Graham Construction was appointed to lead the refurbishment of Senate House, part of the University of London which is to house the School of Oriental & African Studies. SOAS is the world’s leading institution for languages, cultures and societies of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The plan is to improve the student experience significantly by offering state-of-the-art facilities, with a high specification sound absorption solution for reverberation control in the Teaching Rooms, Seminar Rooms, Meeting Halls, Study Units and Lecture Theatres. Increased sound absorption helps to improve speech transmission quality, sometimes as much as 35%, control echo as well as background noise and reduce reverberation times in teaching areas. The SOAS project will accommodate a 25% planned increase of the cosmopolitan student numbers, with staff and students together on one centrally located campus, so reverberation control is paramount in this instance.

Soundis supplied approximately of 2,650 sq metres of the Absorb-R GypLine aw (also known as Acoustic) Spray Plaster. This spray plaster system includes 25mm and 39mm Acoustical Absorption Boards which can be fitted direct to the soffit, to a shallow narrow void track-line carrier ceiling or a deep void MF Ceiling Grid. The boards are then sanded and treated with a 3mm acoustic spray plaster with a choice of finishes. The Absorb-R System finishes can then be colour coated to any RAL top coat colour and provide a virtually seamless monolithic ceiling with high and exceptional sound absorption levels that meet or exceed typical reverberation criteria.