The Great Hall, Swansea University

Building & Maintenance Services Ltd were proud to be awarded the opportunity to complete mechanical services within the Great Hall at Swansea University. The biggest challenge was to achieve a target specified of NR15 noise criteria in the Auditorium.

With the best endeavours to achieve this, the mechanical services serving the Auditorium have been designed, actually achieving NR16.

The main air handling plant, chillers and associated services have been designed to ensure that the noise levels are kept within the design conditions. With the help of the Acoustic Consultants, the design was developed and every part of the installation was meticulously planned, which included the oversizing of ductwork to ensure that the velocities were low enough to adhere to the specified noise levels. In addition to this the ductwork was insulated with a high specification acoustic insulation and ductwork was supported using resilient hangers to further limit noise transmission through the building structure.

All of this formed part of a system which met the stringent noise criteria whilst still providing the specified internal temperatures and humidity within the space which contributed to the construction of a technically challenging performance space.