No 1 Spinningfields is a mixed use office, leisure and retail development at the heart of Manchester’s prominent Spinningfields business district.
260,000 square feet of Grade A office space sits on top of a seven storey podium building and is topped with a rooftop terrace bar and restaurant that provides panoramic views of the city centre.

Sandy Brown was appointed to provide advice for the development of One Spinningfields. Important considerations were:

• noise ingress to noise sensitive spaces and building envelope design
• internal sound insulation of walls, floors and doors
• acoustic finishes in the entrance foyer
• acoustic finishes in open plan office spaces
• control of sound transmission to and from retail and restaurant areas
• acoustic assessment and design of internal building services systems
• acoustic assessment and design of external building services plant items
• control of sound transmission from plant rooms to office spaces
• construction noise and vibration monitoring and assessment.

The concept for One Spinningfields was to provide a statement building and both the design quality and scale of the development are integral to this vision.
As the building is located on a busy city centre road, ensuring suitable internal noise levels on the office floors could be achieved was a key part of the design. 3D environmental noise modelling was carried out to assess the required facade sound insulation performance.
For the large entrance foyer, which contains the reception and a food hall, controlling reverberation and noise build-up within the space was key in providing a comfortable and usable space. We created a 3D acoustic model of the entrance foyer in order to assess possible options for the locations and performance of sound absorbent treatment. We then worked with the design team to incorporate sound absorbent finishes within the timber feature wall at ground and mezzanine level, as well as the finishes within the ceiling.
The building utilises a mechanical ventilation strategy for all the internal spaces and as such there is a large amount of building services plant associated with the ventilation systems. 3D environmental noise modelling was used at an early stage in the design in order to advise on the best locations and attenuation measures to chillers, air conditioning units and condensers in order to meet external plant noise limits required to comply with local authority planning conditions.
A construction noise and vibration assessment was carried prior to works son site beginning in order to determine to impact of construction works on the surrounding premises. This involved 3D environmental noise modelling of the site at various stages throughout the construction. During the construction works, noise and vibration monitoring was carried in order to alert the construction team if the noise and vibration limits were exceeded.