Office acoustics: concentrating and talking in the same place.

What is mandatory

There are no acoustic regulations specific to office buildings, apart from particular cases (noise from technical equipment in particular). The French Labour Code mainly addresses premises where equipment may expose workers to more than 85 dB(A): there, reverberation is reduced and the propagation of noise is limited (art. R4213-5). An ordinary office is not in this situation.

What is voluntary, but can be made contractual

The NF S31-080 standard sets acoustic performance levels for offices and associated spaces; it was revised in October 2025. For open-plan spaces, the NF ISO 22955 standard (October 2021), which replaced NF S31-199, sets acoustic quality criteria specific to open-plan offices. These standards are voluntary: they become binding when they are written into the brief and the works contracts. Inadequate acoustics can, moreover, make a building unfit for its intended purpose.

Design rather than correct

• Separate activities: quiet zones away from circulation routes, cafés and heavily used rooms.
• Absorb: acoustically treated ceilings, floors, furniture and walls, especially in large volumes.
• Insulate meeting rooms and enclosed offices: partitions, doors, plenums, ducts.
• Provide refuges: phone booths, focus rooms and quiet rooms in sufficient numbers.
• Agree on how spaces are used: calls, video conferences, rules for quiet zones.