Retail therapy is a real thing! It makes us feel good. When we shop, our bodies release dopamine, the ‘feel-good hormone’.
Entertaining activities can refresh your mind and preserve your mental health as well as emotional well-being. It will bring happiness into your life. Some of these activities may even bring you closer to your friends and family members. Therefore, entertainment can be beneficial in many ways.
This is why we love being involved in retail and leisure projects. We know that the results of our input can contribute to people’s happiness. However, when the acoustic environment is poor, it really detracts from the desired experience. High activity noise in a shopping environment can add to fatigue caused by a long shopping spree. High activity noise in the circulation spaces of a shopping centre also affects the intelligibility of voice evacuation systems. Leisure facilities often introduce acoustic challenges, including the need for high sound insulation between cinema auditoria and the impact of activity noise on adjacent sensitive spaces.
There are no prescribed acoustic standards specifically covering retail and leisure acoustic design, although there are recommendations for ambient noise conditions in BS 8233: 2014 ‘Guidance on sound insulation and noise reduction for buildings’. Additionally, the Association of Noise Consultants has produced the Professional Practice Guidance on Gym Acoustics, to assist in the design of gymnasia. Operators of leisure facilities also often have performance standards for acoustics and where they don’t, we have significant experience to define appropriate criteria and design and test any retail or leisure facility.
Our team has successfully delivered retail facilities both in the UK and Internationally, including designing changes to Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield and designing retail and leisure provisions for Silverburn Shopping Centre in Glasgow, Sheldon Phase 2 in Birmingham and City Centre Almaza in Cairo.
