Sound preference prediction in a design stage—A case study in the Shenzhen Dongmen Open Space

Abstract

Attention on visual effects is insufficient in urban open spaces, while soundscape is complementation and sound design is crucial. In this paper, sound effects in the Shenzhen Dongmen Open Space have been studied. It shows that exist sounds are not delightful to satisfy acoustic comfort but to cause annoy perceptions. Therefore, this study is focused on examining various sound effects in the Shenzhen Dongmen Open Space concerning on sound preference evaluations. Based on various sounds influencing the subjective preference evaluations, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models have been developed to predict how delightful of the sonic environment in terms of different sound design schemes to the space. Furthermore, the sound preference predictions of ANN models' output will be compared with the preference evaluations from lab experiments, and then validated by the lab results.