Understanding urban and natural soundscapes

The concept of soundscape has garnered increasing research attention over the last decade for studying and designing the sonic environment of public spaces. It is therefore critical to advance knowledge on how the soundscape of a place is evoked by its sonic environment, given visual, cultural, and situational contexts. Working Group 1 of the COST action "Soundscapes of European cities and landscapes" revolves around this question. In our current understanding the sounds that are heard during normal activities in a place trigger meaning and emotions based on the matching with expectations of the people using and acting in that place. This complete package of human experience in relation to the sonic environment can be named the soundscape. In terms of design, this understanding opens several opportunities. The designer can decide which sounds should be heard and try to make this happen by guiding the attention to particular sounds or simply remove, add or shape sounds. In doing so, he or she should keep in mind expectations of the local users. Expectations and meaning might be changed by suitable design of non-sonic features of the environment including besides the obvious visual context also the openness, lighting, local climate, etc. Bringing these concepts to practice requires new tools and methodologies.