The Study Melbourne Student Centre (or “Hub”) is designed for students to access free support, information and contacts to help them enjoy living and studying in Victoria. The friendly Hub staff are experts in international education and can provide help and advice to students with a range of enquiries including financial hardship, accommodation, wellbeing and mental health support, employment, legal information and education provider problems.
The problem
The fit out had some unique challenges. The space itself had soaring ceilings with noise from the lift and stairway. Due to the size and aesthetic of the space, this couldn’t be closed off. The architect needed to create an office space cocooned within the larger space. The client achieved this with partitions that included absorptive materials. Unfortunately, speech privacy remained a concern.
The solution
The client wanted to create acoustic privacy between the meeting room, office staff, and student lounge area on the ground floor. The walls separating the spaces were not full height to avoid having to install costly supplementary air conditioning systems within the office. This left sound masking as the only solution.

We installed an open area system within the student area and in the office. Due to the high ceilings, we included acoustic discs (pictured above) to better direct the spread of sound. This allowed administrative staff to work without distracting noise from the student lounge area. As an added bonus, it helped to reduce one of the employees’ tinnitus.
If your space could use a Soundmask system, please contact us so that we can custom design a system for your space.

