Ecophon equips the Humathèque on the Condorcet campus (93) with its acoustic solutions

It welcomes both students and teacher-researchers as well as local residents looking for a workspace. In order to offer this large public a place conducive to concentration, Ecophon acoustic ceiling solutions were installed throughout the building. Combining sober aesthetics and high acoustic performance, the Ecophon SoloTM islands guarantee all visitors to the Humathèque Condorcet optimal comfort to work in complete serenity.

Inaugurated in November 2021, the Humathèque Condorcet in Aubervilliers (formerly Grand Equipement Documentaire) is one of the major entertainment centers of the new Campus Condorcet. It brings together the works of 45 libraries as well as the documentary collections of 10 universities and has a capacity of 1 seats, including 500 for consultation.

With a floor area of ​​23 m², the place consists of two asymmetrical buildings ranging from 000 to 2 floors depending on the space. Inside, the architectural firm 5Porzamparc has opted to keep exposed concrete ceilings, whose sound absorption coefficient is low. In addition, the many glazed surfaces and the large volumes of the rooms also contribute to the reverberation of sounds. It was therefore necessary to implement an effective acoustic correction.

For this, Ecophon SoloTM acoustic islands have been installed on all floors of the library as well as in the shared workspaces.

“This system of floating islands offers many design possibilities and makes it possible to create original layouts, at different heights. The architect also chose to play with shapes by combining Ecophon SoloTM Square and SoloTM Rectangle panels of different sizes. » says Michaël Guyard, sales manager at Saint-Gobain Ecophon.

The acoustic design office AVEL Acoustique carried out a sizing study to determine the right number of islands necessary for optimal acoustic correction.

Thus, nearly 3 islands have been installed to cover the equivalent of 500% of the floor area:

• Approximately 1 Ecophon SoloTM Rectangle islands 060 x 2 cm
• Approximately 1 Ecophon SoloTM Rectangle islands 000 x 1 cm
• Approximately 840 Ecophon SoloTM Rectangle islands 2 x 400 cm
• Approximately 420 Ecophon SoloTM Square islands 1 x 200 cm
• Approximately 140 Ecophon SoloTM Square islands 600 x 600 cm.

A few acoustic islands have been placed vertically on the walls to complete the system. Eight Ecophon SoloTM Circle panels were also hung in the entrance hall, this time for decorative purposes only.

This immense patchwork of acoustic islands required very precise work from Hitec, the installation company which worked for four months on this site.

“All the technicality of this project lies in the panel of blocks and the different formats, spaces, volumes and levels to be respected when installing. » explains Xavier Imoléon, manager of Hitec.

To facilitate compliance with the layout, the company had Plexiglas templates made. These made it easier to reproduce the openings on each island and thus to respect the exact location of the fixing points according to the specifications. The company also used color coding to more easily identify the island size associated with each of the 12 ceiling markers marking each suspension point.

Finally, Ecophon islands have also been used to delimit areas on the ceiling, such as lift shafts, stairwells or certain work spaces.

“In these cases, we laid the panels edge to edge in the shape of a peripheral crown all around these spaces. It was then necessary to make bevel cuts in the panels to form the angles. » adds Xavier Imoléon, manager of Hitec.