Addressing reverberation within St Bronaghs Primary School, Ireland

St Bronagh’s Primary School in Rostrevor, County Down was a newly built school designed by Donnelly O Neill Architects Ltd and constructed by Ganson Building & Civil engineering contractors Ltd.

The £3.9 million school was crowned with the Sustainability award in May 2018, replacing the former Convent of Mercy Primary School. This was demolished to make way for this new 7x classroom building, along with the construction of a new youth club building, sports hall, community and games room, and additional accommodation.

Upon handover and occupancy, it became apparent that there was scope for improving the acoustic conditions within the new building.

The school design itself, was made up of 7x ‘pods’ all of varying heights and reverberation within these areas was an acoustic concern. Working with the Project Architect Paul McMahon of Donnelly O Neill Architects Ltd, we identified that significant improvements could be delivered with the installation of 425 m2 of our Hush Absorber 50 panels to classrooms and resource areas.

For practical and aesthetic reasons as well as meeting the required reverberation times, we supplied 286x Hush Absorbing Notice Boards in a neutral colour with a bespoke frame colour to ensure that they blended in with the existing décor.

In certain areas we were asked to create a feature wall with the panels and so we used our Hush Absorber 50 panels which were provided in 4 vibrant colours to create both a statement to the chosen rooms as well meeting the required reverberation time.

We also provided 3x large printed 50mm panels at high level within the staffroom. These panels were printed with an image of the Cloughmore Stone as requested by the school. The Cloughmore stone is significant to the area and is a giant 50 tonnes granite boulder that sits high above the village of Rostrevor.

As well as creating a tailored interior design, the sound absorbing panels provide a practical and efficient way of dampening sound reverberation and eliminating echoes within the rooms.

We worked closely with our stockists Commercial Connections in Crossgar, County Down to ensure both site presence and swift responses to technical and installation queries were met. Ganson UK and Hush were able to ensure that all material was supplied over an 8-week period to meet the time frames on site.

A multitude of sustainable elements has made this school a successful build and getting the acoustics right has significantly contributed to the school’s success.