Adaptive acoustic comfort: Evidence from an acoustic neutrality approach in naturally ventilated office buildings

Abstract

Acoustic comfort is commonly assessed using fixed sound-level criteria that assume stable exposure–response relationships. However, in naturally ventilated buildings, occupants’ evaluations may vary with changing acoustic exposure and adaptive responses. Although such adaptive relationships are well established in thermal comfort research, they remain underexplored in acoustics. This study examines an adaptive perspective on acoustic comfort assessment through a field study conducted in six naturally ventilated or mixed-mode open-plan offices involving 72 participants and 480 observations. Repeated in situ perceptual evaluations, concurrent indoor and outdoor sound-level measurements, and self-reported adaptive behaviours were collected and analysed using mixed-effects modelling approaches. For level-based evaluations, an Acoustic Sensation Vote (ASV) of 0 (“neither loud nor quiet”) emerged as the operational acoustic neutral reference, representing a threshold-like transition to dissatisfaction. Office-specific neutral levels ranged from 47.2 to 53.3 dB and tended to be higher in offices with higher indoor sound-level exposure. Adaptive actions were more likely at higher preceding-hour indoor L Aeq (OR = 1.55 per 5 dB), and observations with reported adaptive behaviour were slightly more quiet-oriented after accounting for concurrent indoor sound level and office. Outdoor L Aeq did not provide additional explanatory information for ASV; however, among neutral evaluations, each 1-dB increase in outdoor L Aeq was associated with an approximately 0.16-dB increase in concurrent indoor sound level. Overall, the findings provide empirical support for a context-sensitive adaptive acoustic comfort perspective in which acoustic evaluations are considered in relation to indoor exposure, office context, behavioural responses and outdoor acoustic conditions. The findings should be interpreted within the scope of six London offices and a field-based design in which acoustic and contextual conditions could not be fully standardised across participants. For office design and assessment, the results suggest that fixed sound-level criteria can be complemented by consideration of office-specific acoustic exposure and occupants’ opportunities for behavioural adjustment, particularly in naturally ventilated workplaces.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Applied Acoustics, 2026 · DOI ↗