Acoustic design can have a significant impact on health and wellbeing, communication and productivity. Good acoustic design allows for speech intelligibility and helps promote human interaction and knowledge transfer.

Standards and guidelines typically include requirements for assistive listening systems and recommendations for quantifiable values, such as sound insulation ratings, noise levels and reverberation times. While certain building classifications may warrant specific acoustic design or specialist advice, unfortunately acoustic performance for many buildings is frequently not considered beyond the minimum statutory requirements.