Co-living homes
Shared kitchen Acoustic Design for Co-living homes
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 blender and extractor make conversation difficult in an open kitchen that faces the lounge.
Locate the loudest equipment away from the seating edge, add soft furnishings outside cooking clearances, and test with both rooms occupied.
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
- Separate prep, cooking and washing zones; assign clearly marked personal storage away from shared staples.
- Detail
- Use durable, easy-clean surfaces and task lighting across the full counter run.
- Trade-off
- More individual cupboards improve fairness but reduce space for shared cookware.
- Simulate two people preparing meals
- Check labeling and cleaning access
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