The contribution of soundscape in urban design: current practices and challenges in a European level

Abstract

Over the last ten years, the term “soundscape” is continuously gaining ground in the international research scene. Consequently, there is a coordinated effort to bridge the gap among the fields of urban design, architecture, acoustics and psychology. Through this holistic and interdisciplinary approach, soundscape design proclaims two main principles: a) sound is perceived as something beneficial and not as a waste in the urban environments, b) the design aim is not to achieve “quiet” environments, but “appropriate” ones, through the balance of the sound sources. Within this framework, the current research aims start with the historical background and the evolution of soundscape. Then, it investigates two case studies in different European cities. Each one refers to different applied soundscape techniques for the improvement of the acoustic environment and solutions based on participatory planning. In the second one, an attempt is made to understand the relationship between the sound sources and a group of urban activities couples with land use attributes. The current research constitutes a distil of the European SONORUS Urban Sound Planning programme (2013-16) with an utmost aim to investigate the current scientific practices and challenges in the field of soundscape based on the viewpoints of young European researchers.