New Church Building Designs
Have your next church sound great the first day you move in



Planning a new church?

Do you want you new church to sound great the first day it open?

Have you been told you can "fix it later" or "lets see what happens when the church opens and after a few months we can fix it." It is true that you can fix the acoustics of a church at any time, but then you and the Architect loose the control of how your church will look. The Aesthetics decision is eventually descended by the salesmen, the acoustical expert and the current church board members who battle through the trenches and settle on compromises. Often, both the Acoustical expert and the church board compromise so much that many acoustical fixes are a bust. So how can acoustical experts gain any trust? Church Acoustics is a very unique and specific science. So how do you get it right the first time?


Imagine a Gym with acoustics so good that you can hear a pin drop anywhere on a stage.
Not only is the room good for speech but it is excellent for music as it was designed as a concert hall in disguise.
This room was all designed by JdB Sound Acoustics
Completed 2012



Myth - Church Acoustics is more Art and wishful think than a Science.
Answer - False.

Architecture and Aesthetics are the Art. Church Acoustics is pure science at it's best. Yes, acoustics is one of the more complex sciences that baffles most Architects with it's infinite variables and the many ways you can work with it. For those who understand acoustics, they master sound so well that the hard work that goes into a project seems like what they did trivial. For those who don't understand acoustics, they usually dismiss our profession as a hobby and non-essential. If church acoustics was just a hobby, then it shouldn't affect the income and attendance of a church. Did you know that acoustics and sound can impact a churches income and attendance up to 25%? Is that trivial?

When a church dismisses acoustical design, isn't that like saying 10 to 25% of it's income and membership are not essential? Are you satisfied with your church collecting up to 25% less tithes and offerings annually and every year until you have your acoustics and sound managed properly?

Whether a church likes it or not, acoustics drives the Architecture and the Aesthetics of a worship space. When a church ignores acoustics at the beginning of a church design, they often second guess themselves later on in the design process and try to hope that what they have will magically work (isn't that also called misguided faith?) People become fearful of any serious interior architectural design because of that acoustical monster. As a result, others will decide how the interior of the church will look. When acoustics is included, everyone can have more of what they want.

Joseph De Buglio has designed churches that look good and sound great. Some consider his work cutting edge, others see it as state of the art. Joseph sees his work as honoring God. In all of his work God comes first and his goals are to remove any barriers between the listener and the person giving the message. Just because the ocean of air between the minister and the people is invisible, it doesn't mean it's not active at helping or hindering the work of spreading the Gospel.







For a new church, investing in acoustics is about paying for the right information to avoid the pitfalls which turns a potentially good building into a disaster. Most new church designs that churches sketch out before bringing them to an Architect are most often good designs. Some are even great designs. How come most churches get something else? This is why acoustical is important. It will keep the church focused on it's original design.

As an independent acoustical and sound system designer, Joseph gets to work with churches in all stages of their life cycles. He has compiled a very extensive array of church design details where there is no need to second guess what works and what doesn't. This saves a church on design cost in a big way.

A key step in sanctuary design is shaping the worship space layout to your actual style of worship. Designing a new church from scratch? That is the best place to start. It is faster and cheaper to design from scratch.

Thinking about using existing drawings? Watch out when using someone else's design. To copy an existing church design often means copying their mistakes too. Often these mistakes are missed by city building inspectors when you submit plans to the city or county. This often forces the church to raise more money to offset the cost of material changes, engineer costs and any hold up costs that occur when projects are delayed during mid construction.

How often have church boards toured dozens of sanctuaries, added these design changes to their borrowed church plans to only learn later that they copied the same mistakes unintentionally? This happens all the time and most churches are too embarrassed to let other churches know of their mistakes. When Joseph visits any church, he can spot good design, poor design and designs that were an afterthought.

In the end, designing a church around acoustics will get you a better building for the same cost or less of a church designed in the absence of acoustical guidance. JdB Sound Acoustics can also prepare your preliminary drawings ready for an Architect to engineer. This is a major cost savings to the church as well.


Mid construction

Photo July 2011
We offer on site project supervision

Photo July 2011










To learn more, or to get a quote on our fees for our church design services
please give us a call at
416-248-9007
email - jdb@jdbsound.com

(c) Copyright 1981-2011

Back To Home Page