There’s a brand-new Acoustics building underway for the team at University of Salford. It’ll be the fourth regeneration for Salford’s Acoustic team, having started with their first site back in 1967.
But what is it for? Claire Lomax the laboratory director explains: “We look at anything to do with sound and noise now. From measuring the how double glazing reduces noise, testing hearing aids, or even researching the effects of the noise from fireworks.
“How people hear noise are annoyed by noise, perceived noise, enjoy noise, anything, anything to do with that, really, we do. We do hear that in the acoustics group at Salford.”
The new state-of-the-art building will offer a purpose-built facility with unique selection of chambers. It’ll extend the number of quality tests the team are able to do in Salford, including a large chamber big enough to drive a car into.
“We are the designated Institute in the UK for Acoustics, which means that we’re the top of the pyramid in terms of measurement for acoustics in the UK, and that status was awarded to us by the government in 2022. And this will be a great home for that designated Institute as well. It’s really exciting for us. It’s a £23.8 million investment by the university. So we’re really grateful for their faith in us as well.”
The team were involved in design, making sure every element is up to standard, Claire said: “the technical specs for the rooms are really rigorous. We have to have a special sort of extreme foundations with vibration isolation in the foundations so that no noise can get in from the outside.
All the chambers are on their own bases, so they can’t affect noise in another chamber. The brick that all the block work is made out of really specialist dense concrete blocks.”
The new building is part of the University of Salford’s multi-million-pound Campus Connectivity Plan, which is the most ambitious redevelopment of its research, teaching and public spaces that the University has ever undertaken. The new Acoustic Building will be an attractive offer to PhD students from all over the world.
“Acoustics at Salford is world class. It’s really one of the leading research groups. It’s one of the biggest research groups for acoustics in the world and the facilities are some of the best in the world for acoustics. For people studying this in this field, this is one of the top places they’d want to come.”
The project is due to complete in summer 2027.