Evaluation of acoustic comfort conditions of open plan offices in shipyard buildings: Antalya Free Zone Case study

Noise is an important element that directly affects people's comfort and quality of life. Prolonged exposure to noise can cause both physical and psychological health problems. Office buildings are one of the places where people spend most of their time and where physical comfort conditions are essential. Cell planned offices, which were the first office structures in history, gave way to open plan offices over time. Although it has advantages such as efficient use of space, strengthening communication between employees and facilitating information sharing between units, there are also various discussions on its negative effects on employees' job performance and auditory problems. One of the sectors that has open plan offices and where noise is an important physical parameter is the shipbuilding sector. It is known that noise exposure is very high in each of the boat production stages in this sector. In open plan offices located within large production areas such as shipyards, auditory problems arising from the production process are also possible. In this thesis, acoustic discomfort levels arising from production noise in open plan offices within the shipyard were investigated. In the first part of the study, an introduction to the subject was made, the purpose and scope of the study are explained. In addition, national and international legislation and standards related to open plan offices are included and studies conducted on acoustic problems in open plan offices are mentioned. General information is given about the method of the study determined as a result of the literature review. In the second section, the concept of office, plan types and features are explained, and the requirements for comfort conditions of open plan offices and the factors affecting their design are examined in depth. At the end of the section, parameters related to the acoustic design of open plan offices are mentioned. In the third section, the shipyards in the Antalya Free Zone and the open plan offices in them, which are the subject of the study, are introduced. The application stages of the survey, measurement and simulation methods determined to examine the acoustic conditions of the open plan offices are explained in detail. In the fourth section, the results obtained through survey, measurement and simulation methods are presented in detail in the form of tables and graphs for each shipyard. In the fifth and final part of the study, the findings obtained through survey, measurement and simulation methods were compared with the values in the Regulation on the Protection of Buildings Against Noise and the acoustic performance classes of open plan offices were determined. In addition, it was evaluated whether the survey, measurement and simulation results were compatible with each other and the study was concluded by presenting improvement suggestions.