Urbanist Trond Maag and landscape architect Rikke Munck Petersen are inviting people interested in the design process of a city to join their sound walk to discover urban sonic spaces near the INTER-NOISE 2016 conference center. During the walk we will experience the acoustic variety and differences of urban spaces like squares, parks, streets and the materials used in these spaces. We will in particular focus on the way in which the building facades, roofs, city floor surfaces and the natural terrain interact on the different scales relevant to city sound quality. We will recognize that people always create a multisensory experience of space based particularly on visual, acoustic, and tactile information. The combination of acoustic experiences with other sensory experiences influences how people judge a listening situation. Such a multi-sensory design approach is necessary to provide good conditions for keeping and improving the value of public spaces and ensuring a high living quality.
Listening to urban spaces offers a perception of a city which differentiates itself from the visual perspective that is more common for planning and designing processes. It is part of a multi-sensory approach to developing public urban spaces based on the interrelationship between moving, listening and seeing, which are all equally important for the human experience. Listening, in particular when performed in sound walks, contributes to planning and designing the everyday city. Sound walks complement master plans, noise maps and mock-ups. They involve local people physically in the design process of public urban spaces. Professional participants get a chance to synchronize their ideas and develop sound quality judgements about a specific place. Sound walks are feasible steps within the
city making process because it enables participants to communicate the idea of a place’s qualities to other actors of the city.