Ceiling Design Solutions for Open and Co-Working Offices

While open office designs have been the norm for more than 60 years, co-working has taken root in the last decade within excess real estate. According to the Building Owners and Managers Association’s Jan./Feb. 2017 BOMA Magazine, “The trend of corporate co-working does not appear to be a passing fad.” Beyond the freelancers and independent contracts, co-working offices can comprise as much as 25% of corporations’ total leased space. This is especially true of the concentration-intensive tech industry.

Studies show that up to 90% of an organization’s resources are spent on its workers, while less than 10% is spent on their physical workplace. Traditional, open office designs are characterized by their large, monolithic “drop” ceiling spans since suspended grid systems were developed in the 1950s. Co-working spaces often retain the previous tenant’s ceiling systems, which may be a suspended system with old acoustic panels that have inadequate noise absorption performance or a completely exposed view of the space’s structural and mechanical workings that has almost no noise absorption capability at all.

All offices’ ceiling designs can benefit from quick and cost-effective modern improvements and Optimized Acoustics™. By removing the old, low-performing, ceiling panels and replacing them with new, high-performance ones with a Noise Reduction Coefficient of NRC 0.90 or higher, a loud and uncomfortable space can be transformed easily into an intimate and productive place where people want to work.

Sound-absorbing, Rockfon acoustic stone wool ceiling systems mitigate unwanted noise and its negative impact on occupants in large, open office and co-working spaces. The fiber structure is engineered to trap sound, resulting in high NRC performance levels that meet today's stricter acoustics standards.

Office workers spend 62% of their time doing quiet work. Their concentration and comfort are affected directly by the noise within their surrounding environments. This, in turn, influences their accuracy, efficiency, productivity and long-term wellbeing. Even small changes in their acoustic experience may have a significant impact on their employers’ bottom lines.

To learn more about Rockfon complete ceiling solutions for open offices and other projects, please download a PDF copy of “Inspired By You: Open Plan Offices”.