You’re catching up with an old friend at a cafe. Or maybe you’re at a networking lunch, or winding down after work over drinks at a restaurant. What is one thing that would, without fail, taint the entire experience?
For me, it’s noise. Not just obnoxiously loud chatter, but the kind of intrusive, inescapable noise made worse by poor acoustic design.
Think the clang of cutlery, the screech of chairs dragged across bare floors, the shrill hiss and rumble of an espresso machine. Add in a couple’s conversation from two tables away, their every word reverberating off hard surfaces, and I fight to hear even my own thoughts.
This year alone, I’ve left several supposedly chill meet-ups with a frayed sense of calm and a bad taste in my mouth – that had nothing to do with the food.
I'm hardly alone in this. Whenever my friends and I are deciding where to meet, we usually land on one criteria: Somewhere conducive for conversation.
But unless we retreat to someone's home, our seemingly basic requirement often feels out of reach, partly due to the Lombard effect, informally known as the cocktail party effect. This refers to the involuntary tendency to increase one's vocal effort when speaking in loud noise.
For business owners, the effect is "not only unpleasant, but it also limits the capacity of the restaurant", explained Adrian Lo, founder of acoustic consultancy Soundzipper.
"If you really want to fill your restaurant, you need that (acoustic treatment). It helps you fill your restaurant without causing undue unpleasantness," he believes.
Cushions are one feature that can help to mitigate the noise levels in a restaurant. (File photo: iStock/glegorly)
Noise and its psychological impact can also be exacerbated by a restaurant's interior design, often influenced by its target demographic and cuisine.
A research paper from 2015 examined 112 restaurants in Singapore, with a focus on interior design materials, to understand how sound and environment affect the dining experience.
Restaurants are "intensively social places", and their design is subject to "competing requirements", wrote the paper's author Dr PerMagnus Lindborg, now an associate professor at the School of Creative Media in the City University of Hong Kong.
"Restaurants need to attract customers; and so they have large windows towards the street or open doors towards the shopping mall in which they are located, leaking in external noise. They need to give an impression of cleanliness; so floors and tabletop materials are hard and acoustically reflective," he wrote, referencing external research.
"Managers and waiters need to scan the tables; so there are few wall partitions to absorb sound and provide lateral first reflections."
In some cases, customers may also seek a "vibrant atmosphere" where appropriate music mixes with voices into an "agreeable din", while other contexts may call for a calm environment that allows greater privacy for a spoken conversation.
Diners at a restaurant in Japan. (File photo: iStock/JohnnyGreig)
Separate research also found that "contemporary restaurant interiors are dominated by hard surfaces and open-space architecture", causing noise from the kitchen and bar to spill over into the dining area, according to Dr Lindborg's paper.
"They also noted a prevalence for bare surfaces, with few textiles such as carpets, draperies or linens."
Dr Lindborg's own field survey similarly found that "jarring noise" tends to occur in open-design concepts. Such layouts may allow restaurant managers "visual control" in scanning the room, but acoustically, "it's a disaster", he said.
He has observed "more compartments" in comparatively old-fashioned places, such as pillars in restaurants, private breakout rooms and high sofas, which are "acoustically more favourable to conversation".
But it doesn't mean that these features are reserved for places of traditional luxury. Both Lo from Soundzipper and Dr Lindborg pinpointed McDonald's as a restaurant that is "acoustically remarkably good".
"The reason, just from observation, is they typically have these perforated ceilings. The ceiling is a large part of the enclosure, and if you can just reduce the echoes from the ceiling, you get very good results," Dr Lindborg told CNA Lifestyle.
"Then you can accept that the floor is hard, or that you don't have any soft parts on the walls, or bookshelves with irregular books. Those are acoustically good things, but it makes other parts of the design more difficult."
In Singapore's food and beverage scene, prioritising good acoustic design in the average dining experience is key for at least one cafe.
Sera Phua, the director and founder of Acoustics Coffee Bar, understands my discomfort with trying to hold a conversation while dining amid excessive noise. But instead of, say, investing in personal ear plugs to manage her own sensitivity to sound, the 31-year-old decided to start Acoustics Coffee Bar – so everyone could benefit from good sound.
The Owen Road branch of Acoustics Coffee Bar. (Photo: CNA/Grace Yeoh)
Both the Owen Road and Neil Road outlets share a simple goal: To create an environment where customers can enjoy proper conversations without having to strain their ears or vocal cords.
“My partner and I used to go to cafes and restaurants, where we wanted to have a chat or get-together … but we realised that we couldn’t really have a good chat, to the point that we gave up talking to each other and started using our phones,” Phua explained.
“Having a comfortable conversation is in our subconscious, but people don’t know they need a conducive space (that allows it), until they experience it.”
In fact, I’d first heard about Acoustics Coffee Bar from people who struggle with sensory overload. But I only became a believer when I visited its Neil Road outlet for the first time earlier this year.
Even the standard sputtering of a coffee machine in the background felt less jarring, with the cafe’s acoustic treatments, compared with how a regular cafe would have made me feel: Slightly on edge.
Phua asserts that even at their busiest hour – on a weekend around 2pm to 3pm – customers would still be able to “feel the zen here”.
For instance, she uses absorption and diffuser panels on the cafe's walls to reduce unwanted noise and break off the sound waves, respectively. But it's not just about having them in place; exact placement also requires "visualisation of how customers will speak and how noise will travel", she said.
"We're trying to make something, usually deemed as luxury, accessible so anyone can enjoy it. Our goal is to create an intimate cafe where people can connect over coffee and meals, free from noise and distraction."
Acoustics Coffee Bar at Owen Road takes pride in its acoustic design that creates a conducive environment for customers. (Photo: CNA/Grace Yeoh)
In general, solid, smooth and hard surfaces – such as glass, metal and concrete – are more likely to make a space noisier and hence more uncomfortable. But as long as a space is conditioned "well enough", Phua believes cafes and restaurants don't have to avoid using these materials.
Wood, on the other hand, is typically considered good for acoustics. But it has to be "a special kind of wood" with micro perforations, or it must incorporate sound-absorbing materials that are porous, advised Lo from Soundzipper.
Some places also install a layer of such material on the underside of tables, he said. "You won't see it, but it helps with controlling the sound waves bouncing around."
Yet, despite the clear benefits, acoustic design still tends to be an afterthought. Findings from Dr Lindborg's field survey of over 100 restaurants in Singapore revealed that there was more room for improvement of soundscape in restaurants than of the corresponding visual environment.
"A reduction in ambient noise levels sonic quality is likely to lead to higher environmental quality ratings, both visual and sonic, and might at the same time be a justification for an increase in menu prices," his paper suggested.
So acoustic design may not top the average diner’s list of concerns, but I, too, reckon there’s room for compromise. After all, restaurants already pour immense effort into their menus, service and visual appeal. It would be a shame to forget one of the most basic aspects of hospitality is to create an environment where people can genuinely connect.
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For me, it’s noise. Not just obnoxiously loud chatter, but the kind of intrusive, inescapable noise made worse by poor acoustic design.
Think the clang of cutlery, the screech of chairs dragged across bare floors, the shrill hiss and rumble of an espresso machine. Add in a couple’s conversation from two tables away, their every word reverberating off hard surfaces, and I fight to hear even my own thoughts.
This year alone, I’ve left several supposedly chill meet-ups with a frayed sense of calm and a bad taste in my mouth – that had nothing to do with the food.
HUMAN BEHAVIOUR, INTERIOR DESIGN AFFECT NOISE
I'm hardly alone in this. Whenever my friends and I are deciding where to meet, we usually land on one criteria: Somewhere conducive for conversation.
But unless we retreat to someone's home, our seemingly basic requirement often feels out of reach, partly due to the Lombard effect, informally known as the cocktail party effect. This refers to the involuntary tendency to increase one's vocal effort when speaking in loud noise.
For business owners, the effect is "not only unpleasant, but it also limits the capacity of the restaurant", explained Adrian Lo, founder of acoustic consultancy Soundzipper.
"If you really want to fill your restaurant, you need that (acoustic treatment). It helps you fill your restaurant without causing undue unpleasantness," he believes.
Cushions are one feature that can help to mitigate the noise levels in a restaurant. (File photo: iStock/glegorly)
Noise and its psychological impact can also be exacerbated by a restaurant's interior design, often influenced by its target demographic and cuisine.
A research paper from 2015 examined 112 restaurants in Singapore, with a focus on interior design materials, to understand how sound and environment affect the dining experience.
Restaurants are "intensively social places", and their design is subject to "competing requirements", wrote the paper's author Dr PerMagnus Lindborg, now an associate professor at the School of Creative Media in the City University of Hong Kong.
"Restaurants need to attract customers; and so they have large windows towards the street or open doors towards the shopping mall in which they are located, leaking in external noise. They need to give an impression of cleanliness; so floors and tabletop materials are hard and acoustically reflective," he wrote, referencing external research.
"Managers and waiters need to scan the tables; so there are few wall partitions to absorb sound and provide lateral first reflections."
In some cases, customers may also seek a "vibrant atmosphere" where appropriate music mixes with voices into an "agreeable din", while other contexts may call for a calm environment that allows greater privacy for a spoken conversation.
Diners at a restaurant in Japan. (File photo: iStock/JohnnyGreig)
Separate research also found that "contemporary restaurant interiors are dominated by hard surfaces and open-space architecture", causing noise from the kitchen and bar to spill over into the dining area, according to Dr Lindborg's paper.
"They also noted a prevalence for bare surfaces, with few textiles such as carpets, draperies or linens."
Dr Lindborg's own field survey similarly found that "jarring noise" tends to occur in open-design concepts. Such layouts may allow restaurant managers "visual control" in scanning the room, but acoustically, "it's a disaster", he said.
He has observed "more compartments" in comparatively old-fashioned places, such as pillars in restaurants, private breakout rooms and high sofas, which are "acoustically more favourable to conversation".
But it doesn't mean that these features are reserved for places of traditional luxury. Both Lo from Soundzipper and Dr Lindborg pinpointed McDonald's as a restaurant that is "acoustically remarkably good".
"The reason, just from observation, is they typically have these perforated ceilings. The ceiling is a large part of the enclosure, and if you can just reduce the echoes from the ceiling, you get very good results," Dr Lindborg told CNA Lifestyle.
"Then you can accept that the floor is hard, or that you don't have any soft parts on the walls, or bookshelves with irregular books. Those are acoustically good things, but it makes other parts of the design more difficult."
PRIORITISING GOOD ACOUSTIC DESIGN
In Singapore's food and beverage scene, prioritising good acoustic design in the average dining experience is key for at least one cafe.
Sera Phua, the director and founder of Acoustics Coffee Bar, understands my discomfort with trying to hold a conversation while dining amid excessive noise. But instead of, say, investing in personal ear plugs to manage her own sensitivity to sound, the 31-year-old decided to start Acoustics Coffee Bar – so everyone could benefit from good sound.
The Owen Road branch of Acoustics Coffee Bar. (Photo: CNA/Grace Yeoh)
Both the Owen Road and Neil Road outlets share a simple goal: To create an environment where customers can enjoy proper conversations without having to strain their ears or vocal cords.
“My partner and I used to go to cafes and restaurants, where we wanted to have a chat or get-together … but we realised that we couldn’t really have a good chat, to the point that we gave up talking to each other and started using our phones,” Phua explained.
“Having a comfortable conversation is in our subconscious, but people don’t know they need a conducive space (that allows it), until they experience it.”
In fact, I’d first heard about Acoustics Coffee Bar from people who struggle with sensory overload. But I only became a believer when I visited its Neil Road outlet for the first time earlier this year.
Even the standard sputtering of a coffee machine in the background felt less jarring, with the cafe’s acoustic treatments, compared with how a regular cafe would have made me feel: Slightly on edge.
Phua asserts that even at their busiest hour – on a weekend around 2pm to 3pm – customers would still be able to “feel the zen here”.
For instance, she uses absorption and diffuser panels on the cafe's walls to reduce unwanted noise and break off the sound waves, respectively. But it's not just about having them in place; exact placement also requires "visualisation of how customers will speak and how noise will travel", she said.
"We're trying to make something, usually deemed as luxury, accessible so anyone can enjoy it. Our goal is to create an intimate cafe where people can connect over coffee and meals, free from noise and distraction."
Acoustics Coffee Bar at Owen Road takes pride in its acoustic design that creates a conducive environment for customers. (Photo: CNA/Grace Yeoh)
In general, solid, smooth and hard surfaces – such as glass, metal and concrete – are more likely to make a space noisier and hence more uncomfortable. But as long as a space is conditioned "well enough", Phua believes cafes and restaurants don't have to avoid using these materials.
Wood, on the other hand, is typically considered good for acoustics. But it has to be "a special kind of wood" with micro perforations, or it must incorporate sound-absorbing materials that are porous, advised Lo from Soundzipper.
Some places also install a layer of such material on the underside of tables, he said. "You won't see it, but it helps with controlling the sound waves bouncing around."
Yet, despite the clear benefits, acoustic design still tends to be an afterthought. Findings from Dr Lindborg's field survey of over 100 restaurants in Singapore revealed that there was more room for improvement of soundscape in restaurants than of the corresponding visual environment.
"A reduction in ambient noise levels sonic quality is likely to lead to higher environmental quality ratings, both visual and sonic, and might at the same time be a justification for an increase in menu prices," his paper suggested.
So acoustic design may not top the average diner’s list of concerns, but I, too, reckon there’s room for compromise. After all, restaurants already pour immense effort into their menus, service and visual appeal. It would be a shame to forget one of the most basic aspects of hospitality is to create an environment where people can genuinely connect.
Continue reading...