessons. Other features of the school include, amongst others, an auditorium, a cafeteria, a media library and a sports hall including ancillary rooms.

Special acoustic requirements
In principle, schools face several challenges in terms of room acoustics. In the large communal areas, where at some points large numbers of students gather at the same time, the noise level has to be kept within limits. Communication with one another must be possible without the person speaking having to significantly increase the volume. Above all in the classrooms, it is important to use acoustic measures to reduce disturbing background noise and to optimise the reverberation times in such a way that the teacher is well understood by the students at each point of the classroom. Conversely, speeches by individual students should arrive acoustically with all persons in the room. The installation of acoustically effective ceiling systems was of particular importance to the planners and clients of the new building in Hamburg. These increase speech intelligibility, dampen the background noise and make it easier for teachers to be understood, without increased volume. In addition, such acoustic measures improve the students' ability to concentrate and thus the overall learning climate.

More peace with TOPIQ® Prime high performance absorbers
In the multi-purpose common room, the foyer, the quiet zones, the school kitchen, the cafeteria and in the classrooms, class A sound absorption, TOPIQ® Prime high-performance ceiling absorbers from Knauf AMF were used. A total of 18,000 m² of soft board tiles were installed. The technology of the AMF TOPIQ® product brand is based on fleece-laminated mineral wool tiles with all-round edge finishing for the most diverse room requirements in the vocational school. As standard, the finish consists of a double-sided fleece coating, whereby the visible side and the edge area are also provided with a high-quality colour coating. The products from the soft board range are impressive with their low weight, easy handling, very good humidity resistance and excellent sound absorption (αw = 0.95). Corresponding to the light walls, the ceiling tiles (625 x 625 mm format) in the vocational school complex are white in colour, similar to RAL 9010. In addition to high-performance sound absorption, TOPIQ® Prime is characterised by humidity resistance of up to 100 percent relative humidity and favourable light reflection, of about 88% glare-free in the colour white.