ASC
Head Engineer Art Noxon
answers Tough Questions
The
chair of a building committee recently contacted us with some questions.
Her committee is building a new Sanctuary, and being a Mennonite
church, congregational singing is very important. They want to build
a facility for roughly 300-400 people. There has been some preference
stated for a sloped floor for site-lines and a low platform (so
no railings etc are required) as well as for a fan shaped layout.
Is there a particular layout that should
be considered?
All too often, voicing the church is something
that is done after the church has been built and it doesn't work
well, so this is the right time to be asking these questions. For
good congregational singing we want lots of reflecting surfaces
to keep the sound of congregational singing in the congregation.
For good choir, we need to begin with some sort of "choir loft"
acoustic setup. Open platforms covered with carpet are not a good
idea. Fan shaped rooms tend to have a curved back wall that make
the back wall reflection act like a parabolic dish, with a focal
point at the front of the room. It's very hard to control the sound
reflected off the back wall.
However, make a square shaped room, 200' x 200'
and put the lowered platform in one corner and fan the seating.
Now you have a diagonal arrangement without being plagued by that
horrible, curved back wall. Our
article on New Life Church outlines a great sounding
church space that is not expensive. Avoid high ceilings in singing
area, they drain energy from the congregation.
Here are some thing to consider:
Avoid fan shape room layouts
Square room with platform in corner is OK
Fan shaped seating pattern OK
Do not use acoustic tile ceiling
Lower ceiling over congregation, higher if desired,
over platform
Church about 75 feet square. Do not cut the back
corner off at an angle
Sloped floor is fine,concrete
Use wood beam on main diagonal, place side joists
parallel to the two front walls.
Carpet only aisles
Provide privacy space for nursing mothers and
a second space for cranky kids, these spaces should be walk in,
no doors, yet visually and acoustically private, as in airport
bathroom design
Balcony is great way to get more space that feels
great
Elevated choir loft could be located centered
in balcony at the back, traditional
Platform size depends on where choir is placed.
Typically, there is a praise band space on one side of platform
and a choir space on other. Baptismal is front center, in corner
It's hard to give advice with out a full plan
review. If you make a square building but budget for a cheap steel
truss roof with an acoustic tile ceiling, It still won't work.
Also, you have to plan the parking spaces, relative to church,
considering the soundproof quality of walls and outside doors.
Design plot plan also with access issues for the handicap, funerals
and weddings. What about future acquisitions such as a pipe organ?
Organs require long reverb times, you can use your church for
that or put organ in front of an organ reverb chamber to get same
effect.
Be careful with bathroom flush noise intruding into
private or otherwise peaceful spaces. Choir rehearsal room and the
praise band reversal room needs to be near the platform. Some form
of platform egress is needed, depending on the way the minister
wants to enter or leave the platform. Use high efficiency incandescent
lights. Consider where the ambient noise floor, where the church
is relative to freeway, major traffic lights, truck routes and airport
flyovers before you select the type of building wall and roof. Minister
needs multiroom office space, to accommodate the variety of activities
required. Is minister's office near the platform or near where?
The fellowship hall is very important, shape, acoustics, windows,
glare, kitchen, use as banquet hall, can be a money earner for the
church if it sounds good, needs a small stage for announcing, formal
speaking, music, movies and possibly plays.
Parallel walls are a problem sometimes and sometimes
not. Voicing a church or other room is in part knowing when and
where parallel walls are either good or bad. Overall, people do
not like parallel walls handling sound from the speaker. However,
people do like parallel walls handling sound from the congregation
or the choir. Don't simplify a complex situation and come up with
a rule-of-thumb with which to design a church.
A church is a place of voice sources and listening
ears and walls, simply put. Sometimes the voices and the ears are
in the same place, sometimes the voices and the ears are in different
places. It depends on which part of the service is going on. In
each case, the proper voices have to be linked to the proper ears.
This is a complex multidimensional wave guide system. The goal is
to create one space that sounds differently depending on who is
where. Who and where the voice(s) are is one part and who and where
the listening ears are is the other. All linked together by the
room acoustics.
And often it is even more complicated than that.
The choir, for example has to not only hear itself to stay in sync
and be energetic. But they also have to be heard by the congregation
to be able to lead the singing. So, congregational singing must
not overpower the choir's ability to hear themselves nor overpower
the ability of the congregation to hear the lead by the choir. Still,
in order for the congregation to have good involvement in singing,
the congregational singing environment must be loud and reverberant,
so that the members lose their self-consciousness, giving themselves
over to song.