Double Award Winners at the 'Noise Oscars' 2026 at the Palace of Westminster
Updated: 9 minutes ago
Sustainable Acoustics team win the Soundscape Award and Highly Commended for the Sustainability Award at the John Connell awards held by the Noise Abatement Society in thier 25th Anniversary year. Read more about the project below......
Both entries were for the same project in different categorise, but for very different reasons.
The project was about Adaptive Acoustics to enable Care in the Community begins with t a person with tourettes who was placed in the community getting regular complaints as a result of vocalisations in his garden. This lead to an Abatement Notice being served on him and the Landlord seeking to help consider what else coudl be done to address the problem and still allow him to access his garden.
The challenges firstly required us to assess the soundscape, so that the adverse impact could be objectively assessed and so the mitigation targets be defined based on controlling the key sounds of vocalisations and fence banging.
The design proposal was developed in two parts : 1) to create an acoustic canopy over a 1/3 of the external space which would contain and absorb the sound where it was generated, and making it enticing for him to be there with a sensory theatre being creates to allow films to be shown and create an art expression area. 2) the clinical team worked to develop a management plan that reduced to a minumum the ticks and minimised the impacts on residents as far as practicable.
This was the winner of the John Connell Soundscape Award 2026 winner for its "its pioneering work applying soundscape principles to a complex noise dispute in residential care. Working with the local authority and clinical team, they developed a tailored acoustic
and care strategy designed to protect neighbours’ amenity, while enabling a community
care resident to remain in their home" said the Noise Abatement Society.
"Investing significant time and expertise in a case involving substantial challenges, Sustainable Acoustics has pushed the boundaries of conventional practice and
applied soundscape principles to establish a fairer lived-experience assessment
approach that could be applied in future guidance for building standards and
community care provision".
"This was awarded Highly Commended for the the John Connell Sustainable Development Award 2026 for its innovative approach to creating a more equitable solution to noise nuisance. Through its Sustainable, Equitable Acoustic Adaptations for Community
Care Integration project"...."By adapting an existing home rather than seeking to displace the resident, the project demonstrates how acoustic design can support social equity and wellbeing, whilst creating more sustainable communities".
Peter Rogers said "Whilst it is wonderful to be recognised the work that we do and the results that we can acheive using acoustics is what makes this special, helping those who need our help and care the most to live with reduced inequality in our communities - now that's sustainable acoustics in practice !"
