Acoustic Perception and Behaviour in Offices and Flats

Abstract

In Britain building engineers and architects have no suitable criteria to enable them to design floors, walls and screens that will efficiently isolate unwanted impact noise. As a first step towards rectifying this situation a systemic testing technique has been designed to monitor the human “discomfort” caused by noise in homes and offices; the aim was to define the limits of aural discomfort. The technique automatically builds up a picture of individuals “real” responses to noise in their own environments - a natural history of peoples'actions, behaviour, physiological stress and attitudes when continually bombarded with certain noises. Early results suggest, that the way individuals respond to their environment is largely governed by their “expectations” of that environment. In offices they are prepared to spend time in fairly noisy conditions for long periods of time; conditions which this work has shown can lead to tiredness and irritability, decrease in urinary I7ks and changes in cellular composition of the blood. For office users it is the “loudness” (weighted energy) in an intruding signal which seems to govern their response. On the other hand in the home the individual will not tolerate the same high noise levels. Here any noise which intrudes on an individuals privacy is likely to cause annoyance and just acceptable signals lie very close to the masking of the background noise. Understanding of man's response gained from these studies led to the development of criteria for design in homes and offices. These criteria should enable designers to gauge the effect of impact noise on man and to design more effectively against it.