Sensory Choice in Irish Offices: Beyond the Quiet Room
An office can offer a café, a collaboration table and a quiet room, yet still give people very little control over how they work. If the quiet room is always booked for calls, or the route to it passes through the busiest part of the floor, the choice exists on the plan more reliably than it does in daily use.
For Irish office fit-outs, a more useful brief is to provide a range of sensory conditions that people can understand, reach and use. That means considering speech, movement, light, seating and everyday management together. Here is an evidence-informed way to turn that ambition into decisions a project team can test.
What is sensory choice in office design?
Sensory choice is the ability to select a setting with an appropriate level of sound, visual activity and stimulation for the task and the person. In a workplace, it might mean moving between a sociable setting, a sheltered work position and an enclosed focus room, with clear expectations about behaviour in each.
It is a design approach, rather than a clinical label or a promise that one layout will suit every neurodivergent person. Preferences differ. Consultation should ask what helps people work, including people who do not wish to disclose a diagnosis.
The research: speech privacy deserves its own brief
Kim and de Dear’s 2013 study drew on responses from more than 42,000 office workers across four countries. The University of Sydney’s account identifies noise and loss of privacy as major disadvantages of open-plan offices. This is international survey evidence about workplace satisfaction; it does not establish the performance of a particular Irish office.
A 2020 systematic review by Haapakangas, Hongisto and Liebl examined 14 laboratory studies, covering 34 tests of the relationship between speech intelligibility and cognitive performance. Verbal short-term memory was especially consistently affected. Evidence varied by task, so these findings should not be converted into a universal percentage productivity claim.
The practical inference is to ask two questions: how much sound is present, and how clearly can an unrelated conversation be understood? A room can feel less echoing while still allowing a neighbouring conversation to interrupt concentrated work. Absorption and speech privacy need separate consideration.
Two Irish projects sharpen the conversation
UCC’s Calm Zone, An Ceantar Ciúin, provides an instructive example beyond the office sector. The university describes flexible seating, acoustic treatment, sensory and respite rooms, and consultation with students. It also describes transitions between environments with different levels of stimulation. These features offer useful prompts for workplace briefs, although the project is a student facility and should not be presented as an evaluated office intervention.
An Post’s headquarters in Dublin’s EXO Building illustrates a complementary point. Allegro Acoustics reports that its work addressed sound insulation, speech privacy, reverberation and services noise, followed by testing against project criteria. Its project account names MCA Architects, Lafferty Project Managers and Walls Construction. This is the consultant’s description of its scope, rather than an independent occupant satisfaction study.
Taken together, the projects suggest a useful sequence: understand people’s needs, translate them into spatial and technical requirements, then check what the completed setting actually delivers.
Design the journey to quiet
Begin with an activity map. Locate calls, informal discussion, arrivals, printing and refreshments alongside the work that needs concentration. Draw the routes between them. A focus seat beside a circulation shortcut will remain exposed to movement even if the finishes are soft.
Ireland’s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design advises considering room acoustics early, locating quiet spaces away from noise, and using buffer spaces between quiet and noisy rooms. Its Building for Everyone guidance also addresses lighting, surface finishes, controls and hearing enhancement systems. These are useful briefing foundations; the relevant project requirements still need professional assessment.
For a compact Irish refurbishment, the first move may be changing an adjacency rather than adding a product: move the shared printer, put a storage zone between a social table and concentration desks, or reposition a work setting away from a busy doorway. Check access routes and services before committing to the revised plan.
Specify furniture by the work it enables
A furniture schedule should explain why each setting exists. A high-backed seat may give visual shelter, but its shape alone does not establish acoustic privacy. A desktop screen can define a work position without creating an enclosed room. Request relevant performance evidence and assess the installed arrangement with the acoustic designer.
Ondarreta Dry workspace with shelving and a Supra swivel chair. Image courtesy of Ondarreta. Illustrative collection photography; not a photograph of either Irish project discussed here.
Offer meaningful seating choice: upright chairs with supportive backs, some options with arms, suitable table heights and accessible positions within shared settings. Trial shortlisted pieces with users. A deep lounge chair can suit an informal conversation but prove awkward for someone working on a laptop or getting up frequently.
Ask how screens, upholstery and components can be maintained or replaced. Where existing furniture works well, retain it and use targeted additions to address gaps. Sensory improvement and a longer furniture life can form part of the same brief.
Give each setting an operating rule
A quiet room allocated equally to calls and silent work contains a conflict that furniture cannot solve. Define the intended activity, call policy, booking rules and responsibility for keeping each setting available. Show this in plain language where people choose a space.
For smaller offices with only one enclosed room, be candid about the compromise. Agree protected periods for focused work, or a clear priority system, and review whether it works. Calling a room multi-purpose does not increase its capacity.
A seven-question brief worth taking to the next meeting
Where can someone concentrate when the office is at its busiest?
Can they reach that setting without crossing a noisy social area?
Which spaces permit calls, and which protect quiet work?
What evidence supports the proposed acoustic treatment and privacy?
Can people choose suitable seating, lighting and visual exposure?
Who keeps these settings available and explains how to use them?
How will users and the design team review the result after occupation?
Share this checklist with your project team or use it to open a LinkedIn discussion: which of these questions is most often missed in an office brief?
Measure whether the choice works
As an initial review method, we suggest checking the space four to eight weeks after occupation, then revisiting it after any substantial change in attendance. This is a proposed project practice, not a research-derived deadline. Combine brief anonymous feedback with observations at busy times.
Ask whether people can find a suitable setting when they need it, where unwanted conversations remain intelligible, and which seats or rooms they avoid. Record the reason rather than assuming an unused chair is unpopular. Glare, a nearby doorway or a confusing booking rule may be the real problem.
Common questions about sensory choice
Do all Irish offices need a dedicated sensory room?
The appropriate response depends on users, activities, available space and the project brief. A dedicated room can be valuable, but a broader range of usable settings and clear operating rules also deserves attention. Consult users before choosing a solution.
Will acoustic panels make an open-plan office private?
Panels can contribute to sound absorption. Privacy also depends on the layout, barriers, enclosure, doors, services and other sound paths. Agree the required performance with an acoustic professional and verify it for the completed space.
Can sensory improvements be made without a full fit-out?
Start by reviewing activity locations, circulation, room availability, glare and seating choice. A trial rearrangement can reveal what helps before larger expenditure. Keep accessibility and the building’s technical constraints within the review.
The brief is a promise about everyday use
A successful workplace gives people a realistic way to find the conditions their work needs. Its value lies in the combination of spatial choices, credible specification and rules that hold up on a busy day. The strongest question for the next Irish office project may be this: can people actually use the choices we have drawn?
Planning an Irish office or commercial interior? Ardagh Agencies can help architects and designers explore furniture and material options against a clear project brief. Contact us to discuss samples and suitable specifications.
By Ardagh Agencies • Published 1 November 2026. Research and project sources checked on publication. The spatial recommendations and briefing checklist are our editorial synthesis; the cited research and project accounts are identified above.
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