Architectural acoustics: Some historical developments and ongoing issues

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the history of the development of architectural acoustics and a sampling of the results of several more recent research studies. There are now standardised measures for assessing room acoustics character and there are criteria for room acoustics in terms of these measures. For rooms for speech, such criteria are not so well defined for some special groups of listeners such as the very young or old, hearing impaired listeners, and those listening in a second language. For rooms for musical performance, there is a growing understanding of the more important acoustical characteristics of concert halls, but still a need to improve tools for applying this knowledge to the design of these spaces.