Cafés
Order Counter Acoustic Design for Cafés
Find the noise source and its route through the space. Treat sound leaking between rooms differently from echo inside one room.
Explore the ideas
Plan in this order
- List sources of speech, equipment and impact noise at the busiest time.
- Put quiet work away from busy edges where possible. Check doors, gaps and service penetrations before adding finishes.
- Use absorption for excessive echo. Ask an acoustic specialist where speech privacy or isolation is essential.
Worked example
A hard-finished foyer amplifies door closings and makes conversations audible in the adjacent lounge.
Add absorption at the ceiling or on a wall away from the door, then improve the door’s soft-close behavior. Recreate an ordinary arrival and listen from the lounge seating.
How to test it
Recreate the noisier activity and listen from adjoining seats and rooms with doors both open and closed.
Apply it to this space
- Layout
- Place ordering first and pickup farther along the counter, with a queue lane that does not cross the entrance.
- Detail
- Make the menu legible from the queue and use a durable counter edge that tolerates bags and trays.
- Trade-off
- A longer counter clarifies stages but reduces room for seating.
- Simulate ordering and pickup at a busy moment
- Check menu readability from the back of the queue
The Elixir portfolio
Details worth a closer look
