Acoustic conditioning of culture centres: the case of the Romo Culture Centre in Getxo, Biscay

Reviewing and improving acoustic conditioning of culture centres is one of the last interventions required before opening them after construction or renovation.

Culture centres meet all the requirements to be the best example of a building that needs a proper acoustic conditioning. They are buildings which host activities in which acoustics are an essential component: music, reading, conferences, exhibitions, etc. In addition, culture centres usually have large open spaces; under the roof of a single culture centre, you may find auditoriums and conference halls, music schools, exhibition halls, multi-purpose spaces, libraries and reading rooms, all susceptible to reverberation that needs to be corrected to enjoy appropriate acoustics.

In 2016 we participated in different projects involving the acoustic conditioning of culture centres. In this article we bring the case of the Culture Centre in the Romo quarter of the Basque town of Getxo. It houses the municipal library, a youth library, an auditorium, the municipal Basque language school, multi-purpose rooms for associations, rehearsal rooms and exhibition halls. The new culture centre boasts a spectacular design, and it wanted to be a landmark in Getxo and an identifier for Romo, so there was a firm commitment to its design.

A total of some 500 m² of wood acoustic panels were delivered. The following pictures show the visual effect of wood prisms on the wall of one of the building’s multi-purpose rooms. This wall features our Spigotec Liso 16 mm model of varnished oak veneer on fire retardant MDF with straight edges measuring 2440x1220 without overlap.

For the ceiling of the room, we supplied acoustic panels of the Spigotec Leo 16 model with full 8 mm diameter perforations, finished in off-white MDB and varnished oak veneer, with fire-retardant MDF base, which comes in 12 mm thickness and 2400x600 and 600x600 mm plates.