Keeping a 600-person open-plan office calm
An open, light-filled bank office needed acoustics designed in from the start, not added as an afterthought.
Danske Bank's Aarhus office, where Rockfon Blanka keeps the open, light-filled interior bright and acoustically calm.
An open office for 600 people
Danske Bank's new office in Aarhus, designed by Arkitema, brings over 600 employees together in a bright, modern workplace built around a multi-storey atrium. The design is deliberately open: mostly open-plan floors, glass partitions and generous daylight throughout.
That openness is what makes the office feel modern. It's also exactly what makes it hard to keep quiet.
Open plan means noise, unless you plan for it
An open-plan office is full of sound. People talk to each other, take calls and stop for informal conversations as they move around. Without acoustic design built in from the start, all of that reflects off the hard surfaces of a light, open interior and builds into the echo and background noise that makes open-plan offices tiring to work in.
"When you have a building that is very open and primarily consists of open plan offices there is a natural amount of noise. People talk with each other, on the phone and informally as they meet, which create noisy disturbances, if you don't consider acoustics in the design," said Michael Green, Senior Project Architect at Arkitema.
On top of the acoustics, Arkitema needed a ceiling that pushed daylight deep into the floor plan and stayed easy to maintain across a building this size.
Project info
Project name
Danske Bank Offices
Location
Aarhus, Denmark
Architecture
Photography
Svend Christensen
Download images
Across the open-plan floors, Rockfon Blanka absorbs the noise of hundreds of people working side by side.
The E24 tile edges create subtle shadow lines that draw the eye through the space.
Blanka, for sound, light and easy access
Arkitema specified Rockfon Blanka, and it answered all three needs at once. Its Class A sound absorption brings down reverberation across the open floors, keeping conversations and calls from building into disruptive background noise.
Its bright white surface reflects daylight deep into the interior, reducing the need for artificial lighting and helping the office feel as open as it looks. And the subtle shadow-line layout draws the eye through the space, reinforcing that sense of openness.
Just as important for a building this busy was maintenance. Blanka's non-directional surface means tiles can be taken down and put back without worrying about which way they face, giving easy access to the services above.
"Durability is key for a large and busy office space. Being able to easily demount and remount the ceiling tiles without having to consider the direction of the panel was important, which made Rockfon Blanka the natural choice," said Green.
Across the open-plan floors, Rockfon Blanka absorbs the noise of hundreds of people working side by side.
Light fixtures protrude from the seamless Mono Acoustic ceiling.
“Being able to easily demount and remount the ceiling tiles without having to consider the direction of the panel was important”
Michael Green
— Senior Project Architect at Arkitema.
Open, bright and comfortable to work in
The finished office shows how acoustic design, planned from the start, lets an open workplace stay open without becoming noisy. Over 600 people now share a bright, modern building where they can collaborate and concentrate in equal measure.
Also designing an open-plan office where openness and acoustic comfort both matter? Get in touch, and we'll help you plan it in from the start.
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