Charts Café – Wolfville, Nova Scotia

“I particularly remember visiting a charming little coffee shop called Charts Café, just off the Harvest Moon Trailway bike trail in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Coffee shops are one of the most difficult spaces for a person with a hearing disability to communicate in, because of the background noise and lack of acoustic treatment to the interior space and furnishings. The background noise in a coffee shop is inclusive of other patrons having conversations as well as sounds from behind the counter, such as the noise made when operating an expresso machine. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Charts Café has a couple of dropped ceilings in a two-story high space in which they installed standard acoustic ceiling panels that are typically found in schools and workplaces – the Tectum acoustic ceiling panel which has superior sound absorption qualities. This was obviously an intentional design intervention that contributed greatly to significant sound absorption, especially in the area of the coffee shop with tables and chairs. This one design move provides a high-quality space in which anyone with difficulty with speech comprehension or noise sensitivities can engage more fully in conversation.” (Booklet Positive Lived Experiences of Quality in the Built Environment 2023, p.131).

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