Friday, June 19, 2026
How Should an Office Sound?
Buildings: Is your office too loud—or is it not loud enough? A certain level of noise—created by a consistent buzz of conversation, the sounds of people typing, or the occasional phone call—can make a space feel alive. But there’s an ideal range the noise needs to fall into, according to research by Ark Research Lab, a subsidiary of HLW. Too much, and your space feels cacophonous; too little and it feels empty and unsettling.
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I think this is an interesting view on sound from a non-theatrical standpoint. I think out of the many artforms within theatre sound is particularly interesting because so much of it is processed at the subconscious level. You may not notice the fan that's been running in your room for the last hour but you would certainly notice if you suddenly didn't hear it. I've heard similar concepts be discussed in editing interviews. Every room has some neutral noise level and as such simply muting a track will sound "off" to the audience so you need to pipe in some of the neutral sounds of the environment to make it sound right. However, what makes this interesting is that the average person if shown a clip without this neutral noise would know that something was wrong with the clip but likely couldn't tell you what is missing. This is analogous to the near empty offices mentioned in the article. Stepping into an office feels different when there are only a few people there than when the office is fully staffed and bustling with activity.
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