Acoustic quality perception in environments by architecture and interior design students

Abstract

Courtesy of professional attributes defined and guaranteed in Resolution 51 of the Brazilian Council of Architecture and Urbanism (CAU - Conselho de Arquitetura e Urbanismo do Bra-sil), Brazilian architects and urbanists exercise authority to execute technical decisions requi-ring knowledge of conceptual details which are not studied in-depth across undergraduate cur-riculums. Beyond using equipment to measure data, acoustic comfort is a technical discipline which demands the professional architect's sensibility when deciding which materials to em-ploy in order to guarantee adequate acoustic comfort both in the constructed environment’s conditioning and acoustic isolation. Thus, the objective of the present study was to evaluate le-vels of perception among Architecture and Interior Design students concerning environmental acoustics. The methodology applied began by selecting three (3) groups of ten (10) students each from different levels of enrollment/conclusion within Brazilian undergraduate programs [third (3rd) and sixth (6th) semesters of Architecture and Urbanism and fifth (5th) semester of the Interior Design curricula, respectively]. Using headphones, each student then listened to recordings of acoustically diverse environments.  Following, a multiple choice questionnaire was applied to gauge their identification of each room’s acoustic characteristics.   Results show the evolution of comprehension of acoustic characteristics among students after their exposure to the content taught.