Abstract
Simon Heijdens, a London-based Dutch artist, was commissioned by South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual film, media, and music festival in Austin, TX, to create an installation artwork to premiere at SXSW in March 2016. In reaction to the sensory overload of the festival, he created Silent Room. Students and professors from the University of Texas at Austin worked alongside Mr. Heijdens to design a portable, self-sufficient, reusable space providing sound isolation and absorption from outside and inside the chamber, respectively. Housing the space in a shipping container, Silent Room was successfully built and showcased at SXSW in downtown Austin to hundreds of visitors, achieving a minimum sound reduction of 27 dBA at 40 Hz and a maximum reduction of 55 dBA at 1.45 kHz. These results were achieved using a suspended floor and decoupled wall/ceiling construction of Auralex rubber U-Boats, 2” x 4” wood studs, mineral fiber insulation, plywood, Auralex SheetBlok vinyl, and acoustically treated gypsum board. After initial acoustical measurements, more U-Boats were added, decoupling the container underside from the street and isolating it from ground-borne vibration. However, the room performance worsened after this change, possibly due to exposure to a new air-borne path for noise ingress.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
