According to UNESCO Convention 1972, cultural heritage consists of tangible and intangible heritage. Soundscape has been considered as a part of the intangible heritage, and it refers to the perceptual quality. In the realm of built environment, perceptual qualities become important concerns, since cultural heritage cannot be described and appreciated using mono-sensorial analysis fundamentally based on vision. As perceptual construct, soundscape has been considered as a new approach in understanding the formation and design of sensitive urban environment. It is argued that perceptual quality, besides visual aesthetics, geographic, psychological and socio-cultural aspects, must be part of the considerations in architecture and urban design. Bandung is well-known for its urban heritage, and as former well-designed colonial town, the historic buildings and areas have morphologically constituted the structure of the inner city. However, the modernization and globalization have led to inevitable transformations, including the destruction of historic places and fabric/district of cultural significance. With the latest urban dynamics, urban environment has also experienced an inescapable process of “sound globalization”, which led to the losing of specific sound-marks in the respective area. This paper is based upon an ongoing research project on strategy for conservation of historic urban areas using soundscape approach. Methodologically, through sound walks, surveys and interviews, several notions relating to urban spatial and formal quality have been collected, assessed and interpreted. The result stands for the understanding of perceptual aspects and quality of urban space in historic urban areas that may contribute to the heritage conservation strategy.
Soundscapes are affected by several factors and one of them is the activities done in the space concerned. People expect different acoustic environments for different activities, but there is no specific guidance for designing an ideal acoustic environment for different activities. This study aimed to identify ideal urban acoustic environments for four different activities: reading, relaxing, talking with friends, and playing with children. The ideal acoustic environment was evaluated using the soundscape composition concept. The concept was implemented by an acoustic environment simulator that enabled the respondents to compose their ideal acoustic environment and identify the perception of their composition. The sound source selection and perception rating were analyzed to understand the ideal acoustic environment and perception for different activities. This study identified the ideal soundscapes for four different activities and the perception expected to be present in the ideal environments for those activities. The result can be beneficial as guidance for urban soundscape design.
Micro-perforated panel (MPP) sound absorbers are usually made of a thin panel and have narrow absorption bandwidth. This drawback causes the application of MPP to be limited. In this paper, the possibility of realizing wider absorption bandwidth MPP with sufficient structural strength is investigated. For this, multi-MPP (resonator) arranged in parallel to form an inhomogeneous perforation MPP is introduced to widen the absorption bandwidth. The thickness of MPP must be 1.5 times higher than perforation diameter or more in order to have appropriate strength. The characteristics of corresponding absorption coefficients are studied parametrically using theoretical models as thick panels can reduce the MPP's performance. It is found that the absorption bandwidth of thicker panels with inhomogeneous perforation approach can be at least twice times of classical MPP. The problem of reduced peak absorption coefficient in a thick panel can be avoided by keeping the acoustic resistance value around 1± 0.5 Rayls. Compared with homogeneous MPP, inter-resonator interaction exists in the inhomogeneous perforation thick MPP that causes the overall absorption to become higher due to the increasing of the acoustic resistance as well as the shifting of peak resonance following residual acoustic reactance. The measurement results confirm all of the characteristics.
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