Attic

This space is located above my apartment, and its main purpose is storage.

The geometry is best described as an extruded triangle. Most of the surfaces are covered with thin wood composite panels. Since it is located directly beneath the pitched roof, which has no insulation, you can hear the impact of weather, such as rain.

Appliying accoustic slang terminologies: Dull, dead

Cellar

This space is located on the lowest floor of my apartment building, and its main purpose is also storage.

It is located on the underground level, with concrete walls on all sides. The shape can best be described as a windowless rectangular box. If you listen closely, you might hear the faint buzzing of the old lamps fixed to the ceiling.

Appliying accoustic slang terminologies: boxy, Sterile

The reason I chose these spaces is that they serve the same function and contain similar objects. Often, when you enter them, it’s quiet and very dark until the light switches on. This is why my attention is always drawn to the non-visual characteristics of the space when I enter.

2 Exploring the Emotional Impact of Everyday Sound

The two places I chose for this exercise are my room in my shared flat and a secluded spot in the nearby forest.

The room I’m focusing on has a single window, which I always keep open. Most of the dominant sounds come from that direction, but they aren’t constant. Some of the most noticeable sounds include airplanes taking off, buses and cars driving by, birds singing, people working in their gardens, or children screaming. The most prominent sound for me is the bus, as I know exactly when it passes, so it almost functions like a clock. The more overlooked sounds are those coming from inside the room, like the fan of my PC or the tapping noise of my keyboard as I write this text. Since the room feels quite dull from all sides except the window, it often makes me want to leave and explore these same sounds in a more open, 360° experience outside.

In the forest, I hear some similar sounds, but also many new ones. The 360° experience is mostly created by the birdsong and the tapping of woodpeckers, which form a kind of horizontal sound barrier surrounding me. A less dominant but still noticeable sound is that of airplanes, which comes from above and feels very constant. However, there is one new sound that adds a certain flow to the atmosphere—the sound of the wind. Its presence is always noticeable, but the source of the sound moves around, rustling through the leaves of the trees. This makes the biggest difference from the previous room environment. The sound of the wind is calming and relaxing, giving the entire atmosphere a soothing, dynamic quality.

Since both places are very familiar to me, I know which one to use for each activity. While sound is not the main factor that determines how I use the space, it is, after the climatic conditions, the one that influences my well-being in the space the most.

3 Empirical and numerical estimation of room acoustic properties

Both clap recordings are visualized in the following graphic. I’ve picked the attic and the cellar I’ve already used in assignement 1 for this case study. In the Attic, the reverberation time of RT₆₀ is 0.425 s. In the Cellar, the reverberation time of RT₆₀ is 0.145 s.