Title image credit: Cover from the OECD School User Survey. The newly launched OECD School User Survey is designed to support the improvement of learning spaces by empowering school users. Significantly for us as acoustic enthusiasts, among the broad range of holistic topics and important aspects that it covers, the survey also includes 5 acoustic […]
schools
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, […]
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 […]
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, […]
Open learning landscapes – if the acoustics aren’t right, the whole educational concept fails
De Werkplaats in Bilthoven is one of the Netherlands’ first primary schools without any classrooms, where pupils and teachers work in an open learning environment. “The success of such a concept largely depends on good acoustics,” says architect Kees Willems of Teeuwisse & Willems architects. In one corner we see a group of children watching […]
Better performance during the teacher training sessions – highlights need for good school acoustics!
Case study: How acoustics dramatically improved the teaching facilities at training centre for teachers CESIRE, Barcelona, Spain Above: dBplus Acoustics explaining acoustic improvements One good thing leading to another The idea behind the collaboration between CESIRE, dBplus Acoustics and Ecophon came about after Ecophon hosted a knowledge seminar in Barcelona which shared a local case study […]
UNESCO hosted ”The sound for a new urbanism” conference
Each year in France “The Week of Sound” / “La Semaine du Son” pulls together a series of events that constitutes a vast range of knowledge, practical know-how and information about sound and the importance of the quality of the sound environment. It has a transversal – cultural, medical, industrial, educational and economic – approach and is recognised to […]
