windows in dance or yoga studios
I have seen a couple practice questions regarding dance and yoga studios with a question regarding what to select to reduce noise between the studio and an adjacent space. NCARB says remove the window in each occasion. I completely disagree with this. Have you ever been to a studio without a window? No, you just don't do that. Not only should it be there for human comfort but also for parents who may have a child in that studio. You want to be able to see you children from the lobby.
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The questions and relevant answers aren't designed to be thought of as deeply as this. If it were, they would be structured and asked differently for that objective of the use of the space and comfortability. The goal of the question isn't to design the studios in totality as it would be in practice, but to design the studios within the vacuum of the question.
A large part of not getting tripped up on the exams is not adding external factors that have no bearing on the question. If the goal of the question is to design a space that is effective in controlling the sound transmission, the answers and considerations should reflect that goal. Adding your elements to the scenario that are not present makes for a slippery slope, when none of that is part of the consideration for the options given for answers.
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I would agree with this Abruno, however the window is mentioned as a relative project detail. The answer should be to increase the window STC rating, not remove in its entirety. Another clunky worded question and information provided. But again, I'll just use their explanation that NCARB states and carry on.
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I agree with you Abruno. One of the biggest hurdles for me while studying has been separating how I would approach a situation in real-world practice versus how NCARB wants us to approach the technical objective of the question. In practice, we would balance acoustics, visibility, supervision, user comfort, and overall experience together. But on the exam, they often want you to isolate the single technical issue being tested and answer within that narrow scope.
I also agree with Stacey and Adam that the wording can feel clunky because once a window is introduced as part of the wall assembly, it becomes part of the acoustic discussion. In reality, maintaining a high STC rating with a window in the partition becomes difficult unless special acoustically rated glazing or specialty window systems are provided. A standard interior window is almost always going to weaken the overall STC performance of the wall assembly compared to a solid partition.
So from a pure acoustics standpoint, NCARB’s answer of removing the window makes sense technically. But from a practical design standpoint, most actual dance or yoga studios would likely try to maintain visibility and daylight while improving the glazing specification instead of eliminating the window entirely.
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