This next blog in our Acoustics in the Sun series talks about the paper titled The Sonic Gathering Place Installation, Melbourne: User Experience and Post-Hoc Assessment of Sound Levels, by Lex Brown, Jordan Lacey and Tom Neudorfl. This was a particularly interesting paper because unlike many studies into the impact of biophilic design, it wasn’t conducted in a lab. Lex Brown presented the paper, explaining that it formed part of the landscape research they’d been conducting.
What is a sonic gathering place?
According to the Design and Sonic Practice research group in the School of Design at RMIT University:
The Sonic Gathering Space (SGS) is a circular park bench, 6.5m in diameter, that houses four speakers and 8-planter boxes. Four speakers play field recordings collected from four national parks in the Australian State of Victoria.
Above is a picture of the space when it’s fully occupied, and below is a picture of the unoccupied space, directly from the paper.
If you look carefully, you can see the speakers placed on top of planter boxes.
The paper
The paper itself covered the user experience of the space. For context, the space is in the middle of Melbourne city. The ambient background sound levels from traffic noise, mechanical noises and so on was around 51-53dB(A), up to around 60dB(A).
The aim of the paper was to determine whether installations that combine plants and sounds increase enjoyment of urban space. The sounds and plant species were chosen from Australian National Parks.
The results
The self-reported user experience was overwhelmingly positive, including improvement of mood. People were indeed finding increased enjoyment of the urban space due to the sounds and plants.
Specifically, the paper found:
… the biophilic design basis of the SGP appears to be measurably appreciated by users. Namely, it encouraged people to stop and listen; it is viewed by users as having the potential to provide restorative effects experienced in nature; and users considered it interesting that the sounds had been recorded in National Parks where the vegetation used in the SGP would be found, complementing the plantings. Biophilic soundscape design, whereby environmental sounds are played in direct relation to plants, appears able to improve the biophilic effect of an urban greening initiative
Conclusion
The findings are consistent with other research in biophilic design which we have covered in earlier blogs here and here. The authors say it better than I could:
The human body – in keeping with biophilic design insights – is attuned to the calming effects of certain natural sounds – flowing water, gentle wind, susurration of trees, bird song etc. Therefore, even if a soundscape does not overtly mask existing sounds, it can still have a positive effect on mood.
If you live in Melbourne, or are visiting, why not try it out for yourself. The address is 377 Russell Street, Melbourne. The full paper can be found here.