Identification of a new acoustic sound field trend in modern catholic churches

Abstract

This work describes the sound field transformation in catholic churches up today, focusing on a new possible acoustic trend in modern buildings.In the past, the sacred sense inside a church was greatly reinforced by the surrounding atmosphere of a very reverberant space, with possible echoes, that infatuated the perception of God and his presence. On the contrary, nowadays, concentration and intimacy are preferred.Modern Church buildings have become acoustically complex places. They are complex from the geometric point of view, because their dimensions and shapes may be extremely varied, passing from simple auditorium-like churches to complicated ones characterized by curved walls, side chapels, vaults which often act as partially coupled volumes. The range of the possible sound messages is also extremely varied passing from the spoken word to congregational singing and sometimes to organ music during the same liturgical service.In this paper some main recommendations to follow in the acoustic design of new catholic churches are presented, explaining two case studies in detail: the Santa Gianna Beretta Molla Church in Trezzano, Milan (IT) and the Massimiliano Kolbe Church in Bergamo (IT).Room Acoustics procedures and implementations of computer simulation techniques are included. A new approach for the acoustic design is proposed in which the acoustic response is suitable for both speech and music as recent room acoustics’ studies for other typologies of building such as theatres and multipurpose auditoria suggest.