When using these principles and tests to evaluate materials or products, it’s important to recognize that test results such as an NRC or Sabin number for a product aren’t the whole story. Rather, the type of building space, its size, its use, and the intended impact on people all need to be considered. Good acoustic design uses these numbers (derived in a laboratory setting) and translates them into a design that is applicable and appropriate to a specific space in a specific project. That means that design professionals need to be sure that the right test or standard is being used so it is relevant to their building situation. Whenever possible, it is best to work with a ceiling manufacturer who can be transparent about test results and real-world performance. Identifying someone who can work with the design team to provide this level of transparency can be the best way to achieve the intended acoustical results. Alternatively, it will be incumbent on the architect or other design professionals to refer to true NRC test documents, acoustical data, blogs, and/or independent research.

Photos: Anton Grassl

The appropriate use of color and natural lighting in ceiling design can enhance a space to make it inviting and appealing. Project: Confidential Biotech Company Location: Boston; Architect: Perkins&Will

INTERIOR ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITY

Building interiors, including ceilings, create indoor environments that can have notable impacts on people through multiple means. Beyond good acoustics and experiences of sound, interior environmental quality is impacted by the following aspects of design as well:

Soundscaping

Sometimes, instead of eliminating or reducing sound in a space, there can be the deliberate intention to introduce some pleasant sounds into the space through electronic or other means. It can be as simple as some appropriate background music or more complex creations of “white noise” to mask other sounds and create a greater sense of privacy. Overall, soundscaping can be used to create a tranquil, peaceful, and ordered environment. This includes incorporating sound-absorbing materials in the ceiling to direct and control the sound being added, as well as to reduce noise pollution. In order to be most effective, designers should align the soundscape with the landscape or design intent of the building to create a cohesive experience.

Color Psychology

Color is a fundamental aspect of the visual and sensual experience of any building interior. Working with color is more than an aesthetic exercise, however, since it has direct connections to the psychological and emotional aspects of people. Different colors can affect mood and stress levels. For example, blue and green hues are often associated with calmness and relaxation, while red and yellow can be stimulating. Recognizing these impacts, different colors can be incorporated into different areas of a building to create a different feel in each space while maintaining relevance to the overall building design. By understanding both the theoretical and practical aspects of using color in this manner, the health and welfare of people can be improved.

When creating customized ceiling designs, some fundamental aspects of color theory can be applied such as the use of a color wheel to define complementary or disparate colors. The ceiling colors can be coordinated or contrasted with other colors in the space to create a final overall look. Keep in mind, though, that since color is basically based on light striking a surface, different types of electrical or natural lighting can have as much of an impact on the perceived color as the material itself.

Natural Light

Incorporating natural daylight into buildings is a fundamental yet sometimes challenging design issue. At the most basic level, sunlight provides natural lighting and a connection to the outdoors for the people inside the building. However, simply letting sunlight into a building means that the light level and quality can largely be uncontrolled – the building receives whatever the sun and sky provide. More sophisticated approaches focus on intentional, controlled daylighting including the locations of the light in the building, the intensity or amount of light, the color properties of the light, and the ability to disperse or diffuse the light so as to control glare.

A frequently referenced resource, particularly for government or institutional buildings is the Whole Building Design Guide. It discusses and defines daylighting for buildings of our era this way: “Daylighting is the controlled admission of natural light, direct sunlight, and diffused sky light into a building to reduce electric lighting and save energy.” It is noteworthy that it distinguishes natural light from direct sunlight and from diffused sky light. Each of these is indicative of different types of light quality. Regarding the benefits of daylighting, they cite: “By providing a direct link to the dynamic and perpetually evolving patterns of outdoor illumination, daylighting helps create a visually stimulating and productive environment for building occupants, while reducing as much as one-third of total building energy costs.” It is also commonly held that natural light in interior spaces helps to reduce stress and improve mood. All of this speaks to both the human benefits of natural light and to the economical and energy-efficient operation of the building itself.

Based on these benefits, many architects seek to incorporate appropriately sized skylights, clerestories, roof monitors, or other means to bring in natural light through a ceiling and into an occupied space. In many cases, this is possible in single-story spaces or upper levels. The key becomes controlling the light for quality, lack of glare, etc. In that case, the use of custom ceiling systems with vertical baffles, light-reflecting materials, or even translucent panels can all be incorporated to achieve the benefits of natural light while avoiding potential unwanted issues. For building spaces that don’t have access to a roof (i.e., multi-story buildings) there are some innovative strategies being used to mimic daylight by using LED lighting that is color-controlled to match the coloration of natural sunlight. Such lighting fixtures can be integrated into a ceiling and create the look and feel of natural lighting, with the same potential benefits to people. For particularly effective solutions, some designs can use a designed pattern of smaller spot lighting shining on ceiling elements designed to look like daylight hitting the leaves of a tree or other features. The overall effect is the creation of an indoor environment with a naturally appearing canopy above with streams of filtered light coming through.

Biophilic Design

A growing interior design trend that has been directly related to human health and welfare is the use of biophilia in buildings. Defined literally as a love of living things or a love of nature, biophilic design is a concept focused on increasing occupant connectivity to the natural environment in creative ways. Theorists argue that this approach taps into the hard wiring of human beings who, over the span of history, have developed an affinity for the life-supporting aspects of the natural world. In a post-pandemic era, biophilia has received more attention as a means to help people reconnect with nature and influence their general sense of well-being. Independent researchers have long been aware of the health and wellness benefits of such features in many different building environments.

When direct links to the outside aren’t practical or feasible, then there is another approach to integrating nature into buildings. In these cases, selecting products and systems that emulate nature through pattern selection, color, shape, and texture can be very effective. Designers can review examples of natural settings and then create a design solution for products that mimic the natural. This includes colors at the very basic level but can also emulate natural shapes to represent elements of landscaping, foliage, forest, or even water features.

Such large-scale, biophilic features can be incorporated into an overall interior design strategy through a customized ceiling and/or wall design. The use of three-dimensional baffles or other ceiling elements can be formed and fashioned to create the desired biophilic shapes. They can also be colored in a varied and natural way to emulate the condition that they are aiming to mimic. These patterns and design concepts can be used on the walls too, to create a fully immersive environment.

Photos courtesy of Armstrong World Industries

Customized ceilings can mimic nature for biophilic effects while still providing very good acoustical and lighting performance. Project: North Bend Elementary Location: Humble, Texas; Architect: PBK Architects

DESIGN INTEGRATION

While our focus has been on ceilings, it is always good to pull back and look at the bigger picture of the building design. Whatever ceiling system is being considered needs to be evaluated on the basis of its contributions to the overall design intent and functional needs. Since many different choices of products are available, along with custom design and fabrication options, designers can choose from a wide array of components and systems to find the best ones for a given project.

When putting a ceiling system design together, keep in mind that the challenge is often not just acoustics or just lighting, or just biophilia, etc. Rather, the design task is to blend all of those needs into one solution that is specifically tailored for the specific spaces and user circumstances of the spaces being designed. This is where custom ceiling designs can help architects and designers excel. By their nature, custom ceiling systems can achieve sought-after integration by using parts and pieces in the colors, textures, shapes, and patterns specifically needed. Each can be selected or designed according to the project goals of the system and the space in all of the ways discussed thus far. For example, integrated lighting can be combined into acoustical ceiling clouds; easy-to-install solutions can have custom biophilic looks; or lighting can be integrated across the entire ceiling in order to round out the experience and meet functional requirements.

CEILINGS AND GREEN BUILDING DESIGN

When custom-suspended ceilings are incorporated into a building design or renovation, there are several contributions that may be made using LEED criteria due to their inherent material make-up, the way that they are used, and general characteristics. These can include the following.

Photo: Costea Photo

Ceilings can be selected based on their ability to contribute to green building rating systems through material content, lighting qualities, and indoor environmental quality. Project: CMM; Location: Woodland Hills, California; Architect: ENV

Photo: Chris West

Properly specifying complete custom ceiling solutions is the key to successful performance and appearance. Project: Seattle Convention Center Summit Building; Location: Seattle; Architect: LMN Architects.