Sound
Core concepts
WELL v2 Sound reduces unwanted noise and improves speech privacy and acoustic comfort. Preconditions typically address sound mapping, maximum noise levels, sound barriers, and reverberation time. Optimizations include sound absorption, sound masking, and hearing health.
Sound mapping identifies noise sources and sensitive zones before design. Maximum noise levels set background-noise limits for different space types. Sound barriers block transmission between spaces-walls, doors, seals, and layout. Reverberation time controls how long sound persists in a room; excessive reverberation harms speech intelligibility. Sound absorption treats reflections within a room; sound masking adds engineered background sound to improve privacy.
Traps
Do not confuse sound mapping with sound treatment: mapping is assessment, not a fix. Reverberation time and background noise are different metrics-a quiet room can still be echoey. Sound masking is not noise cancellation; it adds subtle background sound. Another trap is assuming absorption solves transmission between rooms; that usually requires barriers and sealing.
Rule of thumb
If the problem is echo inside a room, think absorption and reverberation time; if the problem is noise passing through a wall, think barriers, sealing, and layout.
Worked example
A conference room has poor speech privacy because conversations carry through a demising wall. Adding wall panels inside the room may reduce echo but will not stop transmission. The better fix is a barrier strategy: seal penetrations, upgrade the wall/door assembly, and consider masking.