What we did

We provided a full acoustic design review, advice, surveying, testing and monitoring service for this £11m refurbishment of the London Borough of Sutton’s 1970s sports centre.

The refurbishment, modification and extension project updated the centre's facilities including an 8-lane 25m competition pool, a large 20m x 10m teaching pool, an 8-court sports hall, a 170 station fitness gym, spinning room, beauty treatment rooms, dance studios, a library, cafe, crèche, IT facilities and meeting rooms.

From an acoustic perspective, the project’s main issues were:

• Noise emissions from ventilation and catering
• External noise intrusion affecting the surrounding neighbourhood
• Sound insulation between rooms to meet bespoke BREEAM requirements
• Reverberation within rooms to meet Sports England guidelines

Throughout the design and construction stages, our advice on the reverberation control, sound insulation and neighbourhood noise involved:

• Conducting a noise survey, pre-refurbishment conditions survey and environmental impact assessment to satisfy Local Authority planning requirements;
• Acoustically reviewing the architect’s detailed construction drawings to identify any areas of conflict, non-compliance and/or concern;
• Working with the architect and M&E contractor on the Centre’s indoor ambient noise levels, sound insulation between rooms and reverberation within rooms to achieve an Excellent BREEAM rating;
• Providing internal and external acoustics advice to meet the exacting standards defined by Sports England, including DDA issues;
• Monitoring installation during construction and providing recommendations to address any issues that arise on site;
• Carrying out post construction commissioning measurements prior to the Centre’s launch.

The project team

Architect: The HOCA Practice
Quantity Surveyor: The HOCA Practice
Acoustics: Adnitt Acoustics