Acoustics for architects: A potpourri of undergraduate and graduate level teaching styles, tools and in-course projects

Abstract

Acoustics is one of the basic environmental comfort factors both in indoor and outdoor spaces. Students of architecture need to confront this theoretical field at some phase of their education. The main focus of this study is to provide a discussion platform of tools and teaching styles in architectural acoustics education of future architects, by depicting approaches that can motivate students and provide them a long-lasting understanding of the phenomena. Accordingly, a long-term experience in acoustics classes with undergraduate and graduate level students, mainly from departments of architecture of two prominent Turkish universities, is exemplified. Course contents of architectural acoustics programs are described, different models and methods of teaching are discussed, and last, selected projects, specifically those having an academic output, are presented. The study also aims to highlight some techniques and approaches that can be employed in acoustics education with limited technological tools, simply by active inclusion of the design background and creative thinking of the architecture students in this applied research area.