Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2019: Health, Wellbeing, and Acoustics
Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2019 focuses on the impact engineers have on health and wellbeing. While there may be some more obvious engineering sectors impacting on this, acoustics can play a huge part in people’s health and wellbeing.
Where do you spend most of your waking hours?
Maybe you spend your days in the office, at school or college, or perhaps you work on a building site or in a factory?
In many cases acoustic engineers will have been involved in the design of the buildings we work or study in, and will have carried out assessments of the risk of hearing damage presented in noisy workspaces such as factories.
How do you wind down and relax?
Watch a film at the cinema, perhaps do some shopping or go to a bar or a restaurant?
Again, acoustic engineers will have been involved in the design of cinema complexes, and many other leisure destinations including some bars, restaurants and shopping centres.
For a special occasion to recharge your batteries perhaps you’ll splash out and stay overnight in a hotel and watch a show or concert`
Again, acoustic engineers will have looked at the design of the hotel to ensure you can get some peace and quiet, and will have carefully looked at the design of the theatre or concert hall to help create the best experience.
And what about just chilling out at home and getting a good night’s sleep?
There’s nothing more important than being able to rest and relax in your own home, and most residential properties will have been built on the basis of advice from acoustic engineers.
This may be to ensure noise breaking in from external sources such as road rail or air traffic does not exceed appropriate levels for rest, relaxation, and sleep. We will also have advised on the level of sound separation from any adjoining properties so you hopefully won’t be disturbed by your neighbours enjoying their properties.
Acoustic Engineering
Noise is often considered to be one of the key factors when assessing health, happiness and comfort, and this is strongly linked to both productivity and bio-physical wellness (links have been drawn between excessive noise and issues with the nervous system, endocrine system, and cardiovascular disease).
In these days of constant stimulation from technology, it is becoming more important than ever to have quiet spaces to which we can retreat. At the same time, these are becoming fewer and further between with the rise in city living and the redevelopment of brownfield sites in close proximity to noise sources such as transportation links, leisure areas, and industrial uses.
At RBA Acoustics, we endeavour in all our projects to ensure that the acoustic conditions are right for the use – not too high, not too low, and not causing undue disturbance to neighbours or tranquil spaces. If you are looking for a career in which you can have a major impact on the health, wellbeing, and contentment of many people across a wide range of situations, acoustics might just be worth investigating.
