Keeping conversations private in Trondheim's first BREEAM Excellent office

How Arcasa Arkitekter met a semiconductor company's need for confidentiality across a mix of open and closed workspaces.

Rockfon Tropic across the open office, absorbing sound where teams work side by side behind glass partitions.

A new benchmark for Trondheim

The office building at Otto Nielsens Vei is the first in Trondheim to achieve BREEAM Excellent, one of the highest sustainability ratings in construction. Designed by Arcasa Arkitekter, now part of Sweco, it houses the offices of Nordic Semiconductor across a mix of spaces: offices of different sizes, meeting rooms and open working areas.

For this tenant, one requirement shaped the acoustic brief above all others.

When conversations can't be overheard

Nordic Semiconductor works on sensitive research and development. That makes confidentiality a daily concern. Conversations in meeting rooms and private offices cannot be allowed to carry into adjacent spaces, and absorbing sound within a room isn't enough on its own. The ceiling also had to stop sound passing from one room to the next.

At the same time, the building's BREEAM ambitions meant every material had to support energy efficiency and a bright, healthy working environment.

Project info

Project name

Nordic Semiconductor Offices

Location

Trondheim, Norway

Architecture

Arcasa Arkitekter (Sweco)

Photography

Erik Burås

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Products used

Rockfon Blanka® dB 43

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Rockfon® Tropic

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Rockfon Blanka dB 43 in a meeting room, stopping confidential conversations from carrying into the spaces next door.

Insulation where privacy matters, absorption everywhere else

The problem isn't just sound passing through a wall. In most offices, the dividing walls stop at the suspended ceiling, leaving the plenum, the open space above the tiles, connected from room to room. Sound travels up, over the wall through that gap, and back down into the next room.

That's why, in the meeting rooms and private offices, Arcasa Arkitekter specified Rockfon Blanka dB 43. Alongside Class A sound absorption, its high room-to-room sound insulation, the dB 43 rating, stops confidential conversations from carrying into neighbouring spaces, without needing extra barriers above the ceiling.

Its matte white surface also reflects daylight deep into the offices, reducing the need for artificial lighting and supporting the building's BREEAM rating.

Across the open working areas, Rockfon Tropic was used for its Class A sound absorption and clean, attractive finish, controlling noise where people work side by side.

A row of small meeting rooms side by side, where Blanka dB 43 blocks sound from travelling between them through the shared plenum above

Blanka dB 43 keeping speech private in the meeting rooms along this corridor.

A closer look at the Rockfon Tropic surface in the open working area.

Built for focus and confidentiality

The result is an office where Nordic Semiconductor's teams can work openly where it suits them and privately where it matters, in a building that sets a new sustainability standard for the city.

Also fitting out an office where speech privacy and sustainability both matter? Get in touch, and we'll help you find the right acoustic solution for every space.