AESOP 26

th

Annual Congress 11-15 July 2012 METU, Ankara

SOUNDSCAPE APPROACH FOR A HOLISTIC URBAN DESIGN

Seckin Basturk1, Luigi Maffei 2, Massimiliano Masullo 3

Abstract In the last decade we are witnessing a paradigm shift in our understanding of urban space; now it is defined with human experience rather than physical quantities. The full spectrum of human experience is usually summed up with the term atmosphere and encompasses the influence of color, light, texture of materials, temperature, humidity, odor, and sound on individuals. Within this trend soundscape research has developed its tools, like soundwalking and laboratory listening experiments coupled with sound recordings, in order to achieve a multidimensional holistic approach to understand soundscapes and necessities of local people. However laboratory experimentation, usually focusing on audio characteristics of a place, underestimates the cooperation between sensory modalities which plays a complex role on overall satisfaction of end users. Therefore, an ecological assessment of environments should take into account the multisensory and interdependent nature of human perception. In this preliminary study it is aimed to demonstrate the potentiality of a multisensory (audio-visual) evaluation technique, involving the end users during the design process and administration. The presented technique employs immersive virtual reality and auralization technology for a realistic presentation of environmental stimuli in laboratory conditions and captures various objective and subjective psychological responses of individuals to evaluate satisfaction due to presented environment. The multisensory evaluation technique has been applied to a case study in historic neighborhood Triana of Seville (Spain). This initial study is concluded with a demonstrative virtual reality application and with insights on possible future directions on multisensory evaluation supported soundscape and urban design.

1.

Introduction

As space and spatial issues became the new paradigm of architectural theory at the end of the twentieth century, all disciplines are getting more involved with space,
1 2

Seconda Universit degli Studi di Napoli, Naples, Italy - seckin.basturk@gmail.com Seconda Universit degli Studi di Napoli, Naples, Italy - luigi.maffei@unina2.it 3 Seconda Universit degli Studi di Napoli, Naples, Italy - massimiliano.masullo@unina2.it

AESOP 26

th

Annual Congress 11-15 July 2012 METU, Ankara

architecture or engineering has no more right to it than any other. Space which is conceptual as well as physical, an embodiment of social relations and ideology, holds the person within. And spatial studies, within and in-between different disciplines, focus on relationships between people and their environments in order to promote spaces in line with the nature of these relationships. The full spectrum of human experiences is being considered in a wide variety of fields; the design of consumer goods, marketing and the design of private and virtual spaces amongst others. The reason for this interest is demonstrated in several recent studies which reveal the significant impact that spatial cues have on individuals behavior and can be consequently employed to increase retail performance, inform successful spatial designs and improve quality of life. Especially the places which are subject to purchase of goods and services are increasingly being conceived with their sensual characteristics. And multisensory design is getting much more important to enhance interaction and to intensify the sensorial experiences of people, related to the goods, services, spaces. Colors, lights, tactile properties of materials, temperature, humidity, odors, and sounds are increasingly considered with their physical properties, semantics and the way that they are perceived. In line with this global trend, in last decades, the scientific society has seen the gap between individuals experiences and the actions taken (in a conventional manner) to improve acoustic quality of environments. These conventional methods and actions taken were successful to a certain extent, especially regarding higher levels of noise exposure conditions (so called black areas), but do not offer any action for relatively lower levels of noise exposure (so called grey areas that are characterized with 55-65 dBA). It is estimated that 180 million people (roughly % 37 of EU 27 population) live in these grey areas where noise exposure is assumed to be acceptable and not harmful for individuals health but still can cause serious annoyance that plays an important role affecting the overall well-being and quality of life of the exposed population. Noise annoyance is a multi-faceted concept where context-related perceptual factors play an important role as well as the noise level. Especially in these so called grey areas where the line between pleasant and unpleasant sound and consequently its effects on people become vague (Maffei et al. 2010). Noise annoyance may vary from one community to other due to these factors (Staples 1997; Lercher & Botteldooren 2006). Standard relationships and models, not considering the complex interactions that occur when people hear sounds - sounds recall memories and previous experiences trigger a multisensory processing which leads to identification of the source, finally form judgments as a function of the context in which the sound is heard - , can mislead the noise impact assessment when it is applied to different contexts, to different communities (Lercher et al. 2008). Thus ecological assessment of sound environments should take into account the variability among different communities or group of people exposed to noise and also the multisensory and interdependent nature of human perception. In this context, soundscape research took on a new significance in sound related research field, since it involves not only physical measurements but also the