What we did

Bloc Hotels is a growing mid-range hotel chain which specialises in providing rooms which are compact, but with a very high-spec finish. From the build methodology right down to the finishes in each room, Bloc work with the latest materials and innovative techniques whilst still making it as cost-effective as possible.

This specific Gatwick Bloc Hotel is a redevelopment of an existing office building in Gatwick’s South Terminal. The 245 room hotel offers ‘Sleep Haven Zones’, family rooms, a business floor and Presidential Suite.

Our involvement included:

• Establishing Bloc’s aspirations based on noise and vibration measurements of their existing Birmingham hotel and discussions with them;
• Conducting aircraft noise surveys and acoustic building condition surveys of the existing office building;
• Advising on external noise control measures to adequately control aircraft noise;
• Providing design advice on the internal construction of the hotel rooms to achieve the regulatory Approved Document E standards;
• Carrying out practical, on-site demonstrations of actual noise levels;
• Recommending design developments to enhance the client’s aspirations of high quality sound insulation;
• Supervising and witnessing the contractor’s acoustic testing throughout the build process.

Acoustic features of this project

Our involvement from the early concept design stage meant that:

• This Gatwick hotel was, from an acoustic perspective, built in keeping with the Bloc philosophy, cost effectively and using the very best materials;
• On-site measurements and assessments were benchmarked against tests of other Bloc hotels taken by the same acoustic consultant;
• We were able to work with the architect and design team to achieve Bloc’s higher noise control expectations within the project’s budget.

The project team

Architect: 3D Reid
Project Manager: K2 Consultancy
Acoustics: Adnitt Acoustics