The Challenge:
Located in the heart of Upper Hutt, Te Kupenga o Rongomai Maidstone Sports Hub is a dynamic, community-focused facility designed to support sports, recreation, and social activities for all.
Built as a box within the sports field, Te Kupenga o Rongomai's material selection prioritises durability and resilience. Concrete, metal, and glass were chosen for their ability to endure heavy use, withstand wear, and require minimal maintenance, without compromising environmental sustainability principles.
However, these materials by their very nature create acoustic issues especially in this projects large-volume sports hall.
The mix of the wide-open space and hard surfaces creates a noisy environment where sounds bounce around, making it hard to hear and uncomfortable to be in.
- Address reverberation.
- Minimal maintenance requirement.
- To warm up and soften the hard hall aesthetic.
- Strong and robust acoustic solution required.
The Solution:
To meet this challenge, architects Stephenson & Turner selected Asona Sonawood™ panels direct fixed over framing and insulation to line all the walls of the sports hall.
Sonawood™ is a made in NZ perforated wood panel with acoustic tissue backing designed to control unwanted noise in interior spaces. Panels may be customised according to substrate, decorative finish, acoustic perforations and sized to meet individual project requirements.
Sonawood™ is ideal for gymnasiums, sports centres, schools, spas and office buildings and is available in large panel sizes or as 600 x 1200mm tiles for exposed grid ceiling systems.
For this project Sonawood™ 600 x 2400mm European Birch ply panels with a 13mm long-slot perforation design over a 50mm Sonaboard™ acoustic absorber provided a sound absorption requirement of NRC 0.70.
The strong, robust wood panels are perfect for this largescale project where the balance of controlling sound and the use of impact resistant materials is of equal importance. The end result aesthetically warmed the large space as well as being efficient in controlling the excess reverberation.
- NRC of 0.7 achieved.
- Tailored Installation.
- Robust & contemporary finish.
