Peterborough College: Acoustic Rafts and Suspended Ceilings

Peterborough College is a further education college serving a large student population across vocational, academic and professional development programmes. Eastledge installed acoustic rafts and suspended ceilings across the main atrium and teaching areas, addressing the reverberation levels that accumulate in large hard-surfaced volumes under student occupancy. Works were delivered around the college's operational calendar.

The brief

Large atrium and circulation spaces in further education colleges generate significant reverberation under occupancy. Open volumes with hard floor, wall and ceiling surfaces reflect sound across the full frequency range; as student numbers increase, the ambient noise level builds and the intelligibility of speech reduces. Acoustic intervention in the atrium and circulation areas was the priority scope at Peterborough.

The brief also included suspended ceilings across classroom and support areas alongside the acoustic raft installation, giving the project two distinct ceiling scopes delivered under a single programme.

Acoustic rafts

Free-hanging acoustic rafts were installed below the structural soffit in the atrium and corridor volumes. Acoustic rafts are flat-orientated absorbers suspended on steel wires from fixings in the slab or structural steel above: the underside face absorbs sound from the space below, and the exposed soffit above remains visible. The raft layout distributes absorption across the upper volume of each space without enclosing it.

Suspension wire lengths and raft positions were set out against the structural grid, with fixing positions determined by the slab or beam layout above and raft positions calculated to produce the specified coverage and spacing. Integration with existing services and luminaire runs was confirmed before installation began.

Suspended ceilings

Mineral fibre suspended ceilings were installed across teaching rooms, office and support spaces, providing a clean, maintainable ceiling finish with integration for luminaires, ventilation terminals and fire detection. Grid layout was coordinated with the M&E services positions before installation.

How we worked

The installation was phased to minimise disruption to the college's teaching programme. Access to the atrium and corridor spaces was managed around the student timetable, with zones cleared and hoarded as required. Classroom and support area ceilings were typically completed during holiday periods when those rooms were not in scheduled teaching use.

Outcome

The acoustic raft installation in the atrium and circulation areas provides broad-spectrum absorption in the upper volumes of the highest-occupancy spaces. The suspended ceiling across teaching and support areas delivers a consistent, serviceable finish integrated with the existing services.

For more on acoustic raft and suspended ceiling installation in further education, visit the education sector page and the acoustic rafts and baffles service page.