Do you ever stop and listen to the city?
Future Cities Insight #3 Do you ever stop and listen to the city?
Do you like what you hear? As cities are growing, the noise exposure increases and quiet areas has become a scarce commodity. This calls for innovation and measures to preserve the spaces that we need for recreation.
More than noise
We encourage the future city to consider the sounds they want to preserve, rather than focusing on noise only. Sounds can play many roles in people’s lives, also positive roles. There’s no way around it, cities have buzz! However, we can take control of the buzz and create a more balanced sound environment. Efterklang has the competence to explore how sound can be managed when creating human spaces.
The science of sound and its emotional effect is widely explored. We’ve been involved in a broad spectra of projects within infrastructure, community and building acoustics and this know-how can be applied to further applications. To make more efficient use of the physical infrastructure in the future city, sound could support a strong social and cultural development.
Focus on sounds in Helsingborg
When the city of Helsingborg needed support in noise management, we were happy to put our know-how and ambition into practice. The assignment is to conduct a noise mapping study and to present our analysis and vision for noise management. The results will be presented to Helsingborg in December 2018.
On September 18th we conducted sound measurements in four parks areas, including a sleepover in the city park. The purpose of the sleepover was to understand how urban sounds change during day and night. In the daytime many sounds drown in traffic noise, but during nighttime new sounds emerge. It’s our belief that the key to a balanced sound environment is to understand which sounds to preserve and perhaps enhance, as well as reducing the noise.
