TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES

938 Aurora Boulevard, Cubao, Quezon City

BUILDING UTILITIES 3
FINAL CASE STUDY
“A REFERENCE OF ACOUSTIC DESIGN IN
ARCHITECTURAL SPACES”

SUBMITTED BY: DOMINGO, CHARITY FAYE O.

CLASS & SECTION: AR363A/AR32FC2
SUBMITTED TO: AR. FRANCES

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………..3

CHARACTERISTIC & TYPE OF ARCHITECTURE………………………………………4-5

REFERENCE FOR ACOUSTIC DESIGN IN ARCHITECTURAL SPACES………………6

SCHOOLS……………………………………………………………………………………..5-8

OFFICES/CONFERENCE ROOM ……………………………….......………………......8-10

AUDITORIUMS, THEATRE……………………….......…………………………………10-20

CINEMA/MOVIE HOUSES……………………………….............................................20-21

ENTERTAINMENT ROOMS …………………………………......................................21-23

CHARACTERISTICS & PARAMETERS ……………………………………………………23

SCHOOLS ………………………………………………………………………………....23-28

OFFICES/CONFERENCE ROOM ………………………………………………………29-31

AUDITORIUMS, THEATRE ……………………………………………………………...32-34

CINEMA/MOVIE HOUSES ………………………………………………………………35-37

ENTERTAINMENT ROOMS ……………………………………………………………..38-40

CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………........................40

GENERAL CONCEPTS APPLIED ………………………………………………………….41

ACOUSTICAL TREATMENTS/MATERIALS …………………………………………..41-42

PROBLEMS & SPECIFIC ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTION ……………………………....42

INTERIOR ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS ………………………….……………………………....42

CONCLUSION-GENERAL…………………………………………………………………….43

REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………………………43

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 INTRODUCTION

The modern science of acoustics over the last 100 years has broadly treated the spatial
aspect of sound in two contexts: propagation in a free field, and the behavior of sound
fields in enclosed spaces, the latter being the basis of what is known as architectural
acoustics. This work has resulted in a significant body of theoretical and applied
literature, including many approaches to the complex problem of modeling the
acoustical properties of actual and proposed spaces.

Although the acoustic complexity of real spaces may exhibit subtleties that require furth
er research, the general principles involved seem well established. However, the
perception of acoustic space – how we interpret sound as creating a sense of space – is
not well understood. Perhaps the greatest impediment is our reliance on visual models of
space which are relatively stable and detailed, giving us the impression that space is a
fixed entity through which we can move. The practice of architectural design is similarly
characterized by an emphasis on the visual aspects of space, with few schools until
recently giving any thought to the acoustic aspects of design. How does the auditory
perception of space differ from its visual counterpart? And how are the two related? The
most fundamental difference is that the auditory perception of space depends entirely on
time, meaning that it is in a constant state of flux. I will argue in this paper that the time
domain is central to two related aspects of auditory space – the space or “volume” within
a sound and the sense of space created by all of the sounds within a soundscape. Clearly
I am putting the emphasis on the human perception of auditory space as to how we
interpret acoustic cues, which therefore is the domain of psychoacoustics. However, my
goal is broader than that, because I will argue that the perception of acoustic space, and
our perceived orientation within it, is a central concern of acoustic ecology, an emerging
field of study whose main concern is the relation of the individual to an environment as
created by sound, and by extension, the relationship between a community and
its soundscapes.

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II. CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPE OF
ARCHITECTURE:

 TYPICAL FORMS: An architectural

style is characterized by the
features that make a building or
other structure notable or historically
identifiable. A style may include
such elements as form, method
of construction, building materials,
and regional character. Most architecture can be classified within a chronology of
styles which changes over time reflecting changing fashions, beliefs and religions,
or the emergence of new ideas, technology, or materials which make new styles
possible.
Styles therefore emerge from the history of a society. They are documented in the
subject of architectural history. At any time several styles may be fashionable, and
when a style changes it usually does so gradually, as architects learn and adapt
to new ideas. The new style is sometimes only a rebellion against an existing style,
such as post-modernism (meaning "after modernism"), which has in recent years
found its own language and split into a number of styles which have acquired other
names.
Styles often spread to other places, so that the style at its source continues to
develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist. For
instance, Renaissance ideas emerged in Italy around 1425 and spread to all of
Europe over the next 200 years, with the French, Belgian, German, English, and
Spanish Renaissances showing recognisably the same style, but with unique
characteristics. A style may also spread through colonialism, either by foreign
colonies learning from their home country, or by settlers moving to a new land.
One example is the Spanish missions in California, brought by Spanish priests in
the late 18th century and built in a unique style.
After a style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur.
For instance, classicism has been revived many times and found new life
as neoclassicism. Each time it is revived, it is different. The Spanish mission style
was revived 100 years later as the Mission Revival, and that soon evolved into
the Spanish Colonial Revival.
Vernacular architecture is listed separately. As vernacular architecture is better
understood as suggestive of culture, writ broadly (as well as a theory and a process
rather than a thing-in-itself), it technically can encompass every architectural style-
-or none at all. In and of itself, vernacular architecture is not a style.

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 INTERIOR PLANNING:
Constructing schemes of the period
styles of historic art and architecture was
a major concern of 19th century scholars
in the new and initially mostly German-
speaking field of art history. Important
writers on the broad theory of style
including Carl Friedrich von
Rumohr, Gottfried Semper, and Alois
Riegl in his Stilfragen of 1893,
with Heinrich Wölfflin and Paul
Frankl continued the debate into the 20th
century. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who
followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements
of styles across great ranges in time and space. This type of art history is also
known as formalism, or the study of forms or shapes in art.
Semper, Wölfflin, and Frankl, and later Ackerman, had backgrounds in the history
of architecture, and like many other terms for period styles, "Romanesque" and
"Gothic" were initially coined to describe architectural styles, where major changes
between styles can be clearer and more easy to define, not least because style in
architecture is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative
art such as painting. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often
subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to
music, literature and the general culture. In architecture stylistic change often
follows, and is made possible by, the discovery of new techniques or materials,
from the Gothic rib vault to modern metal and reinforced concrete construction. A
major area of debate in both art history and archaeology has been the extent to
which stylistic change in other fields like painting or pottery is also a response to
new technical possibilities, or has its own impetus to develop (the kunstwollen of
Riegl), or changes in response to social and economic factors affecting patronage
and the conditions of the artist, as current thinking tends to emphasize, using less
rigid versions of Marxistart history.
Although style was well-established as a central component of art historical
analysis, seeing it as the over-riding factor in art history had fallen out of fashion
by World War II, as other ways of looking at art were developing, and a reaction
against the emphasis on style developing; for Svetlana Alpers, "the normal
invocation of style in art history is a depressing affair indeed". According to James
Elkins "In the later 20th century criticisms of style were aimed at further reducing
the Hegelian elements of the concept while retaining it in a form that could be more
easily controlled".

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 “A REFERENCE OF ACOUSTIC DESIGN ARCHITECTURAL SPACES”

1. Schools:

Proper Sound Management

In classrooms around the world,
innovations in technology and access to
learning resources are changing the way
we’re educating students and have driven
changes in classroom design. Space
configuration, lighting, and building
structure all play a role in shaping the
learning experience.
Proper sound management in the
classroom is a vital ingredient in the
success of teachers and students alike, and classroom acoustic issues cannot be
resolved without concentrated efforts on the parts of the architects and designers involved
in casting the vision for these important education spaces.

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), classrooms

with poor acoustics interfere directly with teaching and learning. Students with hearing
loss or learning disabilities have the greatest difficulties.
Even teachers are adversely affected and are 32 times more likely to suffer from voice
problems, just because of poor acoustics in the classroom.
To encourage beneficial acoustic design, let’s take a look at some of the ways schools
and organizations are improving learning and teaching environments when it comes to
sound quality.
Better Standards = Better Acoustic Design
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), along with the U.S. Access Board and
Acoustical Society of America, created the Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design
Requirements and Guidelines for Schools standard (or the ANSI S12.60-2002).
The standard developed by ANSI addresses the issues of both reverberation time and
background noise in classrooms, and their effect on speech intelligibility. We’ll break
down some of the numbers for you:
Maximum reverberation time:
 in an unoccupied classroom with a volume under 10,000 cubic feet is 0.6 seconds
 0.7 seconds for a classroom between 10,000 and 20,000 cubic feet
Maximum level of background noise:
 35 decibels (dBA)

These requirements apply to the design of brand new classrooms or learning spaces of
small-to-moderate size, and to renovated spaces.
When we look at the numbers, though, you’ll see that most classrooms have noise levels
that more than exceed the recommended maximum level. Average noise levels in most
classrooms can range between 66 decibels (dB) and 94dB, and one 2001 study found

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that average classroom noise levels were 72dB
— similar to standing next to a busy intersection.
(Source)
The ANSI standard is voluntary, unless otherwise
specified by a school system or other
regulations. Several schools across the US now
voluntarily comply with the ANSI standards for
noise in classroom settings. Connecticut and
Minnesota, as well as New York City public
schools have adopted the ANSI standards
across the board. Additionally, the New
Hampshire Department of Education, the Ohio School Facility Commission, and the New
Jersey School Construction Board have accepted the ANSI rule as their standard for
acoustic design in classrooms.
Many school districts, including those in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.
have developed their own directives for acoustic design standards.

Although these standards are currently voluntary, if you’re in the process of developing a
design for educational spaces, we recommend you consider these as the minimum
standard. How your project performs once it’s inhabited by students is just as important
as the end visual result.
Architects and Acoustics: Improving Classrooms
at the Design Phase
The State of Texas is pushing to improve
acoustics in classrooms, starting at the
architectural design phase.
In Texas, 64 architects focused on school design
participated in a research study via the ASHA to
explore how architects employ acoustic design in
schools. The goal of the study was to find a way
to include acoustic performance criteria for
classrooms, which is omitted from the
Architectural Barriers Act and is currently voluntary. From the survey of these architects,
several key elements of design were highlighted to help create the perfect learning
environment, including:
 knowledge of acoustical performance criteria for learning environments
 practices they, as architects, employed to address acoustics in their design
 attitudes around the earlier published version of the ANSI standard
The survey found, however, that only one-third of the architects were actually aware of
the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for hearing, despite the
negative effects they perceived in learning environments where acoustics didn’t meet
standards.
By educating architects and designers about these acoustic design standards, any
architect would be better prepared to design a better, more acoustically sound learning
environment.
Green Street Academy: Sustainably Built and Acoustically Sound

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Architects looking for ways to improve acoustic
design might also look to Baltimore, Maryland
for an excellent case study of creating proper
acoustic design in a historical building .
The Green Street Academy (GSA) is public
charter school in Baltimore, Maryland providing
an education for middle and high school
students. The GSA has been certified as a
LEED BD+C school since 2009, achieving
LEED Platinum status in 2016. This is the
highest possible ranking under the LEED
stature, and the school has plenty to show for it.

In addition to being highly efficient with water,

energy, and green materials, the school features acoustical performance in all classrooms
and learning areas. To create an acoustic design, the renovation of the nearly 100-year-
old building reused sustainable and recycled materials for the walls and flooring.

2. Offices/Conference Room:

Ever since the open office plan was introduced

as the so-called ‘best design option’ for the 21st-
century workplace, a major debate has been
circulating about whether or not this has actually
been more helpful or harmful to workers’
productivity levels.
Fair arguments have been presented on both
sides, and, now, architects are challenged with
trying to input acoustic solutions in both types of
environments. Though some people have claimed the open office plan is dead, architects
can’t fully rule out the need for knowing how to design them. That’s why it’s important to
understand what products are out there that can help you smartly plan and specify for
such a project. There are dozens of sound-related questions to ask about designing open
office plans, and a primer in the basics can give you a sound footing on which to begin.
Image and isometric diagram of the High Profile
Series™– Horizontally Curved Baffles by Hunter
Douglas Architectural Hunter Douglas
Architectural produces acoustic solutions for
commercial projects around the world. Having
produced linear metal ceilings for nearly 60
years, their philosophy on acoustic design
comes from this rich history of detailing expertly
crafted spaces. Over the years, they’ve
predicted rising architectural trends using other
innovative materials like felt, fabric, aluminum

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and wood. In the minds of a manufacturer like
Hunter Douglas, the architect should think
about the different tonalities that might
permeate throughout their proposed design
before beginning each project.
“The needs of the users must be integrated
into the design,” they said. “We ask whether
the objective is to reduce sound reverberation
within the space or to reduce transmitted noise
from room to room.”
Ecoustic Veneer by Unika Vaev
Once the design team answers this question,
it’s easier to determine which acoustic solution will best fit a particular project.
The Ceilings & Interior Systems Construction Association (CISCA) suggests that
addressing several different work modes within a singular design is the key to creating
comfortable sound within a massive space.
These three plans can help you decide which
work zones need to stay silent and which ones
should sound busy.
Open Plan: Designing for Focus
In areas where employees will be completing
assignments solo, noise distraction must be
nearly null. Architects should consider a ceiling
or wall solution with a high NRC (Noise
Reduction Coefficient) rating and a moderate
CAC (Ceiling Attenuation Class).

Open Plan: Designing for Collaboration

In areas where employees are encouraged to take on assignments and activities that
require verbal teamwork, voices should be able to be heard in a hushed tone and minimal
between teams. Architects should consider using products that help create a moderate-
to-high NRC and moderate CAC. Spot acoustics, input in specific locales for maximizing
sound absorption, should also be used for added control.

SoftGrid by Arktura

Closed Plan: Designing for Privacy

In areas where employees should be able to talk one-on-one with full range of voice,
ceilings should be equipped with a high CAC rating, which will block sound from adjoining
rooms. These spaces should also have a moderate NRC rating to fight against
reverberation.
Companies like Hunter Douglas often have trouble helping architects understand the
trade-off between clean aesthetics and acoustical performance. Many commercial
clients, chasing an industrial interior aesthetic, want to incorporate fully open plenums or
concrete ceilings. But these conditions often discourage private conversations and make

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loud noises sound even louder. If this type of
look is integral to a project’s overall design,
then the architect should consider using even
higher quality products on the ceilings and
walls — ones that don’t take away from the
edgy design but rather enhance it — to
mitigate the noise.
Soft Sound by Arktura
According to a 2014 study conducted by
Steelcase and Ipsos, workers lose an
average of 86 minutes per day due to noise
distractions. With major tech
companies like Facebook going all-in on the open office plan in their most recent
company constructions, it’s unlikely that this workplace design trend is going away
anytime soon. For now, architects have to figure out how
to ideally configure a large space to suit different types of work styles.
After all, in a way, work is synonymous with focusing, whether that’s in a group setting
or not. It’s the architect’s job to design for focus so that the client can get the most out of
both their work-space and their employees. It all starts with acoustics.

3. Auditoriums Theatre
Performance Type
The Essential Question: What is the
primary type of performance that
audiences will see here?
Every performance type has specific
geometries that support not only the
staged performance, but also the
audience’s experience. The first step to
designing an auditorium is to become
clear about what kinds of performances
will happen, and what the audience’s
experience of those performances should
be.
Theatre and Dance performances, for
example, are usually most successful in a
room that provides a sense of intimacy
and immediacy. With these performance
types, the audience is close and tight to
the stage so they can experience the immediacy of the performance. The overall physical
volume and acoustics of a drama room are controlled so that the room supports the
performance with little or no direct amplification. A dance theatre can use amplified or live
acoustic music, and may require more variable control of the acoustical environment.

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Conversely, live acoustical music performances are most successful in a room that has
volume and some reverberance, allowing music to reflect, bounce, and fill the room.
Audiences enjoy being close to this type of performance as well, but it is less important
to be close to the stage than it is to have a high-quality aural experience from anywhere
in the room.
For musical theatre, staged concerts, and opera, a combination of theatre and live music
performance criteria are considered with the balance between immediacy and acoustic
envelopment varying based on the art form.
An auditorium often supports more than one type of performance or might need to serve
an entirely new set of criteria as our definitions of performance evolve. Indeed, as we look
to contemporary practice, new definitions of performance like “immersive” and
“experiential” theatre are being developed with greater frequency and for larger
audiences. With this in mind a multi-use venue that possesses the flexibility to support a
variety of performance types can be ideal. Solutions for a multi-use venue might include
flexible seating arrangements and stage configurations, variable acoustics, or room
divisions that alter the volume of the room for different performance types.

Planning the Room

Once the performance type and general room function have been identified, the process
of conceptually developing the room can begin.
There are three basic components that must be considered for the room to function
properly: sightlines, acoustic requirements for room shaping and isolation, and
accessibility and egress. Sightlines ensure that every seat has an unobstructed line of
sight to the performance, studying the distance and viewing angles from the most extreme
seats both near and far. Again, the performance type informs the criteria for sightlines.
While it is critical to be able to see a dancer’s feet at the very edge of the stage, the
sightline criteria of an orchestra hall can be less rigid. The geometry of the room should
be designed to naturally enhance the acoustics of the room, while also taking variable
and enhanced acoustic materials like reflectors and applied wall materials into
consideration. Lastly, code requirements for egress and accessibility will determine the
required aisle and path widths throughout the assembly space, which will be based
primarily on the capacity of the auditorium.
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s use a proscenium theatre arrangement as an
example.

Considering Seat Distribution and Room Shape

Intimacy, the shared experience, and audience enjoyment are significantly impacted by
the relationship of seats not only to the stage, but also to each other. Seat Distribution
and Room Shape are concerned with the position and arrangement of seats within the
audience chamber.
In simple terms, Horizontal Seat Distribution studies the location of seats as related to the
stage in plan view. Seated rows are often curved or angled toward the stage so that
patrons are both facing forward in their seat and looking directly at the stage. That is, they
should not have to shift sideways or turn their heads to watch the performance. This

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direct-view orientation allows for the audience to be “in conversation” with the
performance, making it easier to achieve suspension of disbelief and invest themselves
in the performance.
The size and location of sections or groups of seats will have a subtler but equally
impactful influence on the audience experience. Generally, the greater the physical
distance from the stage, the greater potential for psychological distance from a
performance. However, the shape of aisles among seated sections and the delineation
of “lower” (closer to stage) and “upper” (further from stage) areas with cross-aisles and
egress paths can help a room feel inclusive, intimate, and connected not only to the
performance, but also to other audience members within a section of seats. With this goal
in mind an actual physical and perceived psychological distance from the stage can be
mitigated by enhancing the perceived collective experience of a particular section of
seating.
When it comes to auditorium design, there are an infinite number of ways to develop the
shape of an auditorium. It’s important to keep these ideas about seat distribution and
room shaping in mind to help guide design decisions as the nuts and bolts requirements
like row depth, aisle widths, sightlines, and acoustic shapes and materials become clear.

Developing the Plan: Horizontal Sightlines

Horizontal sightlines are a product of the extreme seats to the left and right of the
auditorium. As a rule of thumb, these seats should maintain a three-quarters view of the
stage at the back wall of the stage house. Any seats beyond this 3/4 range of view will
have a considerably diminished experience. Box seating at the sides of the auditorium, a
popular way to create a “VIP experience” but the most sightline challenged, can be
carefully studied and designed to accommodate this view as well.

Developing the Section: Vertical Sightlines

Vertical Sightlines require the examination of line of sight in section view from every
seated row of the auditorium to common targets at the stage edge and the proscenium
opening. Generally, a room should be designed for no less than an every-other-row
sightline; that is, the eyes of the patrons in one row should have an unobstructed view to
the stage over the head of the patrons seated two rows in front of them. (The obstruction
of the row directly in front is resolved through the seating layout using variable chair widths
to create a staggered seating pattern.) In this way, the slope of an orchestra level floor or
the height of risers in parterres, boxes, and balconies can be determined. It’s important
to note that this results in a parabolic sloping floor at an orchestra level, not a single line
slope as with accessible ramps. Similarly, this process yields a variable run of risers at
parterres and balconies. Though the variation in floor elevations may seem insignificant,
these “slight” dimensional shifts can make a significant cumulative difference of inches
and feet by the last row of the auditorium.
When studying the sightlines for parterre and balcony levels, the geometric requirements
dictated by sightlines must be understood alongside the steepness of the risers. Balcony
risers that are too steep, or rows that are not sufficiently enveloped by adjacent rows can

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feel dangerous, exposed, and unsettling to patrons. The addition of railings within rows
can solve the security and safety issue, but it can also psychologically distance patrons
from the performance.
It’s important to note that the sightline and room-shaping process is about balancing the
complex symbiotic relationships among the many variables that influence the room. It is
both a quantitative and a qualitative study to meet all the requirements of code and ensure
the best live experience for the audience.

Confirming the Vision

As the room begins to take shape, it’s important to periodically check back in with the
original intent. With the many factors that can influence the design of a performance
venue such as budget, project timeline, and environmental factors (to name a few), it’s
important to make sure that the room still does what it needs to do. Throughout each
phase of the design process, the integrity of the seating layouts and sightlines must be
rechecked and confirmed. By safeguarding the most fundamental aspect of the live
performance – the audience experience – good design can ensure that a performance
will continue to live far beyond the walls of the auditorium.

Auditorium Lighting
Expert contributor: Jason Osterman of Altman Lighting

The Goal and Approach

An auditorium lighting design needs to provide two fundamental components. The first
part is the illumination needs of the public who work in and enjoy the space. The more
difficult part is to convey the intended feeling and emotion that fits the program and the
attitude of the space. A successful design elicits an emotional human connection to the
space, and lighting plays a crucial role in accomplishing this goal.
Comparing a project’s budget and material resources with the project characteristics is
also a great method of achieving the goal. Characteristics in this instance being such
components as ceiling construction, timeframe, wiring infrastructure, maintenance
schedules, personnel and budget. If a venue is to be successful, the design and build
team must be realistic with regard to budgets, timescales, and materials. A low budget
does not necessarily mean a poor design as a clever design can maximize resources, but
as with most things, it is the detail work that makes the difference.

Aesthetics
Architectural Coordination
When considering auditorium design, good lighting design is always in step with a venue’s
interior design. They are symbiotic. New build venues have the luxury of developing these
designs in synchrony. However, that doesn’t mean that retrofits and refurbishments are
at a disadvantage; necessity breeds creativity. There is usually a good surface or detail

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that is worth highlighting. Fundamental
concepts in architectural accent lighting
like shadow gaps, bounce lighting and
grazing are great tools to consider.
These can almost always be enhanced
by using color changing fixtures.
Opportunities for these lighting tools
can be limited in refurbishment projects
due to wiring considerations, but new
technology such as LED line voltage
dimming is helping solve these
problems. A good lighting consultant or
contractor will always understand the
architectural goal of a venue and work
to complement it using the latest tools
available.

Lighting Quality: Beam Control, Color Rendering, Dimming and Power

The lighting scheme of a space needs to incorporate fixtures which will provide suitable
color rendering (most commonly measured in CRI: color rendering index). In areas which
are meant to be used for reading (of playbills for example) an index number of 90 or
greater should be considered.
Flexibility and control of the light beam should be a consideration so that the fixture layout
can be tailored to the details of the architectural design. Fixtures which have on-site
adjustable beam sizes and attachments help with glare and are a great solution when
tailoring a design.
When the performance or presentation starts, dimming of the houselights can focus the
audience and help make the experience feel special. In recent years, research and
development into LED dimming has provided the industry with top quality dimming that
was not available 3-4 years ago. “Theatrical quality dimming” is a phrase that gets written
a lot in the lighting industry, but unfortunately, there is no robust index or comparable
measure to gauge this in a specification. A demonstration of a few fixtures in consideration
will always be beneficial to a project. Seeing is believing.
The quality of light chosen should be with due regard to the human and broadcast
requirements of a space. For example, low speed flickering of a light source (common
with low quality LED and discharge sources) can greatly impact the quality of the light not
only for people in the space, but equally as important, for camera. Even modern HD
cameras are much more sensitive to flicker and phasing than the human eye. The results
of poor power supplies can render an auditorium completely unfit for broadcast and video
camera use.

Requirements
Code compliance

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Integrating minimum illumination
standards and an emergency
lighting scheme is necessary and
should be an integrated
component of the design. It’s
possible to have a single fixture
provide all these requirements if
good coordination exists between
the architectural lighting designer
and the rest of the team.
Standards vary between locales so
getting a consultant or contractor
who understands these
requirements is crucial. It is worth
noting though that sometimes a totally separate system is more preferable. This can often
be the case with refurbishments and retro-fits as the emergency lighting may be adequate
and not intrusive to the design.
Maintenance
The selection of lighting fixtures should be chosen with a realistic maintenance schedule
in mind. Access to the fixtures can be difficult if they are placed in hard to reach areas.
As safety standards increase, some venues are finding that older lighting schemes are
no longer safe to maintain. Reasonable placement and access should be integrated into
the design process along with the selection of long-life sources.

The Components

Downlight and General Illumination

Downlight for general illumination is not only necessary for public safety, wayfinding and
reading, it serves a crucial role in creating excitement and eliciting emotion. Top quality
dimming control is fundamental to achieve this effect through even fades. High resolution
dimming using DMX control and good quality electronics in lighting fixtures can achieve
this as they almost eliminate the “steps” that can be seen in lower quality power supplies
and alternative signal protocols.

Accent Lighting
Getting a quality, even illumination in the main areas of a venue is a priority, but so too is
accent lighting. Depending on the goal and resources available, this component of a
lighting scheme can vary greatly. And even on a shoe-string budget, a few nice touches
can go a long way to make an auditorium more inviting. For example, flood uplighters in
a venue with an architecturally interesting ceiling will make the venue infinitely more
inviting, and dimmable units can be used during performances.
Control and Systems Integration

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Flexibility is the key when designing the control system. Normally, a venue will have a
programmable lighting control console to operate the performance lighting, and then a
separate architectural control system. Typically, it is best for the performance lighting
system to control the auditorium lighting as it needs to be controlled in a comparable way
to ensure the smooth transition from “pre-show” to performance. This system needs to be
both powerful (to operate performance lighting in an effective way) and flexible (to enable
a “lights on” state for a janitor or director to operate).
Complications can arise when the venue lighting is expected to be controlled from both
systems. The integration of the two systems can be complex, both in terms of programing
and physical wiring. However, a competent lighting consultant or contractor should be
able to help with simplifying the design and instructing the build process.

In Conclusion
The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is true for auditorium lighting, but equally
important is the preparation and design work that goes into a great lighting design.
Choosing the right fixtures and enlisting the help of professionals will always pay for itself
many times over, and with the right planning and equipment, an auditorium lighting
scheme can last for decades.

Stage Design
Expert contributor: Staging Concepts

Stage Design Basics

The following is useful to consider for your auditorium design:
Delivery access, wide internal passage ways/ doorways and storage space are the most
critical auditorium features that contribute to running a smooth installation and daily
operation. Having outside delivery access for trucks speeds up the loading and unloading
process, features like a truck height dock and adequate parking lot space for large
delivery trucks are helpful. Wide internal passageways and doorways allow equipment to
be moved quickly and efficiently in a space, especially with rolling carts. Lastly, having
adequate storage space is helpful to organize and readily access unused equipment,
contributing to increased speed when swapping between stage or seating configurations.
The beauty of portable staging is that it can be manipulated and is a versatile enough
product that it can work well in any auditorium design. The critical part is creating enough
storage space for the equipment. Often facility managers love the product but are
frustrated when they realize they do not have a space for it when the system is not in the
play position.

Considerations for the Project Coordinator

A project coordinator must always consider the spatial constraints of the auditorium and
how the end-user will be using the product on a day-to-day basis. Platforms are robust

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products since they are designed with safety in mind first and foremost, but are often used
in tight or confined spaces. This can make setup and tear down physically demanding.
The project coordinator can help these procedures and the end-user, by changing the
system based on his or her understanding of the entire environment the system is setup
in.

Building Code Basics & Detail Considerations

Stages and risers are engineering and designed to building codes. Chapter 16 of
International Building Code 2015 sets forth the structural design criteria. Some of the
topics covered for stages and risers are floor live load, deflection, serviceability, and
strength. Stage floors are subject to a minimum uniformly distributed live load of 150
pounds per square foot. Risers need to be engineered using a minimum of 100 pounds
per square foot of uniformly distributed live load.

 The finishes of the platforms and guardrail must meet the aesthetics of the space.
Think through the details of the design of guardrails, the platform surfaces and
closure panel materials.
 The acoustics of the space should be considered. Platforms can be designed with
acoustical damping materials to minimize footfall noise.
 Storage of the space should be considered. A full service staging equipment
company can help determine the proper storage options for your space, such as
carts to facilitate easy portability, doorway widths in your space and amount of
space needed for portable platforms when they are not in use.
 Equipment set up instructions and training for staff on how the risers are assembled
should be incorporated into your plan.

If you are mounting fixed seating onto platforms, you should coordinate this between the
seating provider and the platform provider to ensure that fixed seating attachments are
incorporated into the platform design. Portable chairs are easier to manage, but you may
want to consider chair stops into the seating riser system.
Aisle lighting and power sources are important to consider into the design of the seating
riser system. Seating risers that are flexible and can be used in multiple configurations
can make your space more usable, but also require extra planning up front, so staging
platforms and equipment can be reused for various set ups and efficiently deployed.

Fixed Seating
Expert contributor: Theatre Solutions Inc.

Fixed Seating Considerations.

If you’re looking for extensive information on seating layouts, example layouts you can
download, and tons more, we highly read this article on auditorium seating
layouts recommend you . It’s been very popular and gives a ton of detail, diving deep into

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fixed seating basics. Here, we’re going to give you just a summary of that information, so
read on.

Seating Basics
There’s two basic types of seating arrangements you can consider for your
auditorium: “multiple-aisle” or “continental.” Generally speaking, a continental agreement
will allow more seating in your space. Click here to view more details and to see images.
For early stage planning, you can use an average of 7.5 sq ft. per person.
When it comes to seating widths, the most common chair widths are 20 inches, 21 inches,
and 22 inches. That being said, available seat widths can range anywhere from 18 inches
to 24 inches. You’ll also want to consider the row spacing. An average minimum
dimension might be 30″, but if you space the rows at 36″ (for example) the audience’s
comfort level will increase dramatically.
We would definitely advise you to take a look at various safety and building codes such
as:

 Life Safety Code 101 – National Fire Prevention Agency

 BOCA (Building Officials and Code)
 Administrators – Basic Building Code
 Southern Standard Building Code
 Uniform Building Code
 Or governing State and Local building codes
 And more…

Finally, you’ll want to make sure you perform a sightline analysis to ensure that the
audience members can see everything they want to (and are supposed to) see.

For free layouts, diagrams, and much more detail…

Be sure to read our full article on seating layouts and seat spacing. We took a whole
article to better lay out each of these principals and give better visuals.

Acoustics
Expert contributor: Aercoustics

Auditorium Acoustics 101

A huge part of the audience’s experience in your auditorium design will be the acoustics.
The ideal acoustic environment in an auditorium is one where the visual and auditory
experiences are both captivating, intimate, and efficient. The auditory experience is
uniquely shaped by the acoustics of each room. This brief overview of natural acoustics
is aimed at giving designers some basic fundamentals on how the room acoustics of a

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space are effected by design choices that an architect would make. We will start off with
a brief description of how our ear works in the context of listening.

How the ear works.

The human ear has developed over the evolution of humans into an organ capable of
receiving the short term fluctuations of air pressure around us and extracting vast
amounts of information from them. These short term air pressure fluctuations are
commonly called sound waves. Through the use of two ears at a known horizontal
distance apart, our brains figure out remarkably detailed information about sounds that
we hear such as speech and musical content, source location, sound characteristics,
relative loudness etc. When in an auditorium, sound arrives at the listener both directly
from the sound source, and through reflections from the ceiling, walls, and the floor, and
their combinations.
When listening in an auditorium, our brains try to make sense of the cacophony of sound
waves arriving at the ears. Here, it is useful to think of the concept of the flicker fusion
threshold. This concept is very familiar to anyone who has seen a movie or an animation:
If still images are shown to the eye at a very slow rate, the brain can distinguish each
image as a still image. But as the rate of images being shown increases to the rate of
flicker fusion threshold, the brain is then able to fuse the images together, and perceive
movement, much like Eadweard Muybridge’s early The Horse in Motion clip in 1878
demonstrated.
Similarly, when the ear is presented with reflections of a sound that arrive much later
than the direct sound, the brain interprets those as echoes, and is able to separate them
from the original sound. This is often observed during old recordings of outdoor speeches
where there is a strong but very late reflection/echo, or sometimes during telephone
conversations where there is an echo. If the arrival of the reflected sound gets closer to
the direct sound, it can sometimes be even worse: the reflected sound arriving from one
consonant in the speech seems to interfere directly with the following consonant in a
word, making the whole speech sound ‘blurry’ and unintelligible. Once the reflections
arrive soon enough after the direct sound to pass the threshold of 50 milliseconds, the
brain is then able to fuse the reflected energy with the direct sound and use it to enhance
the intelligibility of the speech being heard.

Acoustic design principals.

The main driver behind acoustic design in auditoriums comes down to the phenomenon
above: Strive to keep and enhance ‘early’ reflections to arrive at the listener no more than
50 milliseconds after the direct sound; and dampen and reduce ‘late’ reflections that
would arrive at the listener more than 50ms after the direct sound. At a given listener
location, if there is more early acoustic energy than late, speech will be intelligible. To that
end, surfaces should be provided and shaped to provide such early reflections, and
reflection paths that provide late acoustic energy should be made acoustically absorptive.
This leads to certain rules of thumb:

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  Shoebox-shaped rooms provide for strong early lateral reflections (even more
important for music, but quite helpful for speech as well)
 Reflections down from a ceiling can often provide early reflections, and therefore
should be made acoustically hard (reflective)
 The back walls of an auditorium have a risk of providing late reflections – both to
the audience and to the stage: Providing acoustic absorption at such locations is
usually helpful. This could be in the form of fabric panels, slatted wood finish,
acoustic plaster or even acoustic drywall.
 The audience seats and the audience themselves are usually the biggest acoustic
absorption in the room. The use of the right amount of acoustic absorption in the
seats can serve as a great way to achieve the acoustic goals of the space.

There are, however, many other aspects of the auditorium acoustics that would require
analysis, and any space where the acoustics are critical should be analysed in more detail
for things like: the overall Reverberation time (RT60), the Distinctness (D50), the Acoustic
Strength (G) of the space, and the background noise from building services or exterior
activities. Getting an acoustic consultant to evaluate these aspects and provide suitable
solutions that fit within the architectural expression is key to arriving at a cohesive design
outcome. The best spaces are the ones where the acoustic elements fit seamlessly into
the design and the space doesn’t scream out “Acoustician was here”.

4. Cinema/Movie Houses:
Many people have had the experience of sitting in the back of a large auditorium and
being able to hear what is spoken on stage even when there is little, if any, sound
amplification. Others have been in much smaller spaces, seated much closer to a
speaker or performer, and yet have been unable to hear what is going on up front.
Why this difference? The answer lies in the acoustics of each space.
Acoustics is a science that has to do with measuring the transmission of sound waves.
Although the discipline covers waves in solids, liquids, and gases, most people are
likely familiar with acoustics through the application of the science to architecture. A
theater or other building with good acoustics allows sound to travel naturally for long
distances, enabling people to hear music, a play, or something else even if they are
sitting far away from the stage. On the other hand, buildings with poor acoustics do
not allow the sound to travel very well from one side of the space to another. No matter
how loud a performance or other event happens to be, people who are attending it will
have trouble hearing it if the acoustics are bad. A theater or other building with good
acoustics allows sound to travel naturally for long distances, enabling people to hear
music, a play, or something else even if they are sitting far away from the stage. On
the other hand, buildings with poor acoustics do not allow the sound to travel very well
from one side of the space to another. No matter how loud a performance or other
event happens to be, people who are attending it will have trouble hearing it if the
acoustics are bad.

The field of acoustics is actually one subset of the larger discipline of physics. Whether
people are enjoying a performance from the comfort of a well-designed and enclosed

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auditorium or they are sitting in an outdoor theater, their ability to hear what is going
on will only be as good as the quality of the architectural acoustics and the ability to
transmit sound waves in the building or structure. Acoustics takes into account the
generation, propagation, reception, and effects of sound waves in a particular space,
and architects and builders rely on acousticians to either reduce the distance that
sound will travel or increase it. In a library, for example, an acoustician’s goal is to
minimize the transmission of sound waves so that people can study in comfort and
not get distracted. The goal is exactly the opposite in rooms that must accommodate
large crowds that are viewing a performance or lecture.

Perhaps the best way to understand acoustics in action is to consider the theaters of
ancient Greece. Thousands of years ago, there was no such thing as electronic sound
amplification, so builders had to figure out a way to build theater structures that would
allow the sound from a performance to extend all the way to the back of the Greek
amphitheaters where it was conducted. They did this by employing stepped seating
arrangements like those that are still used today for stadium seating at movie theaters
and other venues. The first row of seats was on the same level as the stage, the
second row a little higher, the third row a little higher than the second row, and so on,
all the way to the back of the theater.

Why was such stepped seating so good for theater acoustics in ancient Greece? The
answer lies in the way that sound waves bounce off of stepped or corrugated surfaces.
In such structures, low-frequency sounds are minimized.

Thus, background noise such as the breeze blowing was minimized and the sound
waves coming from the front of the theater during a performance could be heard from
the comfort of all of the rows of the theater’s seating.

Sound waves are either absorbed by the material that they strike or are reflected out,
bouncing off of a material. The key to sound acoustics is striking a balance between
construction material and layout that will allow sound waves to be absorbed or
reflected in an optimum way for the purposes of the building that is being designed.
The key is to select materials and designs that screen out the wave frequencies that
are not desired in a space while amplifying those that the space is designed for.

Thus, recording studios are well-insulated with sound-dampening panels so that

outside noise cannot get in while recording is happening. A theater may lack such
things in order to help everyone in the building hear a performance, but if the theater
is one of many in a structure, sound-reduction materials may be integrated into the
design to keep the sound traveling well in the auditorium without letting sound escape
through its walls.

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 5. Entertainment Rooms:

The need for exceptional acoustics is

fundamental to the success of
entertainment and performance spaces.
Instruments – and voices – must be clear
and authentic from every direction, with
sound absorption and reflection
precisely engineered to ensure the
optimal acoustic experience for the
audience.

This puts great demands on the

absorbing and reflecting materials
used in the room – and explains why
the acoustic surfaces used in
entertainment and performance
spaces are often made from
gypsum. With gypsum acoustic
materials, absorption and reflection
is combined in the same material.
Versatile and easy to use, gypsum
is ideal for ensuring that curved,
sharp or layered constructions
provide the right acoustic effect,
from maximising sound diffusion in
large halls to minimising echoes in
small rooms.

Sound Movement Architectural acoustics is the process of managing how both airborne
and impact sound is transmitted – and controlled – within a building design. While virtually
every material within a room – from furniture to floor coverings to computer screens –
affects sound levels to one degree or another, wall partitions, ceiling systems and
floor/ceiling assemblies are the primary elements that designers use to control sound.
Sound moves through building spaces in a variety of ways.
Most commonly, it is transmitted through air. But wall partitions, ceilings and floor/ceiling
assemblies can also transmit both airborne sound, such as human voices and ringing
telephones, and impact sound, such as footsteps on a floor. Sound waves actually travel
through many physical objects faster and with less loss of energy than they travel through
air. Sound waves travel at a rate of 1,128 feet per second through air (at 70 degrees F);
11,700 feet per second through wood; and 18,000 feet per second through steel. Sound
reflection occurs when sound waves bounce off smooth, hard wall, ceiling and floor
surfaces.
Concave surfaces tend to concentrate or focus reflected sound in one area.

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Convex surfaces do just the opposite; they tend to disperse sound in multiple directions.
Sound reverberation is the persistence of sound reflection after the source of the sound
has ceased.
Reverberation can have both a positive and negative effect in architectural design. For
example, specifying highly reflective ceiling panels directly above the stage area in an
auditorium will help direct sound toward specific seating areas, thus enhancing the room’s
acoustical performance. However, that same reflective performance will become a
negative factor if highly reflective wall and ceiling materials are installed in the rear of the
auditorium. That’s because the sound reflections from the rear of the room take too long
to reach the audience, resulting in a distracting echo effect.
Sound can also diffract, or bend and flow around an object or through a small space or
opening. This gives sound waves the ability to “squeeze” through very small openings
with little loss of energy. The small openings under and around doors, floor tracks,
electrical boxes and conduit and HVAC ducting are typical sources of sound diffraction.
These are commonly referred to as “flanking” or “leaking” paths. They can be controlled
by the proper application of acoustical sealant.

SCHOOL
 CHARACTERISTICS

 PARAMETERS

 BUILDING FUNCTION/SPACE:
Schools get built for many reasons.
Accepting on face value that we build
schools to provide buildings for schooling
quickly becomes circular and banal. One
way we can break that circle is to look at the
reasons governments give for building
schools. That helps because it makes
explicit something of what schools are
expected to do.

It isn’t perfect – governments claim many things – but it usefully illustrates the great range
of motivations for buildings schools. As will become clear, it also shows how enmeshed
schools are in our lives – their role in the economy, in shaping urban planning, as means
of gaining political support, in reforming education, in attempting improvements to social
justice and so forth.

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Education Reform

Political Opportunities and History-Building. These tend to be less explicit since it is in

governments’ interests to emphasise social, educational, cultural etc reasons for building
schools and elide self-interest.

Social / Aesthetic Justice

Rome, Italy: A competition held over 2004/5 for three new schools in Rome was prefaced
by the (then) Mayor, Walter Veltroni, arguing for schools as a means to bring ‘great
architecture’ (cited in Capanna, 2005:73) to the neglected suburbs in order ‘overturn
hierarchies that might correspond to our idea of a more balanced, cohesive, open and
calm city’ (ibid:77).

To Produce Economic Growth / Mitigate Economic Shocks

Australia: The Building the Education Revolution programme launched quickly in 2009
during the global financial crisis as part of the government’s $AUS42 billion Nation
Building and Jobs Plan, where the ‘overriding goal … was to stimulate aggregate demand
by employing workers in the sagging construction sector’ (Parker and Cahill, 2017:261).
(The Parker and Cahill paper is excellent by the way, exemplary political analysis of public
policy and financing.)

Community-building / Infrastructure-building / Urban & Rural Planning

England: One of the aims of BSF was to ‘reposition schools at the heart of communities’
(Department for Children, Schools and Families et al., 2008:5).

Florence, Italy: In 2017, proposals envisaged building schools as a ‘tool of redevelopment

for the urban periphery’ (Città Metropolitana di Firenze, 2017:3). Schools are seen as a
social and economic planning instrument to help knit space together.

Cambridgeshire, England / Istres, France: I mention these two just to provide a little
historical context. The Cambridgeshire Village Colleges built in the 1930s are definitely
worth looking at – in part they were a way to re-value rural areas (with respect to urban
ones) and took the community rather than a particular age group of young people to be
the social/demographic/educational focus and the village college as the means to house
and celebrate that. This article in the Guardian provides a good and quick overview on
their educational and architectural visions. Forty years later, the Centre Éducatif et
Culturel “Les Heures Claires” near Marseille recalled many of the core concepts of the
village colleges e.g. a broad education in the heart of the community, for all ages – an
educational village. Note also how the design prefigured what are commonly cited as
uniquely 21st century concerns: in the words of the architects, this would be “an open
school”, “necessary in a society affected by rapid change” which was “the result of great
complexity” cited in Blain and Borruey, 2007:104.

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 The above list is just a beginning and I will add to it over time. However, even these few
statements raise some points that are worth a little more discussion. (The following are
notes but I will try at a later date to write these up more formally.)

– How the purposes of schools and schooling are studied is complex and necessarily
spills over into many disciplines: planning; social policy; economics; art; and of course,
architecture and education. It also changes over time in that the purpose(s) of building a
school is likely to be different from the purpose(s) of a school once built. However, see
De Carlo, below – they are clearly related.

– The question “Why do schools get built?” is important in and of itself. However, it is
often eclipsed by “Why do schools get built in the way that they do?” which is also
interesting but a different question that perhaps helps us to forget what schooling is for.
Schooling just is: naturalised and so taken for granted. This is why I keep returning to the
architect Giancarlo De Carlo’s provocative line of thinking: “We cannot deal with problems
of ‘how to’ [build] without first posing the problems of ‘why’. If we were to begin discussing
immediately the best way to build school buildings for contemporary society without first
clarifying the reasons for which contemporary society needs school buildings, we would
run the risk of taking for granted definitions and judgements which may not make sense
anymore and our speculations would turn out to be sandcastles” (1969:12).

– Some purposes for building schools will be claimed explicitly but might be more for
public show than the existential core of school-building. Conversely, some reasons for
building schools may never be claimed since they are unpalatable – for example, schools
keep young people busy and safe in the hands of professionals allowing their parents and
carers to be active in the economy: one function of schooling is publicly-funded “baby-
sitting”. If that seems far-fetched, take a look at this article illustrating Swiss debate on
the issue.

– One way to dig into this is to make a distinction between the explicit purposes of building
schools and the functions that school buildings serve, regardless of the intentions
advertised. Purposes illustrate intent and are more likely to belong to and be articulated
explicitly by a group of (usually powerful) people [for Ackerman and other architects’ take
on this relation to schools, see this post]; functions are often less visible, less owned and
more embedded in existing histories. Purposes can be more readily ahistorical as when
people seek self-consciously innovative solutions that reject bodies of experience;
functions can’t ignore history so easily because they’re embedded, they become
sedimented over time, meshed with and adapted to other functions and the daily life of
school. Purposes are an aspirational, directing, yet-to-be-realised sub-category of
function. Purposes are a target ideally reached in a future time; functions are the current
direction of travel often regardless of destination. Purposes are always normative;
functions can be descriptive, just what happens. I suggest that the more innovative school
architecture attempts to be, the more it is likely to focus on a school’s explicit, aspirational
purpose and play down the less visible, more taken for granted functions which the school
will nevertheless have to carry out. This is potentially dangerous since if consideration of
functions is bypassed, the building will not be able to provide for those needs. This brings

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us back to the necessity of understanding clearly why we are building schools and that
can only be done thoroughly and fairly through “intense and continual public dialogue
about the ends and means of schooling” as Tyack and Tobin advocate (see below). Daniel
Little writes interestingly in a post about functions, purposes and institutional change:
“Purposes have to do with the intentions of the creators or reformers of a thing; and
functions have to do with the relationship between the thing’s effects and the broader
needs of the system within which it sits”. I think this is a helpful adaptation* to Robert K.
Merton’s now old but so helpful writing on “Manifest and Latent Functions” in his 1968
book. This podcast with Meira Levinson about the Aims of Education on the Philosophy
Bites site is very good, pointing up the need to clarify ‘for whom?’ when we discuss what
schools are for. All of this takes us back to De Carlo’s Why we’re building schools and so
also who that “We” is i.e. which dimension of school buildings serves who, and how might
we be able to talk about building schools with purposes of serving more than lots of
constituencies of interests (which may be important) and of articulating, building, a
common cause.

– As a useful counterpoint to what I’ve written so far, Judith Suissa draws on anarchist
theory to offer a convincing argument against the tendency of many working in the
philosophy of education philosophy to elaborate the aims and so desirable outcomes of
an educational project. For Suissa, a useful and important view of social change is
achieved not “by working out in advance which human qualities are necessary to bring
about and … nurturing them through education but by imagining and enacting this social
world here and now in our social relationships” (2014:149). Her chapter in the edited
collection on the philosophy of education is well-worth reading, giving both a powerful
critique of the positions we normally hear about and many constructive proposals for
thinking and acting differently.

– And yet, I suggest the purpose-function distinction may also be useful to think about the
evaluation of schools – whether educationally or architecturally through exercises such
as Post Occupancy Evaluation. If neither the functions nor the purposes of schools can
be reduced to learning, then which and whose values/purposes/functions should
evaluation seek to produce information about?

– Bearing in mind what Giancarlo De Carlo, cited above, argues (the need to ask –
preferably via public discussion – what schools are for and what, in building new ones,
we are seeking to achieve) we are not doing particularly well at making explicit the implicit
work of schooling. There is, perhaps, too much work on the explicit – the aspirational
school / school design of the 21st century and so forth when we need to think more
anthropologically about schooling and school architecture. In fact, the anthropologist
might be useful here. In writing about institutions, Mary Douglas makes a number of
helpful points, all from 1986, page 92:

1. an institution** cannot have purposes … Only individuals can intend, plan

consciously, and contrive oblique strategies***

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 2. Institutions systematically direct individual memory and channel our perceptions into
forms compatible with the relations they authorize. They fix processes that are
essentially dynamic, they hide their influence…
3. …they [institutions] endow themselves with rightness…
4. For us, the hope of intellectual independence is to resist, and the necessary first step
in resistance is to discover how the institutional grip is laid upon our mind.

For similar reasons, buildings and their architecture cannot have purposes either. Rather,
groups of people may have individual and collective purposes, and architecture is simply
another tool available to help them achieve those purposes. This gets us past the “space
is an agent of change” and restores agency to people – always limited and to some extent
enabled, of course, by “how the institutional grip is laid upon our mind”.

It also brings us closer to seeing how stability and change are made possible and why,
therefore, “innovation” is so interesting and so problematic: “Humans build organizations
and can change them. Cultural constructions of schooling have changed over time and
can change again. To do this deliberately would require intense and continual public
dialogue about the ends and means of schooling, including re-examination of cultural
assumptions about what a “real school” is and what sort of improved schooling could
realize new aspirations.

 OCCUPANTS ACTIVITY: The daily time-spent in different environments is an

important factor in calculation of personal exposure to air pollutants. Despite this
importance, the amount of research done on this topic is rather limited especially
in North Europe where the climate is rather cold. In this study Therefore, the
differences occur individually and can be explained by these factors. For example,
subjects spent more time at home on weekends than workdays because obviously
the majority of our subjects did not have work on weekends. The time-spent at
kindergarten/school/work increased with age until retirement. Females spent more
time at home than males. After all, the activity pattern found in this study is rather
similar to those previously reported in Germany and North America.

 LOCATION:
The geography of where schools are located and the impact of so-called
education deserts on students is the topic. “If higher education is to better serve
students and expand educational opportunities,” the paper asserts, “then
stakeholders must prioritize the importance of place and understand how it
shapes college options.”

 STYLE: PUBLIC & PRIVATE SCHOOLS

 CHARACTERISTICS: How schools are designed and what students learn–and

why–must be reviewed, scrutinized, and refined as closely and with as much
enthusiasm as we do the gas mileage of our cars, the downloads speeds of our
phones and tablets, or the operating systems of our watches. Most modern
academic standards take a body-of-knowledge approach to education. This, to
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 me, seems to be a dated approach to learning that continues to hamper our
attempts to innovate.

 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: School buildings are an integral part in the formal

education of the student. They are to be designed and constructed in such a way
that will enhance the potential of each student and boost the learning process.
There are many considerations when designing and building a school.

 BUILDING APPEARANCE: An effective school facility is responsive to the

changing programs of educational delivery, and at a minimum should provide a
physical environment that is comfortable, safe, secure, accessible, well
illuminated, well ventilated, and aesthetically pleasing. The school facility
consists of not only the physical structure and the variety of building systems,
such as mechanical, plumbing, electrical and power, telecommunications,
security, and fire suppression systems.

 VENTILATION & LIGHTING:

 Windows should be placed at about three and a half to four feet from the floor of
the room. The total area covered by windows should be one-sixth to one-quarter
of the area of the floor. Lighting in a room is said to be appropriate if a student
can read ordinary type at a distance of one foot from the eye in every part of the
room.

 Light (room the right side casts some shadow, light from behind throws shadow
on the whole work while light coming from front side is dazzling. Dazzling and
glare-light should be avoided. The desks should be arranged in such a way that
full advantage of light coming from the left side can be reaped.

 EQUIPMENTS: The terms equipment and infrastructure in this chapter refer to

computer hardware and associated communications equipment and cabling, as
well as other technology-related equipment regularly used in schools. Indicators
address the availability, capabilities, and connectivity of computer equipment and
infrastructures.

 Computer equipment refers to both computers and associated peripheral

equipment

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 OFFICES/CONFERENCE ROOM

 CHARACTERISTICS

 PARAMETERS

 BUILDING FUNCTION/SPACE:
A clear understanding of the functional and
physical requirements of a project is essential to
ensuring its success. A client's / owner's intent to
develop a project is derived from a need, a
purpose or mission, and a desired result. When
the design of a facility satisfies the emotional, cognitive, and cultural needs of the people
who use it and the technical requisites of the programs it houses, the project is functionally
successful. Program and functionality are also characterized by building type. A building
that functions as it is intended is the underpinning of a quality "whole" building. The
qualities of such a building may not even be noticed or recognized, but a poorly
functioning building can be costly to correct, if the opportunity to correct ever becomes
available. When designs fall short of this goal, the cost can be modest to extreme, but the
failures are generally noted more significantly than the expected successes.
Information in these Functional pages must be considered together with other design
objectives and within a total project context in order to achieve quality, high-performance
buildings.

objectives: sustainability, accessibility, safety, aesthetics, cost

effectiveness, productivity, and historic preservation.
Addressing these design objectives while achieving
energy savings, and improving environmental quality
is paramount in designing the "whole"
building. Facility Performance Evaluations have
shown that early programming and design decisions
have significant impact on the functional quality, and
long-term efficiency and effectiveness of buildings,
initially and over their life cycle, such as:

1. Adaptability: decisions at the inception of

project design to incorporate elements and
concepts that will assist with future
adaptations to a building can facilitate.
a. Building to readily facilitate horizontal
and vertical expansion
b. Analyzing the building structural concept, i.e. structural grid, dimensions,
and floor-to-floor heights that allow for flexibility in internal layouts

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2. Functional Quality: decisions to incorporate the use of hard walls for offices and
workspaces vs. flexible 'furniture' systems have a significant impact on functionality
of a building.

 OCCUPANTS ACTIVITY: The energy and building research community

acknowledges the importance of including occupants' wellbeing in the evaluation
of building energy performance. Particularly in office buildings, occupants'
comfort assessment is not yet a common practice, partially due to the
shortcomings of the comfort assessment activities. Contextual factors such as
the organizational culture, occupants' personality traits and emotional states, and
the building and research measurement infrastructures do interact with
occupants' motivation to report and influence their actual reporting behaviour. By
means of an in situ mixed method approach combining real-world research and
user-centric methods, this study investigates the impact of a reporting-based
comfort assessment. Two buildings, representing different organizational
cultures, were selected to study the influence of reporting behaviour on comfort
assessment. The buildings were equipped with innovative indoor climate
monitoring and in situ comfort reporting infrastructure and 2-week field studies
were conducted in both buildings. By discussing results from these studies, this
paper contributes to the development of building research methodologies of
indoor climate and comfort assessment by providing practical experience in
embedding comfort reporting behaviour in the analysis of comfort assessment. A
contextual typology of reporting behaviour is introduced and its implications
regarding the reliability and validity of comfort reporting techniques are
discussed.

 LOCATION: It has a direct impact on your finances and a significant influence on

your employees’ morale and productivity. This is especially true for startup
companies who, more often than not, have limited cash and need to retain their
best talent.

The perfect office doesn’t mean the most expensive or state-of-the-art. It simply
means the space is within your budget and is equipped with the facilities you
need to operate efficiently.

 STYLE: CLASSIC, MODERN & HIGH-TECH OFFICES

 CHARACTERISTICS: As size of the office is either small or large, it becomes

necessary to organize the works or activities in order to achieve the specified
objective effectively with minimum cost. Hence, the entire activities of the
concern should be divided into many operations or functions (called
departments). A proper arrangement of an organization along with office

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 appliances will facilitate a speedy performance of office work. In this way, office
organization is based on the organized routine and procedures and continuous
flow of work.

 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: Building offices is a significant long term

investment. As investors, developers, and design teams maximize usable space
and obtain globally recognized green building accreditations to attract clients,
contractors will have to make your office building available quickly on the market
in order to ensure the profitability of your investment. LafargeHolcim can help
you. We have a wide portfolio of innovative cement, aggregate, and concrete
solutions as well as building systems and services for quicker jobsites, state-of-
the-art environmental and thermal performance, and maximized usable space in
your mid- and high-rise office buildings.

 BUILDING APPEARANCE: A good office design tends to encourage a culture of

efficiency and precision while working. Working in an environment that is neat
has the psychological effect of inducing employees to be more careful with their
work and they will always feel encouraged to offer their best. This translates to
better quality and fewer client returns or complaints. A business that invests in
providing employees with a good working environment reaps from good product
design and development, which is eventually reflected in sales and customer
satisfaction.

 VENTILATION & LIGHTING: Some participants experienced typical constant

lighting and ventilation conditions, whereas others were given personal
control over the dimming of lighting in their workstation and over the flow
rate of air from a ceiling-based nozzle in their workstations.

 EQUIPMENTS:

 Office equipment are the asset purchased by the organization, which are used
for while working for the company. The equipment here means, tables , chairs ,
computers, etc.

 Office supplies are the kind of things which are utilized on a regular basis like
stationary, simple office accessories, etc.

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 AUDITORIUMS, THEATRE
 CHARACTERISTICS

 PARAMETERS

 BUILDING FUNCTION/SPACE:
The audience in a modern theatre are
usually separated from the performers by
the proscenium arch, although other types of
stageare common.
The price charged for seats in each part of
the auditorium (known in the industry as
the house) usually varies according to the
quality of the view of the stage. The seating
areas can include some or all of the following:

Stalls, orchestra or arena: the lower flat area,

usually below or at the same level as the stage.

Balconies or galleries: one or more raised seating platforms towards the rear of the
auditorium. In larger theatres, multiple levels are stacked vertically above or behind the
stalls. The first level is usually called the dress circle or grand circle. The highest platform,
or upper circle is sometimes known as the gods, especially in large opera houses, where
the seats can be very high and a long distance from the stage.

Boxes: generally placed immediately to the front, side and above the level of the stage.
They are often separate rooms with an open viewing area which generally seat only a
handful of people. These seats are generally considered the most prestigious of the
house. A state box or royal box is sometimes provided for dignitaries.

Seating arrangement: Seating arrangements in an auditorium seating layout (or assembly

space) will either be identified as “multiple-aisle” or “continental.”[1]These terms are
commonly found in design standards manuals, building codes, and similar architectural
reference documents. Each size is unique, with specific guidelines governing row size,
row spacing, and exit ways. Basically, a multiple-aisle arrangement will have a maximum
of 14–16 chairs per row with access to an aisle-way at both ends. In a continental
arrangement, all seats are located in a central section. Here the maximum quantity of
chairs per row can greatly exceed the limits established in a multiple-aisle arrangement.
In order to compensate for the greater length of rows allowed, building codes will require
wider row spacing, wider aisles, and strategically located exit doors. Although it would
seem like more space is called for, a continental seating plan is often not any less efficient
than a multiple-aisle arrangement. In fact, if it is carefully planned, a continental
arrangement can frequently accommodate more seating within the same space.

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 OCCUPANTS ACTIVITY: Auditorium space types are areas for large meetings,
presentations, and performances. Auditorium space type facilities may include
assembly halls, exhibit halls, auditoriums, and theaters. Auditorium space types do
not include such features as sound reinforcement systems, audiovisual systems and
projection screens, food service facilities, proscenium stages with heights greater
than 50'– 0" or fly gallery, orchestra pits, revolving or hydraulic stage platforms, flying
balconies, movable seating, or billboard systems.

Auditorium spaces are designed to accommodate large audiences. As such, they

tend to have wide spans and are multiple-stories high in order to accommodate
seating, sightlines, and acoustical requirements. Raised stage/dais floors and
special lighting equipment are often required as well. Typical features of Auditorium
space types include the list of applicable design objectives elements as outlined
below.

 LOCATION: Acoustical design of an auditorium addresses many aspects of room

and building design, and is tightly coordinated with architectural and technical
theatre design. As theatre design consultant Martin Vinik observes: “The same
pendant ceiling panels that provide the reflective surfaces for optimal acoustical
performance mask our auditorium lighting catwalks, conceal architectural
downlights while allowing easy access for maintenance, and help to diffuse air
that drops down from exposed supply ducts above.” He adds that good design
need not be expensive, and in fact may, “save the owner precious capital funds
and make life easier for everyone who works in the theatre.”

 STYLE: Seating arrangement in which chairs (and tables) are arranged in rows
facing a dais or platform.

 CHARACTERISTICS: Auditorium space types are areas for large meetings,

presentations, and performances. Auditorium space type facilities may include
assembly halls, exhibit halls, auditoriums, and theaters. Auditorium space types
do not include such features as sound reinforcement systems, audiovisual systems
and projection screens, food service facilities, proscenium stages with heights
greater than 50'– 0" or fly gallery, orchestra pits, revolving or hydraulic stage
platforms, flying balconies, movable seating, or billboard systems.

 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: The part of a public building where an audience sits,

as distinct from the stage, the area on which the performance or other object of the
audience’s attention is presented. In a large theatrean auditorium includes a
number of floor levels frequently designed as stalls, private boxes, dress
circle, balcony or upper circle, and gallery. A sloping floor allows the seats to be

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 arranged to give a clear view of the stage. The walls and ceiling usually contain
concealed light and sound equipment and air extracts or inlets and may be highly
decorated.

 BUILDING APPEARANCE: The Auditorium Building is an example of what can

happen when business leaders and the artistic community work together to create
functional, aesthetic mixed-use architecture. The developer, Ferdinand Wythe
Peck, was committed to bolstering the state of the arts in Chicago. That was tricky
business in a time of high tensions after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and not
long after the Haymarket Affair. But after organizing a successful opera festival,
Peck realized there was an appetite for the arts in the city and he was intent on
making them more accessible.

 VENTILATION & LIGHTING: Historically, developments in ventilation are closely

linked to developments in lighting. Prior to the 19th century when buildings were lit
with candles and oil lamps the chief method of ventilation was through opening
windows. The introduction of gas lighting in the 19th century caused changes in
building design that took into account this new method of illumination. The result
was a variety of strategies for naturally ventilating assembly buildings, and towards
the end of the century these methods became relatively sophisticated.

 EQUIPMENTS: Sound Equipments, Monitors Speakers, Microphones, DI Boxes,

Lighting & Electrical.

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 CINEMA, MOVIE HOUSES
 CHARACTERISTICS

 PARAMETERS

 BUILDING FUNCTION/SPACE:
A building that contains an auditorium for
viewing films (also called movies) for
entertainment. Most, but not all, theaters are
commercial operations catering to the
general public, who attend by purchasing a
ticket. Some movie theaters, however, are
operated by non-profit organizations or
societies that charge members a
membership fee to view films.
The film is projected with a movie
projector onto a large projection screen at
the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds and music are played through a
number of wall-mounted speakers. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have been used for low-
pitched sounds. In the 2010s, most movie theaters are equipped for digital cinema
projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel.
A great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films
to blockbusters to documentaries. The smallest movie theaters have a single viewing
room with a single screen. In the 2010s, most movie theaters have multiple screens. The
largest theater complexes, which are called multiplexes—a design developed in the US
in the 1960s—have up to thirty screens. The audience members often sit on padded
seats, which in most theaters are set on a sloped floor, with the highest part at the rear of
the theater. Movie theaters often sell soft drinks, popcorn, and candy, and some theaters
sell hot fast food. In some jurisdictions, movie theaters can be licensed to sell alcoholic
drinks.

 OCCUPANTS ACTIVITY:

 ASSEMBLY Group A occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or

structure, or a portion thereof, for the gathering of persons for purposes such as
civic, social or religious functions; recreation, food or drink consumption or
awaiting transportation.
 Group A‐1 occupancy includes assembly uses, usually with fixed seating,
intended for the production and viewing of the performing arts or motion pictures
including, but not limited to: Motion picture theaters; Symphony and concert
halls; Television and radio studios admitting an audience Theaters.

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 Group A‐2 occupancy includes assembly uses intended for food and/or drink
consumption including, but not limited to: Banquet halls; Casinos (gaming
areas); Nightclubs; Restaurants, cafeterias and similar dining facilities (including
associated commercial kitchens); Taverns and bars.
 Group A‐3 occupancy includes assembly uses intended for worship, recreation
or amusement and other assembly uses not classified elsewhere in Group A
including, but not limited to: Amusement arcades; Art galleries; Bowling alleys;
Community halls; Courtrooms; Dance halls (not including food or drink
consumption); Exhibition halls; Funeral parlors; Gymnasiums (without spectator
seating); Indoor swimming pools (without spectator seating); Indoor tennis courts
(without spectator seating); Lecture halls; Libraries; Museums; Places of religious
worship; Pool and billiard parlors; Waiting areas in transportation terminals.
 Group A‐4 occupancy includes assembly uses intended for viewing of indoor
sporting events and activities with spectator seating including, but not limited
to: Arenas; Skating rinks; Swimming pools; Tennis courts.
 Group A‐5 occupancy includes assembly uses intended for participation in or
viewing outdoor activities including, but not limited to: Amusement park
structures; Bleachers; Grandstands; Stadiums.

 LOCATION: MALLS

 STYLE: An Art Deco-style bar cart in the corner is an easy yet playful touch that
will make your cinema experience feel more luxurious.

 CHARACTERISTICS: Fast projection on the images on the screen gives an

illusion of movement and action to the eye which has persistence of
vision. Film is a powerful mass medium. It has a lot of potential for persuasive,
development communication.

 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: In recent years there has been a paradigm shift in

relation to the film format. The film production exclusively uses digital systems.
This means a great simplification of production processes and thus reducing
costs 1. With regard to sound, the digital system implies an increase in the
dynamic range since extra audio compression processes disappear. In addition
to the usual recommendations for sound insulation and acoustic conditions in this
type of hall, one of the halls must have the surround sound system Dolby
ATMOS 2. The performance of building systems was needed to be optimized to
get the best sound condition of the halls in a framework of economical
requirement and short deadlines.

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 BUILDING APPEARANCE: Building appearance is of ever increasing importance
to attract and retain tenants. In an increasingly competitive leasing market, 3M
Window Films are an excellent and cost effective way to protect windows and
enhance the overall appearance of your building.

 VENTILATION & LIGHTING: In its most simplest of forms, the calculation of a

volume flow rate first requires a calculation of the volume of room, occupied
space or entire building. When we know the volume of air within the building we
can use guidance on how many air changes are required based on the activity
that takes place within the space to maintain a healthy environment.

 EQUIPMENTS: For design and equipment for audio, Video and 3D since 2009.
We are now catering to more than 3500 screens in and around the country for
different range of products. With all the right exposure and expertise our team
also provide customized and turnkey solutions for theatres, cinema equipment,
cinema design, and personal and commercial home theatres. Our mission and
key to our success is providing best movie going experience to end customer
(We being amongst them as well).

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 ENTERTAINMENT ROOMS
 CHARACTERISTICS

 PARAMETERS

 BUILDING FUNCTION/SPACE:

A recreation room (also known as a rec

room, rumpus room, play room, playroom,
or ruckus room) is a room used for a variety
of purposes, such as parties, games and
other everyday or casual use. The term is
common in the United States, the term rumpus room is common in Australia, New
Zealand and Canada, but is less common in the United Kingdom where the preferred
term is games room. Often children and teenagers entertain their friends in the rec room,
which is often located in the basement, away from the main. living areas of the house.
Usually it is a larger space than a living room to have the ability to serve multiple purposes
and entertain moderately large groups.

 OCCUPANTS ACTIVITY:

 RESIDENTIAL Group R includes, among others, the use of a building or structure,

or a portion thereof, for sleeping purposes when not classified as an Institutional
Group I or when not regulated by the International Residential Code. (See also
Bulletin 15‐3.)
 Group R‐1 occupancies containing sleeping units where the occupants are
primarily transient, including: Boarding houses (transient) with more than 10
occupants; Congregate living facilities (transient) with more than 10 occupants;
Hotels; Motels; Vacation timeshare properties.
 Group R‐2 occupancies containing sleeping units or more than two dwelling units
where the occupants are primarily permanent, including: Apartment houses;
Convents; Dormitories; Fraternities and sororities; Live/work units; Monasteries;
Rooming houses with more than 5 occupants.
 Group R‐3 occupancies where the occupants are primarily permanent and not
classified as Group R‐1, R‐2, R‐4 or I, including: Alcohol and drug treatment
houses with 5 or fewer residents; Buildings that do not contain more than two
dwelling units; Boarding houses with 5 or fewer occupants; Care facilities that
provide accommodations for five or fewer persons receiving care; Detached
one‐ and two‐family dwellings greater than three stories in height, multiple single‐
family townhouses greater than three stories in height, attached two‐ family
dwellings separated from adjacent units by firewalls, and other one‐ and two‐family
dwellings that are outside the scope of the one‐ and two‐family dwelling subcode;
Group homes with five or fewer occupants in accordance with Section 308.3.4;
Rooming houses with five or fewer occupants; Single residential occupancies,
accessory to a dwelling unit, having no more than five roomers or lodgers (Single

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 occupancies, accessory to a dwelling unit, having more than five roomers or
lodgers shall be classified as Group R‐2 or I‐1, as appropriate).
 Group R‐4 occupancy shall include buildings, structures or portions thereof for
more than five but not more than 16 persons, excluding staff, who reside on a 24‐
hour basis in a supervised residential environment, receive custodial care and are
capable of slow evacuation. Buildings of Group R‐4 shall be classified as one of
the occupancy conditions specified in Section 310.6.1 or 310.6.2. This group shall
include, but not be limited to, the following: Alcohol and drug treatment centers;
Boarding houses; Group homes; Halfway houses; Residential board and care
facilities; Social rehabilitation facilities.
 Group R‐5 occupancies shall include all detached one‐ and two‐family dwellings
not more than three stories in height with a separate means of egress and multiple
single‐family townhouses not more than three stories in height with a separate
means of egress designed and constructed in accordance with the International
Residential Code. This Group shall also include: Care facilities that provide
accommodations for five or fewer persons receiving care; Single residential
occupancies, accessory to a dwelling unit, having no more than five roomers or
lodgers (Single occupancies, accessory to a dwelling unit, having more than five
roomers or lodgers shall be classified as Group R‐2 or I‐1, as appropriate); Group
Homes with 5 or fewer occupants in accordance with Section 308.3.4; Rooming
houses with five or fewer residents. 2015 International Building Code [Use] Group
Occupancy Classifications.

 LOCATION: HOUSE RESIDENCES

 STYLE: An Art Deco-style bar cart in the corner is an easy yet playful touch that
will make your cinema experience feel more luxurious.

 CHARACTERISTICS: A game room has to have a flexible design. It’s why you
should try to include a variety of functions in one design. For example, there can
be a foosball table in the center, a table for board games, a seating area for those
that need to take a k and a variety of other features.

 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: Home theaters are no longer only an extravagance for

the rich and famous. Thanks to more affordable technology, many families are enjoying a
true movie theater experience without leaving home. If you're thinking about building a
home theater, let HGTV walk you through the steps.

 BUILDING APPEARANCE: The attractive uniform aesthetic appearance of a

building with 3M Sun Control Film is a dramatic change from a building without
window film. Our window films let natural light come in and provide optimal clarity
and low reflectivity. A complete selection of films are available in a variety of
shades, finishes, and hues that match and enhance existing glass, while
complementing the aesthetics of the original architectural design.

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  VENTILATION & LIGHTING: Normally very tightly sealed rooms. Although
windows are required in all rooms in a new home, in most cases mechanical
ventilation is a more suitable option than natural ventilation.

 EQUIPMENTS: For design and equipment for audio, Video and 3D since 2009.
We are now catering to more than 3500 screens in and around the country for
different range of products. With all the right exposure and expertise our team
also provide customized and turnkey solutions for theatres, cinema equipment,
cinema design, and personal and commercial home theatres. Our mission and
key to our success is providing best movie going experience to end customer
(We being amongst them as well).

CONCLUSION (GENERAL)

A good acoustic design will provide a better and comfortable environment in the
mosque in term of sound audibility and speech intelligibility. Unfortunately, architects
nowadays often focus more on designing a building based on its looks or form, and the
main function of space most often neglected. The research has taken place at Masjid
Al-Hussain Kuala Perlis. The research approach includes interviews and observations
guided by the theory of affordance employed. Although the acoustic design was not that
perfect, the acoustic design is still acceptable. There is a correlation between the
acoustic designs of the mosque and the worshipers’ comfort.
Architectural acoustics is the art of achieving a good sound within a building. Based on
Wikipedia the first application of modern scientific methods to architectural acoustics
was carried out by Wallace Sabine in the Fogg. Museum lecture room. He then applied
his new found knowledge to the design of Symphony Hall in Boston. Architectural
acoustics is about achieving a good quality of speech in a theatre, improvise quality of
music in a concert hall or recording studio, or suppressing noise to make offices and
homes more comfortable and peaceful places to work and live. Nowadays, architects
have often focused on the design a beautiful mosque. Acoustic design is an important
characteristic of a mosque. A high level of quality of sound is needed for all worship
activities. Poor acoustic design in a mosque will disturb the concentration of the
worshipers. According to Khabiri et al. (2013), to ensure good listening conditions,
acoustical needs must be considered in the design phase. High-quality sound also is
vital, especially for pure tones that must be both wide and effective.

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 GENERAL CONCEPTS APPLIED
 The study of acoustics is intrinsically architectural: sound behaves as it does
because ofthe environment in which it is heard. Much can be gained by first
understanding the basic principles of room acoustics and then being a critical
listener. In order to fully experience architecture, one must begin to view it from the
perspective of the senses. This document will address the principles of
architectural acoustics applied to community theatres as a resource for nonprofit
groups to improve their theatrical environments. Acoustics is the science of sound:
the qualities in a room that make it easy or difficult for a person in it to hear
distinctly. Leo Beranek, intemational authority on acoustics, says that: Musical
acoustics still calls upon art as well as science. The science lies in applying to the
design of new halls the known acoustical attributes derived from measures on
existing halls; and the art lies in judging and applying those acoustical attributes
that are still unmeasurable. The art of music and the science of sound must fuse if
criteria are to be established for the design of halls in which music is to be played,
since the experience of music can never be divorced from the acoustics of the
space in which it is performed.

ACOUSTICAL TREATMENTS/MATERIALS

 Acoustical materials are used to control sound, whether for industrial, architectural
or studio applications. Sound control possibilities include elimination,
enhancement, diffusion and absorption, as well as a wide variety of custom
solutions. Among the materials used for these functions are polyurethane and
melamine foams, fiberglass, wood, plastic and synthetic tiles.

In studio applications, acoustical materials provide a means to prevent external

sound pollution while contributing to the recording capabilities and quality of the
facility. They also block a wide range of external frequencies and, in certain cases,
help provide a noise-free environment. In architectural applications, specialized
shapes and materials are used to enhance sound quality and separation, as well
as reduce sound reverberation. Acoustical materials used in industrial applications
are generally used to eliminate or drastically reduce machine and equipment
noise.

Noise control materials are also used in a variety of vehicles, including aircrafts,
boats and automobiles, to reduce the level of sound experienced by passengers.
Barriers, tiles, screens, baffles, blankets and sheets are all used in acoustical
control applications, often incorporating pyramids and other specialized shapes to
assist in sound reduction and dispersion. Acoustical materials can be directly
applied to facility walls and ceilings, suspended from various fixtures, or erected
around a sound source. Typically, especially in architectural and studio
applications, a complete acoustical solution involves a variety of materials and
shapes.

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 Proper installation is equally important to proper selection of materials, and various
consultation and installation services are also available. Materials are rated with
various noise reduction capability ratings. However, these materials tend to be
exceptionally absorptive, and may retain fumes, particulate and other pollutants,
lowering their sound reduction capabilities.

PROBLEMS & SPECIFIC ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTION

 There are times when designers are lured by the process of creating a solution
without giving much preliminary thought to whether the solution is really and
critically needed. This is equivalent to spending a lot of time and effort following
the wrong path, which leads to design solutions with little benefit or positive impact.
Thus, it is imperative to really delve into the core problem of your project. By finding
and solving for this core problem, you will be designing at the point of
most leverage because when you solve for a root problem, the entire building
system will strengthen. Conversely, if you only solve for a peripheral problem, then
the building system will suffer because the root problem (which is the weakest
point) will remain and prevent the rest of the building system from having its
positive benefits realized.
 One solution to this bank acoustical problem is to create a separate but adjoining
room where bankers and customers could go to have discussions. However, this
is a solution to one of the bank’s “symptoms” of the root problem. This solution is
not addressing the root problem where all of the bank’s occupants must function
within an uncomfortable space. As you can see, designing a separate and
adjoining room is not the right design path. Instead, if one designs for the root
problem, the bank will be able to function at dramatically improved employee and
customer levels.

INTERIOR ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS

 For the first part of this study, the finite element method (FEM) and the boundary
element method (BEM) are both used to predict the interior acoustic field of a
rectangular closed cavity, due to the vibration of one wall. The direct (i.e. inversion
of the dynamic stiffness matrix) and modal superposition solution techniques are
compared for the FEM, and the collocation and variational techniques are
compared for the BEM. It is found that there are no significant differences between
the collocation and variational results. Identical results are also obtained from both
the direct and modal superposition techniques, provided that sufficient modes are
included in the latter case.In order to investigate the influence of the boot (luggage)
compartment on the acoustic response of the passenger compartment of a car, a
second (smaller) rectangular cavity is joined to the one described above. The
acoustic response of the combination is computed by the FEM when the two
cavities are separated by different types of partition. It is found that addition of the

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 boot cavity, as well as the characteristics of the partition, have a very marked effect
on the main cavity response.

CONCLUSION-GENERAL

Acoustics are fundamentally important to learning environments. Learning is intrinsically

linked with communication, and aural (sound) communication is acoustics. Similarly,
learning is about concentration, and external noise is a major distracting factor in
education. This article is about typical classroom environments, up to about 1,000
square feet. Large specialized rooms like auditoriums, gyms, and cafeterias needs
careful acoustical engineering and should not be designed using the rules of thumb
described below.

The importance of acoustics is not limited to classrooms. Noise in corridors and public
spaces can soar if they are too reverberant (too much echo), with voices raised louder
and louder to overcome the background echo, just like shouting conversations at a
noisy cocktail party or restaurant. In addition, sound is an important navigational tool for
people who are blind or low vision, and either end of the reverberation scale (too "live"
or reverberant, or too "dead" or absorptive) can prevent them from finding their way.

REFERENCE:
https://kireiusa.com/blog/acoustic-design-education

https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/acoustics-open-office-plan/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_style

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=258814361677080&set=pcb.621236371670478&type=3&t
heater&ifg=1

https://www.lencore.com/Portals/5/Lencore_Docs/Article_UnderstandingAcoustics.pdf

https://www.lencore.com/Portals/5/Lencore_Docs/Article_UnderstandingAcoustics.pdf

https://architectureandeducation.org/2017/11/07/the-purposes-and-functions-of-schooling-some-
reasons-governments-give-for-building-schools/

http://www.wbdg.org/design-objectives/functional-operational

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditorium

https://webspm.com/Articles/2014/05/01/Auditorium-Acoustics.aspx

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