New schools design: Acoustics as main target

Abstract

The effects of poor intelligibility and high background noise levels on the cognitive development of school children and on the dissatisfaction of teachers has been largely investigated. National standards have been implemented and attempts to harmonize these standards in international guidelines are ongoing. All these activities have led to the awareness that design of new schools must be centered on the achievement of a good acoustic environment. At this point a strong research effort to study and implement best solutions must be conducted, in collaboration, by architects, acousticians, pedagogues, psychologists, builders and acoustic materials producers. Recently an international competition for the planning of new primary schools in Rome, Italy has been announced. The aim of the competition is to study new architectural and running features of primary schools to obtain, among other parameters such as lighting, low cost energy solutions and air quality, the control of reverberation time, sound insulation and mechanical equipments noise. In these school buildings, as innovative requirement, children must be also able to elaborate interpretative hypothesis of physical phenomena such as sound emission and perception and be aware of their influence on these phenomena. Different possible solutions are presented.