When designing gathering spaces in worship facilities, be it lobbies, fireside areas, etc.—it’s important that architects and AV consultants consider how best to maximize acoustics. That includes ensuring that conversations can be heard and that external sound stays out.
Frederick Ampel, president and principal of Technology Visions Analytics in Overland Park, Kan., says there are two main issues to think about when it comes to gathering spaces—the kind of gathering spaces the facility wants to offer to congregates and who exactly will be gathering.
He explains the two basic structures of attendance are very much worship style/denominationally dependent, meaning how the church itself operates on a day-to-day basis. It can either be the kind of place a lot of people gather before the service and mingle amongst themselves and then wander into the sanctuary for the service, or could be the kind of facility where everyone shows up 10 minutes before the service starts, grabs a seat and sits down.
It can either be the kind of place a lot of people gather before the service and mingle amongst themselves and then wander into the sanctuary for the service, or could be the kind of facility where everyone shows up 10 minutes before the service starts, grabs a seat and sits down.
As for the who, Ampel notes a church needs to think about the ages of those gathering and how they use the space.
“For instance, does the church have a lot of elderly or other people who use the church to gather to meet because they don’t have anywhere else to go,” he says. “That is more often the case with older, smaller congregations than it is in a megachurch. You are going to want to have a different kind of meeting area.”
There’s also a newer trend that Ampel refers to as the “coffee shop mindset” where churches are going with more modern gathering spaces with an open area that allows people to gather before or after the service and relax on couches and talk in a laid-back setting.
“The biggest problem that you will face with all of these spaces is noise control,” he says. “For a gathering space to be useful to those gathering, they need to be able to have a conversation at normal conversational speech levels, which means the amount of background noise that you can allow to penetrate the space from either the outside of the building or other parts, has to be controlled for the space to be useful.”
Gathering facilitated by design intent
In a more modern church setting, and as an example, Ampel says to picture a glass-fronted building with a lobby area, hallway leading into a sanctuary, with some meeting rooms off to the side and some kind of open area with tables and chairs, noise control is a must.
“Has anyone considered there is traffic on the street outside? How much noise is coming in from the outside? And how much noise is coming from other rooms on the inside of the building,” he says. “The biggest problem I see all the time is these gathering spaces are places you can’t have a conversation because the noise is too high to conduct normal conversation. There’s too much background noise or other things going on.”
Take it down a notch
The last thing you want is for people in the church to be raising their voices and talking loudly over someone else just to be heard. The whole idea of a gathering space is to allow more intimate conversations to occur....
That’s why architects and AV designers need to consider all of these factors so people can feel comfortable in the space and have strong conversations.
The last thing you want is for people in the church to be raising their voices and talking loudly over someone else just to be heard. The whole idea of a gathering space is to allow more intimate conversations to occur and for that to happen, it has to be relatively quiet.
... most open spots and pre-function spaces are not necessarily acoustically treated or handled with that thought in mind. And that needs to be thought of for the space to really function effectively.
The biggest issue that Ampel sees in this regard is that many designers don’t address this at the beginning. He notes most open spots and pre-function spaces are not necessarily acoustically treated or handled with that thought in mind. And that needs to be thought of for the space to really function effectively.
“What should be going on is an equal amount of design effort put into this kind of space as part of the facility’s overall service to its congregation, rather than adding it as an afterthought,” Ampel says. “It often gets short shrift, both budgetary and time-wise. A lot of worship facilities end up dealing with this after the fact and that presents its own problems. If we need to modify an existing space, it becomes more difficult, more expensive and sometimes impossible to get it to function the way you want it to.”
Design with space usage in mind
In lobbies, Ampel says you first need to consider how many people are going to be occupying the space, and then create a proper acoustical design.
“Will people be sitting down? Is it a couch and table thing or someplace people will stand around? The layout will help you decide what to do [acoustically].”
“That will determine things like how you lay out seating, couches, lighting, and how you deal with things like windows, HVAC and other factors,” he says. “Will people be sitting down? Is it a couch and table thing or someplace people will stand around? The layout will help you decide what to do.”
If the attendees are going to be a large group of elderly people, Ampel says a church designer should look at a different type of arrangement than you would with a bunch of young families with children, where you might want to build in a play area or some other type of isolation space.
“[The needs] of people [who] attend the church will drive what space you will need. And that will drive your acoustical design.”
“One thing you see in a lot of newer churches, where you have a lot of families, is the addition of space off to the side of a lobby or gathering space that can serve as an infant room or cry room, for a kid not behaving well,” he says. “[The needs] of people [who] attend the church will drive what space you will need. And that will drive your acoustical design.”
One thing that has become quite popular with non-denominational evangelical groups is the acquisition of a Kmart-style building that can be converted into a church. Since that wasn’t designed with worship in mind, Ampel says trying to build various functional spaces within the structure becomes difficult.
For example, with such a wide-open plan, it must be decided whether to build walls all the way to the ceiling or put up partial walls and hope there’s enough noise control without having to go to complete isolation.
“The biggest problem we run into is people don’t weigh the impact of environmental factors on the space and the noise that comes about,” Ampel says. “Open space without control is a problem.”
