The inside story of French Standard NF S 31-199 for open offices « Acoustic performance of open-plan offices ».

Taking into account noise disturbance within office space construction and planning is now a major objective in the frame of the prevention of occupational diseases. In 2012, the international standard ISO 3382-3, specifying the open plan offices acoustic properties measurement method, was issued. Today, this standard is used by the majority of European acoustic consultancy firms. Nonetheless, although this standard constitutes a progress, it presents some limitations. Notably, it does not differentiate between the different types of existing open offices; similar comments could be made in reference to the French standard NF 31-080 used by most of the French acoustic consultancy firms. To address this short-coming, one of the objectives of the new French standard, that was issued in March 2016, was to define different types of open plan offices. To achieve this objective, field measurements, laboratory trials and simulations were performed. This paper describes a set of field analyses that aimed at establishing a causal link between acoustic indicators and noise annoyance perceived by people at work (23 offices and a total of 617 workers surveyed). A synthesis of the standard is also presented in the paper, as well as a set of tools that facilitate noise reduction actions in open plan offices.