Museum Interior Design Recommends an Acoustic Sandstone System

In the quiet museum, each exhibit carries a heavy history and rich stories, waiting for visitors to appreciate. However, when the tranquility is broken by noise, it not only disturbs the visitors’ thoughts but also invisibly damages the core value of the museum as a cultural heritage and education base. Noise not only interferes with visitors’ meditation and perception but may also cause potential damage to precious cultural relics. Therefore, in-depth understanding and effective control of noise in museums is quietly becoming a major challenge for museums to protect cultural relics and enhance the visiting experience.

The Harm of Noise

First, let’s explore why museums need to be free from noise.

Cultural Preservation and Dissemination:

Museums are important places for preserving and disseminating cultural heritage, historical knowledge, and art. Many exhibits such as cultural relics, artworks, and historical materials have extremely high historical and cultural value and need to be properly protected and respected.

Visitor Experience:

Museum visitors usually come to learn, study, and appreciate exhibits. Noise can disturb visitors’ concentration and affect their in-depth understanding and appreciation of exhibits. A quiet environment helps visitors immerse themselves in the world of history and art so that they can better absorb knowledge and enjoy culture.

Protection of Exhibits:

Some exhibits, such as ancient books, calligraphy and paintings, and fragile artworks, have strict requirements for the preservation environment. Noise may cause potential physical damage to these exhibits. Although this damage may not be as obvious as direct physical impact, long-term high-decibel noise may still harm the exhibits.

Museum Atmosphere:

The atmosphere of a museum is an important part of its appeal. A quiet and solemn environment can create an atmosphere of reverence and learning, making visitors more respectful of the exhibits and the cultural value of the museum.

Due to the adverse effects of museum noise, CYATCO Acoustics has designed a noise reduction material, the Acoustic Sandstone System, specifically for museums and other places that require a quiet environment.  This innovative sound-absorbing material not only carries the ultimate pursuit of the museum’s quiet atmosphere but is also a perfect fusion of technology and art. The Acoustic Sandstone System can effectively absorb sound and reduce noise, build a solid acoustic barrier for the museum, protect exhibits from damage, and provide visitors with a more immersive and pure visiting experience.

Coffered ceiling design with acoustic sandstone system

Acoustic Sandstone System – Sound Absorption for Museums

When choosing sound-absorbing materials, museums need to consider the sound-absorbing effect, decorativeness, durability, cultural relic protection requirements, and other factors. Through reasonable selection and matching, a quiet, comfortable, and beautiful visiting environment can be created, providing tourists with a better visiting experience.

1. Sound Absorption Effect

Museums need to choose materials with high-efficiency sound absorption performance to reduce the reflection and propagation of sound in the exhibition hall, to create a quiet and comfortable visiting environment. The acoustic sandstone system is an ideal sound absorption material for museums. Acoustic sandstone system can effectively absorb high-frequency, medium-frequency and low-frequency sounds to reduce echo and reverberation in the exhibition hall

Acoustic sandstone panel structure

• Material composition and sound absorption principle:

• An acoustic sandstone system is mainly composed of microparticles of specific gradation (such as natural sandstones, slag particles, etc.) and environmentally friendly gelling solvents, forming porous sound-absorbing panels.
• Sound absorption principle of porous materials: The interior of the acoustic sandstone system is full of a large number of irregular, interconnected micropores. When the sound wave is incident on the surface of the plate, the sound wave will penetrate the sandstone board and propagate in the pores. Due to the viscosity and friction resistance generated by air movement, the sound energy is gradually converted into heat energy and consumed, thereby producing a resistive sound absorption effect.
• Resonance sound absorption principle: The back of the acoustic sandstone system is designed as a cavity. After the sound wave enters the cavity, it will reflect back and forth to increase the transmission distance, further enhancing the sound absorption effect.

• Sound absorption performance of the acoustic sandstone system

• High-efficiency sound absorption: The porous structure and resonance effect of the acoustic sandstone system enable it to effectively absorb sound wave energy, reduce reflections and echoes, and improve acoustic quality.
• Customized noise reduction: The sandstone size ratio and aggregation method can be precisely controlled. The internal pore size and arrangement method can be determined according to actual needs to achieve precise noise reduction.

2. Decorativeness

The sound-absorbing materials of the museum should have a natural and simple appearance to meet the cultural atmosphere and aesthetic requirements of the museum. At the same time, the sound-absorbing materials of the museum should be easy to install and maintain.

• Beautiful appearance:

The surface of the acoustic sandstone system is flat and colorful. You can choose a variety of finishes such as solid color or imitation wood grain, stone, etc., which can adapt to the design style of different theme exhibition halls in the museum.

Acoustic sandstone systems with a variety of beautiful appearances

• Easy to maintain:

The acoustic sandstone system is easy to clean and maintain, which can maintain its long-term decorative effect and sound absorption performance and reduce the cost of later maintenance.

3. Durability

The sound-absorbing materials of the museum should have good physical stability.

• Stable physical properties:

The acoustic sandstone system has good physical stability, including high tensile strength, and is not easy to deform. The compressive strength of the acoustic sandstone system is 24.4Mpa and the flexural strength is 7Mpa. This helps to ensure that the acoustic sandstone system maintains its shape and sound absorption performance during long-term use.

• Moisture-resistant, mildew-resistant, and aging-resistant:

The internal environment of the museum may have certain humidity fluctuations and temperature changes, so the acoustic sandstone system has moisture-resistant, mildew-resistant, and aging-resistant properties. The water absorption thickness expansion rate of the acoustic sandstone system is 0.04%. This helps to extend the life of the material and maintain its decorative and acoustic properties over the long term.

4. Requirements for the protection of cultural relics

• Harmlessness:

• The museum’s sound-absorbing materials should be non-toxic, odorless, and free of harmful substances such as formaldehyde to ensure safety and harmlessness to cultural relics and tourists.
• The compound release (TVOC) of the acoustic sandstone system is 0.025/(㎡·h), and the formaldehyde release is ≤124.
• The acoustic sandstone system meets the standards for environmentally friendly building materials and has passed relevant certification and testing.

• Fire resistance:

• As an important cultural institution, the museum’s sound-absorbing materials should have good fire resistance.
• The combustion performance of the acoustic sandstone system is Class A non-combustible (A2-S1, d0, t0). The smoke production characteristics are S1 level, and the combustion drop particle level reaches the d0 level.
• The acoustic sandstone system meets the national fire protection grade standards to reduce losses and protect the safety of cultural relics and tourists in the event of a fire.

Curved ceiling design with acoustic sandstone system

Streamlined ceiling design with acoustic sandstone system

Museums, as sacred halls carrying profound historical culture and artistic treasures, have always been committed to providing visitors with a quiet and far-reaching exploration space, so that every precious exhibit can quietly tell their stories without being disturbed by external noise. Therefore, museums must consider noise control at the beginning of planning and design. As a key material for isolating noise and creating a quiet atmosphere, the selection of acoustic panels is critical. When selecting acoustic panels, museums should not only pay attention to their excellent sound-absorbing performance but also consider the decorativeness and durability of the materials, as well as the special requirements for the protection of cultural relics. While striving to ensure the acoustic environment, the Acoustic Sandstone System can also perfectly integrate the artistic atmosphere and cultural heritage of the museum, bringing visitors a double feast of vision and hearing.