Indoor soundscapes at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in London – Part I: Associations between the perception of the acoustic environment, occupantś activity and well-being

Torresin, Simone; Albatici, Rossano; Aletta, Francesco; Babich, Francesco; Oberman, Tin; Stawinoga, Agnieszka Elzbieta; Kang, Jian

doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2021.108305

Cited by 57 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…A more detailed description of the survey can be found elsewhere. 38 Information was gathered on the type of heating, ventilation and cooling systems present at home, the perceived dominance of sound from building services and the appropriateness of the surrounding sound environment in the rooms employed for WFH and relaxation. Questions were adapted from ISO/TS 12,913-2:2018 26 and are described in Table 1.…”

Section: Questionnaire Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between indoor soundscapes, building services and window opening behaviour during the COVID-19 lockdown

Torresin

Albatici

Aletta

et al. 2021

Building Services Engineering Research and Technology

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Results of an online survey conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown among 848 home workers living in London (United Kingdom) and in Italy are reported with a focus on (1) the impacts of building services on the perception of the acoustic environment while working and relaxing at home and (2) the factors associated with window opening behaviour. The analyses showed no significant difference in soundscape appropriateness for relaxation depending on the heating, ventilation and cooling system typologies, and in soundscape appropriateness for working from home (WFH) based on the ventilation strategy. Higher soundscape appropriateness for WFH was associated with houses equipped only with radiant floors for heating in Italy and with air-cooling systems in London. In London, air systems resulted in higher perceived dominance of noise from building services compared to other systems. Overall, rooms with less dominant sounds from building services were evaluated as more appropriate for working and relaxing. The dominance of sky or buildings from the window view, outdoor noisiness, noise sensitivity, age and gender were not significantly associated with participants’ window opening behaviour while WFH. Differently, participants viewing more vegetation from windows in Italy were more likely (odds ratio: 1.279) to keep the window open while WFH.

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Section: Questionnaire Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between indoor soundscapes, building services and window opening behaviour during the COVID-19 lockdown

Torresin

Albatici

Aletta

et al. 2021

Building Services Engineering Research and Technology

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“…Likewise, Bartalucci et al [15] in another online survey conducted in Italy during different stages of COVID-19-related lockdowns reported an overall reduction in terms of noise annoyance that was likely induced by the limitation of traffic flows and human activities, which in turn led to improved soundscape assessments. On the other hand, studies focusing on the perception of acoustic environments for people forced to stay home occasionally highlighted negative outcomes, such as increased noiseinduced psychological stress or increased rates of noise complaints (e.g., [16,17]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium

Aletta

Renterghem

2021

IJERPH

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The COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdown events and policies that followed, led to significant changes in the built environment and how it is experienced by people and communities. Among those, variations in the acoustic environments were some of the most noticeable in cities. This study investigated the relationships between the perception of the acoustic environment (i.e., soundscape) and different personal factors such as attitudes towards the pandemic and noise sensitivity, by performing a survey with 109 participants in an urban green public space in Antwerp (Belgium), shortly after most restrictions issued by the government were lifted in September 2020 when the first contamination wave ended. While preliminary in nature, the results of this data collection campaign show that people actively changing their behaviors (using less public transport or cycling more) assessed the soundscapes as less vibrant/exciting. People who were more concerned about the pandemic tended to notice more natural sounds and noise from traffic on nearby local roads. This same subset also put a bigger importance on the environmental quality of the public space than in the pre-pandemic period. Noise sensitivity also played a role, as an association was found between more-than-average noise sensitive persons and those more worried regarding the pandemic. Overall, the findings of this study confirm that at least part of the people have started to perceive the public space, including its soundscape, differently since the start of the pandemic.

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“…Wargocki and Da Silva (2015) studied a system that monitors CO 2 , giving visual indications associated to the level of CO 2 concentrations in the classroom. The results suggest that this system encourages pupils to open windows more frequently [30], even if this practice is often associated with external noise [49] and atmospheric pollution [50] which can discourage the advantage of natural ventilation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Low-Invasive CO2-Based Visual Alerting Systems to Manage Natural Ventilation and Improve IAQ in Historic School Buildings

Avella

Gupta

Peretti³

et al. 2021

Heritage

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Children spend a large part of their growing years in schools, and as they are more sensitive to some pollutants than adults, it is essential to monitor and maximize the indoor air quality (IAQ) in classrooms. Many schools are located in historic and heritage buildings, and improving the IAQ, preserving the architectural features, poses a great challenge. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a low-invasiveness, low-cost, smart CO2-based visual alerting systems to manage natural ventilation and improve IAQ in historic school buildings. Indoor and outdoor parameters were monitored for three weeks in four schools with different levels of education (two classrooms per school; device installed in one only). Based on indoor CO2 concentration, air temperature and relative humidity, the device suggests when windows should be opened to ventilate. The comparison between the two classrooms show that the effectiveness of the device is highly dependent on the occupants: (i) reduction in the average CO2 concentrations of up to 42% in classrooms with frontal lesson and full occupancy, (ii) the device is not the most ideal solution for kindergarten due to the young age of the pupils, and (iii) it is more used during mild outdoor temperatures.

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Indoor soundscapes at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in London – Part I: Associations between the perception of the acoustic environment, occupantś activity and well-being

Cited by 57 publications

References 50 publications

Associations between indoor soundscapes, building services and window opening behaviour during the COVID-19 lockdown

Associations between indoor soundscapes, building services and window opening behaviour during the COVID-19 lockdown

Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium

Low-Invasive CO2-Based Visual Alerting Systems to Manage Natural Ventilation and Improve IAQ in Historic School Buildings

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