6.5 The Banana

The banana seating 3 has been successfully implemented in two open plan spaces; however the design principles behind the banana have been used by teachers for many years in a wide range of locations.

One concern which has arisen with respect to the banana is student health and safety issues. The feedback we have received is that this is not an issue; however it is important to recognise that there are alternative designs, see options 4 & 5, which seem to be safer options. During the design stages of the banana, it has been found that it is important to provide pupils with sufficient leg room. The design of the second banana has deeper seating and angled backs to accommodate these requirements.

It has also been found that over time, the bananas get moved and joined together within the teaching space in order to address different sized groups. A method of interlocking the bananas and moving this seating would therefore be a useful design feature.

6.10 Acoustic Screens

Screens can play an important role in the acoustic performance of open plan teaching spaces. The key benefit of well designed and effectively placed screens is acoustic separation between teaching zones. Example 1 illustrates the measured speech intelligibility from a teacher addressing pupils across two bananas and a group space. It can be seen that intelligibility drops off slightly as the receiver moves away from the teacher. This is due to the decay of sound over distance. If the depth of the seating was increased any further, the intelligibility levels at the rear seating would fall into the poor intelligibility band.

Due to the raked seating of the banana, the group space has no line of sight to the teacher. When the line of sight to the spoken voice is broken, intelligibility levels drop off dramatically 1. This reduction in intelligibility will result in an effective level of acoustic separation between these two teaching zones.

6.11 Design Options for Screens

The design of screens can take many innovative forms. 2 & 3 show sliding screens which can be moved between desks to provide a more individual learning environment. 4 & 5 show how it is possible to wrap acoustic screens
around a small group of spaces. These screens can be used to reduce noise levels within a given area or to contain noise from multimedia equipment. 8 shows a range of free standing, architectural, horseshoe screens, adding diversity and design interest to a space.

Whispering Circle
Incorporating screens into furniture is an interesting way of adding screens to an open plan space. The whispering circles 6 & 7 show one possible option. The advantage of using a circle is that the sound is focused and kept within the circle; the containment of sound is shown in the modelled sound map 9. The intense colour highlights how the teacher’s voice is maintained within the central whispering circle

6.12 Glazed Screens and Cellular Spaces

Glazed Screens
Large glazed screens are a useful way of providing acoustic separation between two learning zones. The benefit of glazed screens is that they provide good levels of acoustic separation, whilst maintaining one of the key benefits of open plan spaces; a visual connectivity between learning zones. To maximise the acoustic potential of screens, they should run from the floor finish to the underside of the ceiling and have a mass exceeding 10kg/m2, i.e. 15mm plasterboard, 18mm plywood, 8mm laminated glass and so on.

Cellular Spaces
Teaching incorporates a broad range of activities with a wide range of acoustic requirements. The use of audio equipment and DVD’s, theatre, dance and other noisy activities must all be allowed for in meeting curriculum requirements or as incidental elements in lessons. If the open plan space must accommodate these noisier activities, it is recommended that a degree of cellular spaces are provided within the open plan area. A small number of cellular spaces are also recommended for quiet learning.