1ster Raum
HIL E3
A space especially created to hold extended lecture periods. The space is designed so that the professor at the front facing the students can perceive everything inside the room.
The other way around the person speaking at the front represents the starting point from which the entire room opens up from. One can directly perceive the entire geometry of the room as a way to materialise the form of the waves traveling starting at the frond.
One of the interesting features of this space is that you can literally feel the broad spaciousness inside of it. You don’t really feel any reverberations as the walls and even the tables are designed to absorb giving the impression of something flowing into and being lost in the wide sea.
Acoustic slang terminologie:
- Open
- Diffuse
- Clear
2ter Raum
Bathroom at home
The second rom would be one of our bathrooms at home. It is the place were we shower, make ourselves fresh and also engage in extended sessions of meditation on the throne greatly annoying the other members in need of it. The room isn’t very big and is paved withe ceramic stones, a non absorbent material.
In therms of acoustics this materialisation is very well perceivable inside the room as the sound reverberates from the near walls. The room is very tiny and those reverberation of the sounds are normally very short creating a box feeling which leads to a very intimate atmosphere withe a feeling of peace and quiet. In case of sending I realised that a specific deep sound leads to a manyfold amplification of the reverberations leading to a sound closely resembling the blowing of a low big horn. On can directly feel the incoming reflections of the waves from all directions on ones body.
Acoustic slang terminologie:
- Boomy
- Reverb-y
- Resonant
3ter Raum
Staircase in the HPH
This very impressive staircase is situated in the centre of the hexagonal building of physics at the hönggerberg. Everyday it is used to distribute people inside the entire building complex. This leads to hundreds of people using the structure every single day creating various different scenarios of perceived qualities. In the case of just being alone every single step is audible and if one focuses one can perceive the soft rushing of aircondishoning resulting from the ceiling 10m above ones head expanding throughout the ample space. In case of the other extreme were there are many people traversing this big staircase perception shifts to an all-around mumbling. The more sounds are coming together the more difficult it gets to distinguish between distinct patterns since all is mixed together. At some point only the sounds originating in ones close proximity can be distinguished in therms of direction and clarity.
Acoustic slang terminologie:
- Muddy
- Dense
- Cavernous
01 Exploring the Emotional Impact of Everyday Sounds
For the first location I chose again the big staircase in the HPH. Here on can perceive two different sound scenarios, one being the time when everything’s empty because no one is there and the second being the time after each class when the students change their classroom locations.
In the first it’s very peaceful and quiet. Seldom a person walks through and even if, in this big room the sounds recede until only a very soft sssshhhhuing is left calming ones state of mind and soothing ones emotions. It’s creates a perfect environment to recover and become still.
Most catch sounds perceived this time around are the abrupt slamming of doors, catching you of guard and impacting you the closer you are to its origin.
Since it is peaceful and quiet there are not many sounds to be overheard to begin with. But the amplitude of the sound get much lower because it’s a very spacious room. As such sudden noises influence you more the closer they are to you while abnormal noises, sound which you wouldn’t expect in this environment like maybe the call of a bird ore other sounds that imply an accident ore someone in need of help.
The same space changes 180 Degrees once the students rush out of the classrooms, filling up the entire stair space while sharing their stories in conversations.
Now it’s completely loud ad it is difficult to distinguish sounds since all kinds of frequencies, rhythm and pattern rain in from all directions which can be very distracting and create confusion and make one agitated. Once the first phase passed and one gets more accustomed to the noise the ear automatically starts to ignore the incoming sounds to a kind of background noise. Interestingly it is easier to distinguish higher frequences and high pitched sounds both in direction and content compared to low ones. So women with a particularly high voice ore a sudden laugh especially catches your attention.
All in all one can only try to ignore the sounds but not really calm down since there’s no room to really relax.
I comparing not two places but two scenarios in the same it gets pretty clear that some times it is not so much the based on the different environments on how you feel and perceive certain situations but more the actual happening inside that room determine the feelings.
Overall one can say that Unpleasant sounds(smt. different per person), sudden noises and excessive rhythmic differences can very negatively influence your emotional state.
02 Empirical and numerical estimation of room acoustic properties.
1: Soundproben des HPH-Treppen komplexes:
Sound of walking on the Stairs
The Sound in space showed in a linear fashion.
Sound of Clapping once
RT60 = 0.7sec x 2 = 1.4sec
There’s one echo visible after the little part. Apart from that there are no echoes visible in the diagram. Well, maybe the following is a phenomena of following slightly week echos: At the end the peaks stop to fall according to the linear curve and fall slightly slower.
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-RT60.htm
Clapping three times in succession
The tree clamps are shown logarithmically.
