Insights

Written by engineers who measure their own advice.

Short, practical articles on the acoustic questions that recur on Middle East projects: codes and criteria, design decisions, testing, and what goes wrong when acoustics arrives late. Each briefing opens with a capsule answer and is prepared by our senior engineers. No press releases.

Briefing 01 is published in full and can be read here. The other five are available on request: ask for one and it arrives with your enquiry reply.

Briefings

One briefing published, five available on request.

Published in full

Briefing 01 / Codes and criteria

Acoustic requirements in the Saudi Building Code: what is actually specified, and what is left to the project

The 2024 Saudi Building Code contains insulation and acoustic ceiling provisions, but much of the acoustic scope on Saudi projects arrives through specifications, operator standards, and rating systems instead. This guide maps what the code fixes, what it leaves open, and what your project team must define before tender.

Read it now

The full briefing is on this site. Nothing to request and nothing to wait for.

Read the briefing in full: acoustic requirements in the Saudi Building Code

Available on request

On request

Briefing 02 / Rating systems

Mostadam, LEED, and BREEAM acoustics credits compared: what each requires and how verification works

The three rating systems credit acoustics differently, and the differences decide what you must design, measure, and document. A side-by-side comparison of the requirements and the verification testing each credit path expects.

Request this briefing: Mostadam, LEED, and BREEAM acoustics credits compared

On request

Briefing 03 / Hospitality

Hotel operator acoustic standards in the GCC: how brand requirements translate into partitions, glazing, and plant selection

Operator brand standards are among the most demanding acoustic requirements in the region, and they reach further into the design than most project teams expect. This article traces a guest room NC target back through the partition schedule, the glazing specification, and the rooftop plant it constrains.

Request this briefing: Hotel operator acoustic standards in the GCC

On request

Briefing 04 / Industrial

Generator room acoustic design: the five elements that determine whether it works

Composite walls, floating floors, intake and exhaust silencers, and anti-vibration mounts only work as a system sized around the genset schedule and its airflow. Drawn from our generator room work at Middle East Airlines headquarters and the Lubumbashi substation, this note explains where these rooms usually fail.

Request this briefing: Generator room acoustic design

On request

Briefing 05 / Criteria schedules

NC targets by space type: a criteria schedule for hotels, hospitals, and offices in the region

Every space with a noise-sensitive function needs a numeric criterion before the MEP design freezes, and most projects set them too late. A working criteria schedule by space type, with notes on where operator and healthcare requirements override the defaults.

Request this briefing: NC targets by space type

On request

Briefing 06 / Testing

What in-situ sound insulation testing involves, and why lab ratings do not survive construction unchanged

A partition rated in a laboratory loses performance to junctions, penetrations, and workmanship, which is why operators and rating systems ask for field measurements. What a test to BS EN ISO 10140 involves on site, and what the results mean for handover.

Request this briefing: What in-situ sound insulation testing involves

Direct line

Ask the engineers who wrote them.

Every briefing is answered by the senior engineer who prepared it, with your project in front of them.