Hong Kong is home to some wonderful feats of construction, but while the architecture is often marvelled at and the structural engineering applauded, few notice the work of the acoustic engineers.
A relative newcomer to the engineering industry, acoustic engineers or acoustic consultants assess the desired and undesired sounds as they affect a particular building, and try to find ways to enhance or reduce their impact. This may mean limiting external sounds such as traffic noise, or controlling reverberating internal noises such as those from building services plants.
Their ultimate goal is to create a comfortable acoustic environment that serves the function of the space.
'You see the architectural design and listen to the acoustic design,' said Sam Tsoi Pui-sang, a director of Arup in Hong Kong.
There are 12 acoustic consultants at Arup's headquarters in Kowloon Tong, and Mr Tsoi hopes to recruit more. 'Acoustic engineers have a systematic approach to their work. They start with the geometry and room envelope of the space, and determine how thick the walls need to be for sound insulation. By examining the interior spatial structure of a room, they must decide whether the walls should be curved or flat, whether the surfaces need to be reflective or absorbing, and how much noise the air-con grills should produce. Generally acoustic engineers don't tamper with the basic layout of the space unless they can foresee a big problem,' he said.
Local acoustic engineers are assigned to most large-scale building projects in Hong Kong, mainland China and Macau, whereas two decades ago they were unknown in the region. Previously they were not specialists but construction engineers without any acoustic training, and architects and designers often saw them as interfering with their rigid limitations on interior finishes, design and space. These days acoustic engineers are much more savvy.
In Hong Kong there is a shortage of highly trained personnel and unlike in the United States and Britain where degrees in acoustic engineering are offered, students here take acoustics as a module of their engineering or architectural degree.