Why do restaurants get so loud?
The finishes that give many restaurants their character are hard ones: polished concrete, timber floors, tile, glass and an exposed ceiling. Each of those surfaces reflects sound back into the room, so conversation, cutlery and chairs keep sounding a little longer after each sound is made. That lingering sound is reverberation, and in a full dining room it builds into the roar that makes a table hard to hear across.
Fabric answers both the look and the sound. A woven relief gives the room a soft, crafted surface, such as the geometric, three-dimensional weave of Cubic Pico or the voluminous texture of Volumic Weave. It also absorbs sound, which the Australian Building Codes Board's handbook on sound transmission explains as sound energy turned into heat, so a smaller share of it returns to the room.
The photograph at the top of this guide was taken at Troll Cosmetics in Lustenau, Austria, where Getzner documents Cubic Mega as an acunic frame on the ceilings of the showroom and meeting room.
Where should fabric go first?
Absorption depends on how much absorbing surface the room has, so start with the largest surface that is free. In many restaurants that is the ceiling, because the floor usually stays hard and the walls carry glazing, joinery, banquettes or art. After the ceiling, use wall areas above the reach of chairs and diners, and the glass, where curtains can hang. In a large, hard room, the result follows the absorbing area, so plan fabric as a surface across the room.
Should it be ceiling sails, wall panels or curtains?
Each format suits a different room, and each has its own laboratory result.
A ceiling sail suits a high, hard ceiling. A suspended single-sided 1.2 x 1.5 m panel in Cubic Pico, hung vertically in the test room, measured 1.14 Sabins per panel at 1000 Hz (AS ISO 354:2006, Canterbury Acoustic Testing Services report 2026-316.3). Sails are covered in acoustic ceiling sails for indoor rooms and on the ceiling sails application page.
A wall panel suits a room with free wall at the right height. Cubic Pico on a 50 mm frame measured NRC 0.55 with an empty cavity and NRC 0.85 with 20 mm fibreglass infill (AS ISO 354:2006, Canterbury Acoustic Testing Services report 2026-316.1), so the infill changes the result. The frame and infill are explained in what the frame and infill do, and the wall panels application page shows finished panels.
A curtain suits a dining room with large windows, drawn across the glass during service. Getzner rates Volumic Weave at αw 0.85 (H), class B, hung as a gathered curtain with 100 per cent extra fabric at a median 150 mm from the wall (Type G-150, DIN EN ISO 354 and DIN EN ISO 11654, Getzner datasheet of 14 March 2024). Fullness and the gap to the glass are explained in how acoustic curtains work, and the curtains application page shows Getzner's curtain systems.
These figures come from different constructions and different measures, so each shows what its own construction achieved. The table lists what each tested Cubic Pico construction measured, from framed panels to towers and a suspended panel.
Tested with Cubic Pico
How much absorption does a dining room need?
The design measure for a dining room is its reverberation time, the time sound takes to die away. AS/NZS 2107:2016 gives recommended design sound levels and reverberation times for building interiors; the Standards Australia store lists it as Pending Revision. An acoustic consultant can model the dining room from its volume, its finishes and the absorption of each sail, panel and curtain, and set the quantity and position of the fabric from that. Ask for that model before the fabric quantity is fixed, because it turns the laboratory figures above into a result for your room.
What keeps sound from the neighbours?
Sound insulation in the building does. Fabric absorbs sound inside the dining room, while music, voices and kitchen plant passing through walls, floors and windows to the neighbours are a matter for the building. Stopping that transmission is sound insulation, which the ABCB's sound handbook treats as a building element's ability to limit sound passing through it, and it lives in the walls, floors, ceilings and glazing. The difference between the two is set out in how absorption differs from sound insulation.
Which fire rules apply to restaurant and bar linings?
The rules start from the building class. NCC A6G7 lists an eating room, cafe, restaurant, milk or soft-drink bar as Class 6, and also a dining room or bar area that is not an assembly building in a hotel or motel. The NCC's explanatory information adds that a bar with live entertainment or a dance floor is not Class 6 and must be considered Class 9b, unless that use is minor, as in a piano bar with no dance floor, when the appropriate authority judges the predominant use. New South Wales and South Australia vary the list. Both list a dining room, bar, shop or kiosk part of a hotel or motel without the assembly-building exclusion, and both add a small venue to Class 6: a small live music or arts venue in New South Wales and a small arts venue in South Australia, each defined by floor area, storeys and the use of pyrotechnics or theatrical smoke. The building certifier assigns the class, so confirm it before choosing fabric.
NCC Table S7C4 then sets the Group Numbers allowed for wall and ceiling linings by location. In the table, a Class 6 restaurant or cafe reads the rows headed "Class 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9b school", which cover Class 5, 6, 7 and 8 buildings and Class 9b schools, and a Class 9b bar reads the rows for Class 9b other than a school.
Group Numbers allowed for wall and ceiling linings, NCC Table S7C4
NCC 2025 Volume One, Specification 7, Table S7C4: the Group Numbers permitted for wall (W) and ceiling (C) linings in the building classes these articles discuss. The rows are unchanged from NCC 2022. Read each row with the edition adopted in the project's state and the table notes.
"Sprinklered" means a building fitted with a sprinkler system complying with Specification 17, other than a FPAA101D or FPAA101H system (Table S7C4, note 1).
"Specific areas" (Table S7C4, note 2) are a sole-occupancy unit in a Class 2 or 3 building; an open-plan office (Class 5) or shop (Class 6) whose minimum floor dimension is more than five times its floor-to-ceiling height; a patient care area in a Class 9a health-care building; an auditorium in a Class 9b theatre or hall; a classroom in a Class 9b school; and a resident use area in a Class 9c building.
In a building that is not sprinklered, clause S7C4(1) also requires a smoke growth rate index of not more than 100 or an average specific extinction area of less than 250 m²/kg.
Whether a fabric wall panel or ceiling sail is a lining or an attachment is decided by the building certifier.
For a Class 6 building, note 2 to Table S7C4 counts shops or other buildings whose minimum floor dimension is more than five times the floor-to-ceiling height as a "specific area", so a large dining room may fall under that column. In a building without sprinklers, S7C4(1) also requires a smoke growth rate index not more than 100 or an average specific extinction area below 250 m²/kg. Table S7C4 is the same in NCC 2022 and NCC 2025. NCC 2025 applies in the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia, the ACT and Western Australia with 12-month transition periods; New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania adopt it on 1 May 2027, and the Northern Territory keeps NCC 2022.
In AKA Acoustics' Technical Product Summary (Version A, October 2024), every Acunic fabric is given a Group Number. Cubic Pico is Group 1 and Volumic Weave is Group 2 (Technical Product Summary). Whether a fabric wall panel or ceiling sail counts as a lining or an attachment is the certifier's decision, and fire ratings for fabric in Australia explains what to ask for.
Curtains are treated differently. NCC C2D11(3) exempts a curtain, blind or similar decor, other than a proscenium curtain required by Specification 32, and New South Wales also regulates curtains in the public parts of Class 9b entertainment venues; see fire rules for curtains.
How is fabric cleaned in a food environment?
Care follows the fabric, not the room. Getzner's datasheet says Cubic Pico is non-washable, and that surface dirt can be removed by carefully patting or vacuuming, or by patting with a damp cloth without rubbing. Volumic Weave takes a 40 °C delicates cycle. Care for each fabric is set out in how to clean architectural fabric.
For a commercial kitchen or any other food preparation area, ask AKA Acoustics before you specify fabric.
