Spring Lane Building, University of York

Completed in 2016, the Spring Lane teaching building is located on the University of York’s West Campus. It has an interesting modern design with an irregular floor layout. Impulse responses were taken on the second floor of the building’s main atrium. The first sound source was placed in the seating area at the top of the central stairs and the second was placed in the seating area on the bridge opposite the top of the stairs. These locations were chosen since these areas are the most populated when the building is in use, thus producing the most noise. The top floor was chosen in order to investigate the spectral effects of the concave glass skylight. Another factor in choosing the site was the sound-dampening acoustic panels that were installed in the construction of the building. The source and receiver were placed in the following configurations: Speaker position 1 – top of the stairs: S1R1 – top of the stairs; S1R2 – study corner; S1R3 – outside classroom left; S1R4 – bridge; S1R5 – bottom of the stairs; Speaker position 2 – bridge: S2R1 – bridge; S2R2 – far corner; S2R3 – top of the stairs; S2R4 – bottom of the stairs; An additional recording was taken in the building’s west stairwell, which serves as a comparison to the acoustically-treated main atrium. More information can be found in the analysis and images sections.