Guest post by Professor Marco Caniato University of Applied Science HFT of Stuttgart After some preparation time, we are finally ready to begin. Participants are involved from all over the world, so you are part of a large international scientific research round robin test initiative, bringing together volunteers who generously offer their time to explore […]
room acoustics
Quiet Enough to Think, Open Enough to Thrive
A qualitative study of sound environments in traditional and open classroom settings This Swedish qualitative study explores how students, teachers, and school staff at Gantofta School experience the sound environment in two contrasting learning settings: a traditional classroom (Learning space typology – Type A/B, Fig.1) and an open, flexible learning environment known as Amfi (Lst […]
Acoustical Consultant
Photo by Ela Fasllija
The many impacts of inadequate acoustic environments on neurodivergent and noise sensitive people.
Guest post by Carmen Rosas-Pérez (a PhD student at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (UK)). Overview This post summarises the research done for my PhD Thesis ‘Disabling Acoustics: Impact of daily-life acoustic environments on neurodivergent, auraldivergent and noise sensitive people’ carried at Heriot-Watt University (UK) and funded by a James Watt scholarship. As a neurodivergent acoustic engineer […]
The importance of C50 for speech communication and classroom group activities
This study investigates the acoustic conditions of 26 primary school classrooms during lessons. There was a specific focus on how classroom activity type, student age, and room acoustics shape both speech levels and activity noise. Using Gaussian Mixture Models, the researchers separated teacher and student speech from non-speech activity noise across 93 homogeneous activity periods. […]
Autism and auditory needs – An overview for accessible indoor spaces
“Ten questions concerning autism and auditory accessibility in buildings” is a recent paper which takes a deep dive into the topic The comprehensive literature study “Ten questions concerning autism and auditory accessibility in buildings” examines how autistic individuals experience sound within the built environment. The overview highlights major shortcomings in current design standards and offers […]
Vertical absorption in Healthcare
National standards in the Healthcare are lacking In many countries, national standards, regulations, and guidelines in the healthcare sector are lacking and rarely include vertical absorption. One could therefore say that in many cases, building hospitals, elderly care homes, and psychiatric wards is the ‘wild west’ regarding acoustics. We are lucky when new buildings are […]
Improving acoustic comfort at Chelsea and Westminster hospital -The SILENTS study
Ecophon have been part of the Sound in Clinical Environments (SILENTS) study, looking at the effects of noise in the Acute Assessment Unit at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, a project funded by the hospital’s official charity CW+. The aim of the study is to improve the experience of the acoustic environment on a […]
The effect of a reduced reverberation time on students and their performance in higher education classrooms: a between-groups experiment
Research about the effect of reverberation time reduction on students and their performance was carried out by Henk W. Brink. Study Overview This study explored an alteration of the classrooms’ reverberation time (RT). This lead to acoustic conditions meeting quality class A of Dutch guidelines, resulting in a positive effect on students’ perceptions and performance. […]
Architecture and Autism, shared spaces and sensory escape
On Friday, 28 November 2025, the BeSENSHome research group will host the international workshop “Architecture and autism, shared spaces and sensory escape”. Participation in the event at the University of Trieste is possible in person or online (see registration below). The event brings together researchers, designers, educators, and professionals. To explore how built environments can […]
