Green building standards like LEED and WELL promote sustainable design and occupant wellbeing, incorporating acoustic guidelines to ensure healthy workplace environments. A growing area of interest for acoustic research is soundscape studies, which examine human perception of sound in context. Soundscape studies combine acoustic and non-acoustic factors—such as perceived control and sense of engagement—and visual stimuli, including room dimensions, window ratio, worker density, and biophilia. This study will be conducted in a functioning office in Nebraska and integrates acoustic and non-acoustic data to evaluate indoor soundscapes. Continuous acoustic monitoring data, personality assessments, user surveys, and sentiment analysis from audio and photo diaries will be combined for a mixed-methods approach. The study seeks to visualize disruptions within the soundscape and examine the real and perceived impact on task performance and workspace preferences. By integrating diverse data sources, the study aims to provide a holistic understanding of how interior environments influence health, satisfaction, and workplace effectiveness. The objectives are to empower occupants to personalize their environments based on individual needs and work tasks, while guiding enterprises to prioritize strategic design improvements. This presentation outlines the study framework, data collection methods, and potential implications for enhancing workplace acoustics and overall performance.
Grant et al. (2025) studied this question.