A real challenge: Teaching acoustics to architecture students

Abstract

The key to instilling the fundamentals of acoustics in architecture students is to arouse their interest. Because so many of the students are interested in music and high-fidelity equipment, it does not take much to ignite their interest in acoustics, particularly when they come to realize that perfectly good equipment can be undermined by poor room acoustics. Because they generally are not comfortable with mathematics, having had received perhaps no more than one or two semesters of introductory calculus; they need to be spoon-fed mathematics, even to the point of reviewing logarithmic manipulations, which are normally taught in secondary schools. The purpose of teaching acoustics to architects is not to make them acoustic experts, per se, but to make them appreciative of the effect of room acoustics and to understand that they must work hand-in-hand with acousticians when they design listening spaces that range in size from small classrooms to lecture halls to large concert halls. A regular acoustics text, such as that by Beranek, or Kinsler and Frey, or Raichel would be beyond the scope of an architectural course, but a text written especially for nonscience majors (such as that by Apfel) should and did serve admirably.