Soundscape evaluation in a Catholic cathedral and Buddhist temple precincts through social surveys and soundwalks

Abstract

Religious precincts in urban spaces have their own religious spatiality formed by their sociocultural and historical background. It is necessary to identify the spatiality of urban religious precincts in their sociocultural contexts because soundscape perception is determined largely by context. In the present study, social surveys and soundwalks were performed in a Catholic cathedral and in Buddhist temple precincts in Seoul. In the surveys, important spatial functions, sound, and visual components of the Catholic cathedral and Buddhist temple precincts were investigated by principal component analysis. The results showed that the cathedral precincts play a more important role in social functions related to mainly visual components than the temple precincts do, whereas the functions for religious activities related to sound elements are more stressed in the temple precincts. In the soundwalk evaluation, contributions of soundscape and landscape components to tranquility in the two religious precincts were explored. It was found that pleasantness of soundscape and attractiveness of landscape significantly affected the perception of tranquility. In addition, it was revealed that a sense of enclosure could enhance tranquility in urban religious precincts.

Influence of urban contexts on soundscape perceptions: A structural equation modeling approach

“…), (4) sounds from human beings (conversation, laughter, children at play, and footsteps) and (5) natural sounds (wind, water, and birds). This classification of sound sources has been widely utilized in soundscape studies (Axelsson et al, 2010;Jambrošić, Horvat, & Domitrović, 2013;Jeon, Hwang, & Hong, 2014;Lindborg, 2015) due to its utility for laypeople. In addition, the previous studies using the protocol show significant correlations between sound source identification responses and perceptions of acoustic environments.…”

“…The relationship between acoustic and visual factors has been investigated, and visual factors such as aesthetic quality, spatial impression, and simplicity were significantly correlated with soundscape quality Jeon et al, 2014). Among various visual factors, the aesthetic quality of the visual environment is considered to be the most significant factor affecting soundscape perception; in other words, a more pleasing visual environment enhances Table 1 Acoustic parameters in the selected locations [dB].…”

The Personal Viewpoint on the Meaning of Tranquility Affects the Appraisal of the Urban Park Soundscape

“…Additionally, the tranquility of natural places has been investigated and evaluated with established soundscape indicators [13]. Finally, tranquility is considered to be an important characteristic of the soundscape of religious spaces [14].…”

Soundscape evaluation in Han Chinese Buddhist temples

“…Prasad analysed sound spectra of several instruments which were used both individually as well as collectively in Hindu worship spaces [31]. Jeon et al used social surveys and soundwalks to compare the soundscape of around a Catholic church with that of a Buddhist temple in South Korea and proposed that, compared to the church, the sounds of religion and nature in the temple are more easily understood as basic elements [32]. Through methods such as measurement, reverberation time, and questionnaire surveys, Kang analysed the degree of acoustic comfort inside several churches in Sheffield [33].…”