Photo: Straits Clan Bar
Soundzipper Acoustic Consultants : Adrian Lo | Julian Martinez | Alex Tu
Interior Designer: Takenouchi Webb
The Challenge
Straits Clan is a progressive social club where Singaporeans from all walks of life come together for conversation and inspiration to bring positive change to Singapore. Its name draws from Singapore’s 19th-century history, when various clans led the struggle for social change. Straits Clan is located in a historic building on Bukit Pasoh Road, which was once known as the Street of Clans. The club spreads across four floors and includes three eating places, two bars, meeting rooms, party rooms, an arcade, a performance space, a workspace, a spa, a florist, and a gym. The client wanted to create the more euphonious social club experience and tasked Soundzipper to conduct acoustic analysis and treatment for multiple areas in the building.
The Analysis
Straits Clan is usually a hubbub of activity, and at any one time the building hosts activities ranging from yoga classes to karaoke sessions. Their rooms are diversely used, and it is critical to maintain adequate soundproofing and noise control in the limited space available. The second level of the Straits Clan is composed of two karaoke rooms, a pole dance room, a games room, a dining room, an alfresco dining area and a private whisky tasting area adjoining the main bar as a central hub of activity. The main bar is at the heart of Level two and naturally becomes quite noisy. The karaoke rooms are also one of the loudest areas with sound levels hitting 90 decibels. Finally, the main event space of the club on the fourth level faced the issue of rain noise due to the thin roof in this heritage building.
The Design
Adequate noise reduction in the main bar was achieved with the use of a spray cellulose acoustic ceiling. Other areas were also separated from the main bar area with the use of STC40 doors and appropriately rated sound isolation walls. Sound locks were introduced for both karaoke rooms to ensure proper sound isolation. The fourth level was equipped with a sound isolation ceiling suspended on Genie Clips to reduce the impact noise of the rain. To ensure good speech clarity, an acoustic simulation was done where we decided upon an acoustically absorptive ceiling using wood wool panels flanked by acoustic scattering walls composed of half-round shapes.
The client was very satisfied with the project, especially with the performance of the karaoke rooms and events areas.
