Reverberation time regulations for stairwells and corridors – A pilot study for hospitals in selected countries in Europe

Comfortable acoustic conditions in healthcare environ-ments support the well-being of patients and the working conditions of the personnel who must perform various tasks in different rooms. Corridors, stairwells and circula¬tory spaces are often considered secondary spaces, and insufficient attention is paid to them during the design and construction stages. Nevertheless, noise produced by different sources such as medical equipment, medical rolling carts, beepers and conversations in the corridors, stairwells, patient rooms and other adjacent rooms will propagate though corridors or stairwells and affect the people in adjacent spaces. For that reason, several countries have acoustic regulations for reverberation time or sound absorption in corridors and stairwells in hospitals.
Acoustic requirements vary widely between countries and are missing in some others. This paper compares reverbe¬ration time and sound absorption requirements for stairwells and corridors in hospitals in selected countries in Europe, and it includes up-to-date information on the applied limit values, frequency ranges and measurement methods.