Analysis of the effect of spatial arrangement on the level of acoustic comfort in contemporary apartment housing units (Case study: Apartment housing in Tabriz)

Abstract

Introduction:What is neglected by designers and even users in today's housing, especially apartment housing in Iranian cities, are various aspects of physical comfort, including sound comfort. Noise is defined as unwanted noise. In other words, extra noise is an annoyance in the living and working environment. This ambient noise should be controlled as much as possible and reduced to an acceptable level because high noise levels are annoying and have countless harmful effects. Methodology: For this purpose, the present article, with emphasis on the field method, tries to investigate the pathology of spatial arrangement and its effect on the category of acoustic comfort. The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in nature. The tools and methods used in this research have been library and field research. The field studies section was carried out by the 2260 device manufactured by the Danish company B&K, using the booklets published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). For this purpose, 9 case samples from different areas of Tabriz have been selected as case studies. According to the appropriate distribution of case studies in the urban context, selection criteria were selected according to the proper allocation of case studies. It should also be noted that apartment units are rarely seen in the city of Tabriz, in the northern areas and overlooking the Pasdaran Highway, due to the worn texture and the emergence of marginalization. In each case, points related to spatial arrangement and zoning were classified into separate categories. Results: According to the background sound diagrams, the average background sound status taken from the bedrooms is better than the intermediate background sound level in the living room and dining room. It is considered that this issue indicates the correctness of space deployments relative to each other in the face of external nuisance noise. Conclusion:The outputs from the graphs of the average sound pressure level in the first category (location of the service area next to the bedrooms) are in a completely chaotic state compared to the second category, where the toilets and kitchens are farther away from the bedrooms. The conclusion section is discussed in detail. The reason for this is that the disturbing noise produced in the field of services is not only during the day but also around the clock and is of the type of excretion that the residents do not expect or accept such noise. Also, in terms of annoyance index, results show that the noise from the toilets and kitchens has been significantly affected in other neighborhood units. And it disturbs the sound comfort of the residents at night when the background noise is generally low.