An extensive well-being survey maps noise problems in Danish schools. About one in ten children from preschool to the third grade can’t hear the teachers instruction because of noise. Sound and acoustics is sadly often far down on the list of priorities in the design of buildings. However, this problem becomes particularly absurd when even […]
Education
School acoustics in 5 European countries
How does the view of school acoustics vary between five European countries? Working across several countries, it’s interesting to reflect on the differences we see in terms of the role of acoustics. In some countries the sound environment barely gets a mention in a building process, in others only in certain types of specialist spaces […]
Understanding Innovative Learning Environments
Innovative Learning Environments, or ILEs, is a concept that keeps popping up and within the realm of school architecture debates are taking place and research is being conducted on open vs closed, agile, flexible or dynamic. Outsiders may find it difficult to keep up, and as for us in acoustics, we know that we’re in […]
Conference on inclusion and hearing impaired children
So, the iCARE research project (improving Children’s Auditory Rehabilitation) is coming to an end, and I had the privilege to participate in one of the last major milestones, recently executed (November 20-21 in Leuven, Belgium) – namely the iCARE conference. Professor Dr Astrid van Wieringen has been project managing all of us during these years, […]
Our top 5 posts on acoustics 2017
Wow, we sure get a good spread of topics on this little blog of ours and maybe, just maybe, this is what you like about it? When we summarise the major news and events in room acoustics 2017 we look back on everything from a nearly tropical ICBEN in Zurich, to interesting new podcast episodes […]
If Carlsberg built a University and hosted an education conference, they would discuss the value for good acoustics…..”probably!”
Well, not only does the Campus have good acoustics but it was host to the Annual European Education Research Association conference where acoustics was indeed a key part of one of the sessions…. The LEaRN team from the University of Melbourne organised an interesting session where the focus was industry and academia collaboration around educational […]
Transitions17, where education and architecture meet
Going beyond the traditional borders, be it education and pedagogy, architecture or geographical borders was the red thread of the Transitions symposium, the traveling ‘roadshow’ of the ILETC project when it came to London and Regent’s University for the first ever European edition (full program here). The world we live in is changing rapidly and […]
Are we listening or hearing in classrooms? The Indian perspective
There seems to be a universal agreement with the fact that proper acoustic treatment of a classroom will enhance comprehension abilities of its audience. This is more true with children as occupants compared with adults. To understand better, let’s first look at how our brain perceives sound. The adult brain takes all sounds we hear […]
Interview with Acoustic Bulletin editor – Jiri Strnad
It’s time to meet a new Acoustic Bulletin Editor, and this time we go to the Czech Republic and have a chat with Jiri Strnad. Jiri has an identical twin brother, talks a million miles an hour, knows a lot about school acoustics, and if you’re ever lucky enough to meet him under more informal […]
Visiting a sound place to learn
The bold new twin-site, City of Glasgow College super campus, imbued with Glasgow’s energy and complexity, is impressive. A host of design awards for Michael Laird and Reiach and Hall Architects, supported by Arup Acoustics, is a testament to this. The £228m twin-site super campus itself constitutes a city community, a so-called “sticky” campus, […]
