What do modern human societies sound like? Have we neglected the soundscapes of human society, and how may our cultural focus on our sense of sight have affected how we design buildings? The World Health Organization (WHO) categorize noise as the most significant environmental health threat right after air pollution (1). This should also be […]
Three of our editors have kicked off a podcast in their local language – Swedish! Maria Quinn, Ida Cederlund and Johan Gross discuss the nature of sound and why we are affected by it in so many ways in healthcare, education and offices. The first two episodes are available and more will come in the […]
Calculate right! Some years ago Saint-Gobain Ecophon published a new tool for calculating room acoustics. The tool makes it possible for the user to see both Sabine calculations on reverberation time, speech clarity and room gain – AND it makes it possible for the user also to see calculations based on air flow resistivity (AFR). […]
How we react to sounds, for instance in the form of music, depends on and is filtered through aspects such as the environment, our genes, and not the least, our previous experiences of music. Music that is important to us is usually, and quite naturally, music that we have heard in the past. What happens […]
Having a proper indoor climate can raise productivity more than 15%[1] For more than decade, ‘Evidence Based Design’ (EBD) has been part of our DNA in regards to building healthcare facilities. When it comes to indoor climate we know that lighting, air quality and acoustics are crucial parameters in healing architecture together with biophilic designs […]
People who are cut off acoustically from the external world not only lose their hearing, they are at risk of becoming socially and intellectually isolated. The less stimulation the brain receives, the more quickly its capacity diminishes[1] . Hearing loss and mental health Research all over the world discusses the links between hearing loss and […]
Are we really just an overgrown appendage for carrying around eyes and processing visual information or are we missing something in our understanding of our senses and the world? Most people can tell you at least one physiological fact about eyesight that seems to suggest that vision trumps all other senses. Some examples could be: […]
The population is aging, we are living longer and new methods of treatment are constantly emerging. Growth is sought in the productivity of nursing care and the skills it requires will be more demanding. This creates pressure to build resilient, functional and technology-efficient hospital buildings with a long technical lifespan. Good facilities, their indoor climate […]
This is the world! The Danish Cancer Foundation has concluded that traffic noise can lead to breast cancer and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The Danish Ministry of Environment concludes that 500 Danes die every year because of traffic noise – because of diabetes, stress and cardio vascular diseases caused by noise. The Danish Road Directorate concludes that […]
To investigate what impact room acoustics have on staff and patients an intervention study was done in a dementia clinic in Århus, Denmark. The study was part of a BA project at The Technical University of Denmark[1]. The room that was used for the study was an office where the doctors do cognitive testing of […]