This project was the acoustic renovation of a community church chapel. The chapel undertakes weekly worship services, choir performances, sermons and other activities. Due to the high space and hard stone walls, the mid-low frequency reverberation is too long, resulting in blurred speech and heavy echo. The congregation in the back row often cannot hear the sermon content clearly, and the chorus performance is also muddy due to reverberation superposition, which cannot meet the functional needs of religious activities.

The design team adopted a combined scheme of grooved acoustic panels and perforated acoustic panels for side wall and rear wall treatment. Based on the Helmholtz resonance principle, the two panels are precisely matched according to the space volume and acoustic requirements, targeting the 250Hz–1000Hz mid-low frequency reverberation that is common in high-ceiling worship spaces and most affects speech clarity. With the rear air cavity and mineral wool backing, the overall NRC reaches 0.90, realizing full-band balanced sound absorption and optimizing the sound field uniformity of the whole venue.

The wood veneer panels have a solemn and warm appearance, which fits the sacred and peaceful positioning of the church. After the transformation, the acoustic test shows that the reverberation time is optimized to the ideal range for speech and chorus singing, the speech intelligibility is increased by 42%, and the sound pressure level difference between the front and rear rows is controlled within 3dB. Whether it is daily sermons or choir performances, clear and natural listening effects can be achieved, effectively improving the activity experience of the congregation.