Browsing by Subject "Public spaces--Planning."

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Open Access
Acoustical comfort evaluation in enclosed public spaces with a central atrium : a case study in food court of CEPA Shopping Center, Ankara
(2009) Dökmeci, Papatya Nur
Physical comfort requirements of users as thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort should be considered and studied in detail when designing and planning public spaces. The subjective auditory perception needs to be evaluated parallel with the objective acoustical incidences in a space. The food court area of CEPA Shopping Center with an atrium and a glass dome ceiling, in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara is chosen for the case. The aim of this study is to investigate acoustical parameters of the space via computer simulation program and examine the effect of architectural features of the space namely; central atrium, glass dome and the existing material applications. Considering the relationship between the users’ noise annoyance and the equivalent continuous sound pressure level (Leq) is also intended in this study. The research techniques are computer simulations, noise measurements and questionnaires. Acoustical parameters; reverberation time (RT), early decay time (EDT), sound transmission index (STI) and equivalent continuous sound pressure level (Leq) values are obtained by simulations and measurements. Questionnaires are used for understanding the noise annoyance and auditory perception of the users. The results show that the noise annoyance ratings correlate well with the Leq variances. The most dominantly perceived and the most annoying sound found to be correlated with the highest percentage for speech noise in the food court. Decay time (T30, EDT) results of the space that are derived from the ODEON 6.5 software are found to be very long as expected with a central atrium, glass dome ceiling and highly reflected material applications. In addition, the food court area is defined to be poor in terms of STI. High Leq values as well as long decay times that are present in the space are noted as factors increasing the noise annoyance of the users.
Open Access
The effects of speech in interference in enclosed leisure spaces : a case of study in Bilkent Roll House, Ankara
(2011) Gezginer, Pelin Meriç
The aim of this study is to investigate the speech interference of users in an open-planned multi-activities public leisure space. Bilkent Roll House was chosen as a leisure space because of its variety of activities in an open-plan such as bowling, dart, billiards, play station and dining area. In this respect, to analyze acoustical parameters and users characteristics of this study, a pilot and case study was undertaken by using questionnaires/intelligibility tests, computer simulations and real-size measurements. Questionnaires /speech intelligibility tests and Leq measurements were done in order to analyze noise annoyance ratings of the users of selected space as pilot study. The speech interference parameters measured as a case study are; Reverberation Time (T30), Speech Transmission Index (STI), Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and Equivalent Continuous A-weighted Sound Pressure Level (Leq A). The results showed that reverberation characteristics of Bilkent Roll House are at the required range. However, it was observed that, the speech parameters (STI & SNR) results are insufficient in terms of speech communication. In addition, the noise level (Leq A) of the activities in Bilkent Roll House increases slightly in time. However, the results of Leq A at the dining area of Bilkent Roll House indicate that, users are affected in an informal way by the speech interference, and instead of increasing their voice level, they prefer to deal with their main activity to provide speech intelligibility in multi-activity spaces.