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School and classroom acoustics in Switzerland
Hard floors, bare walls and long corridors that amplify everything. Children with developing language, and anyone with a hearing difficulty, lose more from a live classroom than adults do, which is why intelligibility is the target rather than quiet. School buildings are built to a high standard with hard cleanable surfaces, so rooms stay live and intelligibility is the target.
- Classroom RT
- A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling.
- Corridor spill
- Long hard circulation feeds every room off it. Treating the corridor helps every classroom at once.
- Halls and gyms
- Dual use rooms carrying speech, music and sport, where durability decides the product.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / The material
What this material is and where it earns its place in Switzerland
Hard floors, bare walls and long corridors that amplify everything. Children with developing language, and anyone with a hearing difficulty, lose more from a live classroom than adults do, which is why intelligibility is the target rather than quiet.
School buildings are built to a high standard with hard cleanable surfaces, so rooms stay live and intelligibility is the target.
Work reaching us from Switzerland is mostly apartments, offices, alpine hotels, schools, clinics, studios, timber buildings.
- Timber construction at scale Switzerland builds a lot in timber, and timber is light. Low frequency passes easily, so mass and decoupling do the work, not more absorption.
- Landlocked, so plan the inland leg Rotterdam or Antwerp, then rail. We quote the sea leg and the inland leg separately so the programme runs on real dates.
- The tolerance is zero If the sheet does not perform, you will find out and so will we. That is why we quote what the material does rather than what would win the order.
- Classroom RT A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for school acoustics are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Switzerland.
02 / The build-up
What goes where, from the structure in
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Layer 1
Wood wool acoustic panels
Wood fibre bound into a rigid board with an open texture. In Switzerland, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is standard, so duct and terminal unit noise are the sources.
On a cavity. Mounted on battens with an air gap, which is where the low mid performance comes from.
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Layer 2
Acoustic panels
The full absorber range rather than one product: plain PET felt, printed felt, grooved panels and fabric finishes, chosen by how the room is used and how it has to look. In Switzerland, concert halls, church buildings and civic rooms are long-decay volumes where interventions must be reversible.
Ceiling first. In most rooms the ceiling is the largest untreated surface and the cheapest square metre of result.
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Layer 3
Acoustic carpet and rugs
A tile carpet with a dense polyester face on a felt backing. In Switzerland, school buildings are built to a high standard with hard cleanable surfaces, so rooms stay live and intelligibility is the target.
Zoned. Carpet in the circulation and meeting zones, hard floor elsewhere, so the treatment sits where the noise is made.
Architects working in Switzerland usually need the build-up before the product. We will draw the section and mark what does the work. See how we support architects.
03 / Local conditions
What decides the build-up in Switzerland
- Timber construction at scale
Switzerland builds a lot in timber, and timber is light. Low frequency passes easily, so mass and decoupling do the work, not more absorption.
- Landlocked, so plan the inland leg
Rotterdam or Antwerp, then rail. We quote the sea leg and the inland leg separately so the programme runs on real dates.
- The tolerance is zero
If the sheet does not perform, you will find out and so will we. That is why we quote what the material does rather than what would win the order.
- Floor area is extremely expensive
Every centimetre a wall grows into the room is paid for. A dense membrane with a resilient break usually beats a thick framed build-up on both depth and cost.
- Assembly and performance rooms
Concert halls, church buildings and civic rooms are long-decay volumes where interventions must be reversible.
- School and campus buildings
School buildings are built to a high standard with hard cleanable surfaces, so rooms stay live and intelligibility is the target.
04 / Room by room
Room by room, on a typical Switzerland job
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Classroom RT
A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling. Switzerland builds a lot in timber, and timber is light. Low frequency passes easily, so mass and decoupling do the work, not more absorption.
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 1200 x 600 mm
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, 9 to 24 mm
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, High density polyester
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Corridor spill
Long hard circulation feeds every room off it. Treating the corridor helps every classroom at once. Rotterdam or Antwerp, then rail. We quote the sea leg and the inland leg separately so the programme runs on real dates.
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 20 mm
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, Made to the drawing, standard and custom
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, Felt
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Halls and gyms
Dual use rooms carrying speech, music and sport, where durability decides the product. If the sheet does not perform, you will find out and so will we. That is why we quote what the material does rather than what would win the order.
- Wood wool acoustic panels, 400 kg per cubic metre
- Ceiling baffles and clouds, Both faces work, which is why suspended area outperforms the same area laid flat
- Acoustic carpet and rugs, 64 sq ft per pack
Interior designers tend to arrive with the look already decided. We will tell you which finish gets there without losing the acoustics. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Durability
What the Switzerland climate rules in and rules out
Switzerland is cool and damp, with long heating seasons and cold external walls, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
Cold wall build-ups and long heating seasons mean interstitial condensation is a real risk behind any lining. PET felt is unaffected by damp air and will not feed mould where a fabric-faced mineral product would.
The failure we design against here is condensation behind linings in older, poorly insulated stock.
Where a consultant is already engaged on a Switzerland project, we supply to their specification and send the test reports rather than describing them. More on working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Read this first
Six mistakes that turn into a second fit-out
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Panels at child height where they get damaged
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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Treating one classroom and leaving the corridor
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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Choosing a product that cannot take a football
Enclose the machine, break the vibration path, then deal with what is left. Doing it in the other order costs more and achieves less.
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Treating it as a generic Switzerland job
Switzerland builds a lot in timber, and timber is light. Low frequency passes easily, so mass and decoupling do the work, not more absorption.
05 / Supply
Getting it to Switzerland, with real dates
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Rotterdam or Antwerp, then rail and road inland |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea via Rotterdam, then rail |
| Support | Drawings, build-ups, BOQ and material that arrives complete |
Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved panels and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order, not after.
Sea freight into Rotterdam or Antwerp, then rail and road inland. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Switzerland projects
What makes school and classroom acoustics different in Switzerland?
School buildings are built to a high standard with hard cleanable surfaces, so rooms stay live and intelligibility is the target. If the sheet does not perform, you will find out and so will we. That is why we quote what the material does rather than what would win the order.
Where should the budget go first on a Switzerland project?
Classroom RT. A number, set against room volume, achieved mostly at the ceiling. Corridor spill. Long hard circulation feeds every room off it. Treating the corridor helps every classroom at once.
Do you have an office or installation team in Switzerland?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Switzerland. We give you drawings, build-ups, a BOQ and material that arrives complete, and we will tell you plainly when a job needs a local contractor we cannot be.
How does material get to a Switzerland site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Rotterdam or Antwerp, then rail and road inland, dispatch: 4 to 7 working days. Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved panels and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order, not after.
What goes wrong most often on this kind of project?
Panels at child height where they get damaged. Treating one classroom and leaving the corridor.
What do you need from us to quote?
A plan, a section through the critical partition or ceiling, and what the room is for. From that we can give a build-up and a BOQ rather than a price per square foot.
Next step
Send a plan and a section, get a real build-up
We quote from drawings, not from a square foot rate. Send a plan and the section through the critical wall or ceiling and you will get something you can actually build from.