Acoustic design guidelines for houses for hearing impaired seniors – In the framework of Korean building codes

Abstract

Hearing impairment is a part of the natural ageing process for many people, similar to the occurrence of wrinkles on the face. In order to improve the quality of life for old age seniors, it is necessary to provide a built environment that is appropriate for hearing impairment. The listening ability of the elderly is significantly diminished, particularly in noisy and reverberant environments due to hearing loss. A basic design guideline for houses built for hearing impaired seniors is that excessive noisy and reverberant environments should be avoided. The purpose of this paper is to develop housing acoustic design guidelines that consider hearing loss due to old age relative to natural factors of everyday life, through a detailed literature review. The guidelines take into consideration floor impact sound, heavyweight floor impact sound, unit-to-unit sound insulation, indoor background noise sources, reverberation time, ceiling height, light–fan switch, bell–chime system and illumination level.