Measuring and Representing Indoor Soundscapes: Insights for a Methodology from Socio-Acoustic Surveys in Residential Buildings in England

The soundscape framework is effective in characterising the sound environment as we perceive it. Efforts to improve the urban soundscape must be coordinated with building design to enhance the sound environment where people spend most of their time, i.e., buildings. But how to measure the indoor soundscape? And how to represent it? Building on ISO 12913 standard series, a measurement system was defined to assess the affective response to the indoor soundscape in residential buildings, indicating the perceptual constructs to be measured and the attributes to be employed in occupant surveys. The system was first applied in a monitoring campaign in residential buildings during summer 2022, involving socio-acoustic surveys in 61 dwellings in England (UK). This paper describes the methodology employed to measure the soundscape inside buildings, both through “instruments” and “people”, and to collect contextual (e.g., information about the window view) and personal (e.g., noise sensitivity) features that may influence the perception of the acoustic environment. The results of the collected affective responses and their representation in the perceptual comfort-content reference system are presented. Representation methods are illustrated with reference to recent tools developed for outdoor soundscapes and their usefulness is demonstrated in the context of indoor soundscape design.