room 1 – Workshop
An old storage now used by D-ARCH to shelter some design classes ateliers. The room is extremely reverb-y and loud, spoken words are sometimes difficult to understand. Sounds inhabit the room for at least 3 seconds before disappearing. I feel like every little sound is amplified. A pencil fall, I got distracted. The room is a parallelepiped with a skylight on the ceiling. The metal door is opened. The metal door is closed. Boom. I got overwhelmed. Impossible no to hear someone entering. Sounds are bouncing. I imagine crazy bouncing balls. A colleague is trying to speak. I can’t hear him. His voice get louder. Seem like a choir is singing. Just metal, concrete and glass. The only materials that can eventually absorbs sounds are clothes worn by people. Like an ant in a lake.
reverberation time
It is not surprising at all the measured reverberation time: 2.66 seconds.
characterisation
In this room there is no acoustic treatment. The main materials are concrete, glass and steel. All tree are reflective and the main geometry is a box. There are some irregularity of the surfaces (beams an pipes) that could maybe favour the diffusion of the sound. All the surfaces of the room are high reflective.
room 2 – My own
Two windows, one is facing the street. The other a garden, there’s some trees. On the street there’s a tram station. It stops every 7 minutes with its characteristic sound: the bell and the electric engine. When just the window facing the street is open, I can hear it. The tram, the bell, the people waiting and chatting. When the window facing the trees is open, the tram, the bell and the people does not exist anymore. I just hear birds and maybe the trees when there’s some wind. Walls are old and massive, probably stone. It’s a small room. It feels boxy when everything is closed. I feel protected. In my wardrobe I have clothes. When it’s completely open it feels less boxy. Not a lot of reverbs. I like when it’s open. I feel at home.
reverberation time
The closet takes a complete wall of the room. When it’s closed the surface is almost flat; made in wood and painted in white: a reflective material. When it is opened the surface it is no more flat, there are boxes, clothes, different types of materials that reflects and absorbs sounds in different ways. I can hear a small difference between the open and close state.
It is a small room, reverberate time is not long, but there is a difference between the two states of the closet.
Closed closet condition
An open closet has a reverberation time of 0.34 seconds. The closed condition of 0.42 seconds. An increment of +24%
characterisation
There’s not a specific acoustic treatment in this room. The main geometry is a box. On two non parallels side there is an arc on the upper part of the wall that either focus sound or diffuse it. There are two niches for the two windows. One wall is completely covered by wood: the closet. There are no specific acoustic panels but the bed material, soft and porous, surely help to absorb certain frequencies. Also the clothes in the closet, the open, absorb sounds.
room 3 – Tartan track
It’s an open room, next to a school in Oerlikon. A 100m tartan track next to an asphalt way. On the side of the tartan a plain wall. When I walk on the tartan, sounds feel a bit dull. Maybe it’s because I can’t hear my steps. I try clapping my hands, sound come from the reflection of the wall. I do a step toward the asphalt. I clap again. Sound seems clearer and denser. Children are playing and crying a bit further. They seem a bit less noisy on tartan.
experience 1 – Migros
I usually don’t like supermarkets. I get overwhelmed by all the sounds. Beep. The cash register has scanned an article. Beep. I can’t unhear the music played at a hateful volume: too loud to be unheard and too low to listen to it. It seems like one of the latest commercial pop music. Beep. I have to buy cereals for breakfast. Beep. A shopping cart is passing next to me. A metallic sound with a railway rhythm is filling the aisle. It goes away. Beep. I can hear a baby crying a bit far. I am happy that is not next to me. An old lady is analysing the chips. She touches the metal-plastic bags. They do an itchy noise. Beep. People are chatting. Impossible to distinguish words. Beep. They stop the music, there’s a catchy jingle and then a scratchy voice. The music restarts. Beep. Beep. Beep. I don’t like the cash register. Beep. Other people are talking. She laughs, maybe too loud. Beep. I can’t remember what I had to buy. I improvise. Eggs. Beep. Another shopping cart. Beep. The baby who was crying is now near me. He’s loud. Beep. I feel overwhelmed. Beep. I go to the cash register. Beep. Beep. Beep. I pay. I go outside. I arrive at home. I forgot the milk.
experience 2 – On the train
I always loved travelling by train. I always felt relaxed, maybe too relaxed, I get asleep quite easily. I like the continuous Whoooooom. Constant and at a right intensity. It partially annihilates other sounds. Whoooooom. I think they call it brown noise. Whoooooom. “Tickets please”. A ringing voice breaks the quietness. Just some small little noises around. An old man is turning the pages of a local newspaper. Someone is looking for something in his backpack. I noticed because of the zip sounds. Whoooooom. A teenager is listening to music with the headphones. Maybe the volume is too high, I can hear the music in a high pitch. It’s a bit disturbing. Whooooooom. A catchy jingle and then a bass voice announces the next stop. It’s my lucky day, it’s a preregistered message, usually they are done live with a terrible sound quality. Almost impossible to understand. Whooooom. The train is arriving at the station. Metal noises from the rails. Whoooooom. The train brakes, a loud whistle for some seconds and then a Wschsch. Like air under pressure was released. Mechanical sound, the doors open. I am bombarded now by sound and noises coming from people, announcements, mechanical stuff moving and a cargo train travelling not too far.
