Does Architecture affect Acoustic perception in music halls?

Abstract

Acoustics and architecture are two of the main parameters that influence the quality of a music hall. However, does the user perceive these two factors independently? A good architectural design may affect the perceived acoustic quality and vice-versa? In this line, the present work aims to determine the conceptual structure employed by the users when evaluating a music hall. This study also pursued analyzing whether architectural variables have an influence on the perceived acoustic quality and vice-versa. To achieve these goals, a previous research was conducted in 17 venues of the Valencian Region using Semantic Differential within the frame of Kansei Engineering. A sample of 221 users classified as “non-experts” (neither musicians, nor acousticians or architects, nor people related professionally to concert halls) participated in this experience evaluating the architectural and acoustic quality of these venues. Results showed that, from a conceptual perspective, the users clearly differentiated the acoustic variables from the architectural ones. Nevertheless, it was observed that architecture influenced the perceived acoustic quality and vice-versa. Thus, regression models were obtained and tested to measure the perception of acoustic and architecture quality. These results may be interesting to enable optimization of design features of future music halls