Wie kommt das Hoeren in den Entwurf? Ein Versuch im zweiten Studienjahr im Fachbereich Architektur am Waterford Institute of Technology in Irland

(Article is in German) Architects are often accused of “not being interested in acoustics because it is invisible”. Architectural design, particularly at the preliminary stage, has always been developed visually. Traditionally, as a result of their training, architects develop a project visually rather than aurally. However, designing architects have also to deal creatively with more or less invisible parameters such as: socio-cultural demands, climatic aspects or even daylight, which can be considered to be visible but certainly is everything but constant. If an architect’s design ability is about observation and awareness and if light is considered to be much more than just being bright or dark, how then could we implement early awareness that sound is much more than noise or silence, and that sound planning is much more than just using anti-noisepanels? We asked 2nd year architecture students at Waterford Institute of Technology to (re-)think sound and to question the sound qualities of their own projects. Thus sound experience is integrated into the basic design and not just considered specialist knowledge for specific projects...

How is hearing heard in second year architectural design education

Architects are often accused of “not being interested in acoustics because it is invisible”. Surely, architectural design, particularly at preliminary stage, has always been driven visually: architects usually develop a project by vision, not by hearing. On the other hand, designing architects have to deal creatively with more or less invisible parameters: sociocultural demands, climatic aspects as wind or temperature, or even daylight which can be considered to be visible but certainly is everything but constant. If an architect's design ability is about observation and awareness, and to give an example, if light is considered to be much more than just being bright or dark, how then could we implement early awareness that sound is much more than noise or silence, and that sound planning is much more than just using anti‐noise‐panels? We asked second year architecture students at Waterford Institute of Technology to (re‐)think the architecture of schools and to question the sound qualities and their own sound recollection of such an environment. The paper will outline the teaching approach and present some student's responses to the given aims and brief. Finally, the lessons learnt by teaching staff will be summarized

The new ISO-standard on ”Soundscape” - Maximizing the benefit for the Architectural design process

The new ISO 12913-1 introduces a conceptional framework for the ”Soundscape” approach and refers to ”factors relevant for measurement and reporting of soundscape studies, as well as planning, design and management of soundscape”. This emphasizes a common ground to Soundscape for Acousticians and Architects/Urban Designers (among others): for Acousticians to investigate sound qualities in relation to their specific context, and for Architects/Urban Designers to pro-actively implement sound qualities into their designs. However, both professions usually come from fundamentally different perspectives: Acousticians rather act as ”analysts”: they observe specific environments in order to derive findings, such as patterns, generalizations or rules; Architects tend to do the exact opposite and act as ”synthesizers”: they use patterns, generalizations and rules, in order to integrate them into the design of a specific environment. Consequently, the expectations and the outcome of a ”standardization” approach may differ significantly. The paper discusses the underlying triangulation principle of the soundscape-approach based on ”peoplecontext- acoustic environment” against a proposed similar triangulation of the Architectural/Urban design process based on ”programme-context-idea”. It explores the potentials of the Soundscape approach from an Architect’s view and the way it could be enhanced by an interdisciplinary approach as anticipated in the new ISO

From noise control to sound design: the class room as a soundscape project

As part of an overall campus building project, the Department of Architecture in Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland moved to provisional premises in autumn 2011, in a city centre former warehouse, dating from 1875. While this building is a fine example of historic industrial architecture which was previously used successfully as a museum, as a school venue it is “acoustically seen” inappropriate. The studios are more halls rather than rooms and have an approx. height of 5 meters; two classes share one unit and are subdivided by screens, with lectures and tutorials needing to be scheduled at different times in order to avoid (acoustic) clashes. Most surfaces are hard, and in some cases, the class units are even exposed to open galleries and circulation areas. How can the noise problem be transformed into a soundscape project? How can the current situation be used to develop sound as a design tool that informs the awareness about sound phenomena, strengthen the understanding of sound mitigation and instill the confidence to design it? This paper investigates different approaches as to how to introduce sound as a design tool in early architectural education and summarizes the learning outcomes from using the class room as a sound design lab

Der Soundscape-Ansatz als ”Common Ground” für Akustiker und Architekten. DAGA Oldenburg (Germany) 2014

Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Soundscape-Ansatz als Design-Werkzeug für Architekten im Dialog mit Akustikern. In diesem Zusammenhang formuliert er zunächst drei Prämissen für die Akustik und die Architektur bzw. Raumplanung. Im folgenden wird die Relevanz des Soundscape-Ansatzes für den architektonischen Entwurfsprozess untersucht. Abschliessend werden die übergeordneten Ziele der Raumplanung erörtert und Schlussfolgerungen für die Implementierung von Soundscape-Szenarios und Soundscape-Methoden diskutiert. Schlagworte: Soundscape, Design- Werkzeug, Ressourcenmanagement, Architektur, Raumplanung, Entwurfsprozess

The new ISO-standard on “Soundscape” - Maximizing the benefit for the Architectural design process

The new ISO 12913-1 introduces a conceptional framework for the ”Soundscape” approach and refers to ”factors relevant for measurement and reporting of soundscape studies, as well as planning, design and management of soundscape”. This emphasises a common ground to Soundscape for Acousticians and Architects/Urban Designers (among others): for Acousticians to investigate sound qualities in relation to their specific context, and for Architects/Urban Designers to pro-actively implement sound qualities into their designs.However, both professions usually come from fundamentally different perspectives: Acousticians rather act as ”analysts”: they observe specific environments in order to derive findings, such as patterns, generalisations or rules; Architects tend to do the exact opposite and act as ”synthesizers”: they use patterns, generalisations and rules, in order to integrate them into the design of a specific environment. Consequently, the expectations and outcome of a ”standardisation” approach may differ significantly. The paper discusses the underlying triangulation principle of the soundscape-approach based on ”people-context-acoustic environment” against a proposed similar triangulation of the Architectural/Urban design process based on ”programme-context-idea”. It explores the potentials of the Soundscape approach from an Architect’s view and the way it could be enhanced by an interdisciplinary approach as anticipated in the new ISO

The sound-absorbing city—New ideas for living environments around airports

Great efforts and progress have been made in terms of noise protection measures in both urban, suburban and rural environments. Local or regional urban planning guidelines and anti-noise-manuals provide experienced and practical advice to reduce noise, in order to provide a better quality of life. Most of the anticipated solutions such as noise-protection-walls, fences, planted mounds etc. will address issues caused by land traffic. However, due to their nature, they fail to respond to "airborne" noise immission. In addition, there is a common public misconception that sound should be interpreted as noise ie. as a waste to get rid of, instead of critically identifying sound and sound clusters as a potential and as a resource to be integrated. The concept of the sound-absorbing city applies the same principles of sound reflection and sound absorption, as applied to an architectural space, in an urban space. It also investigates the possibility of combining unwanted sound, such as air traffic noise with wanted sound, such as nature and community sound. The paper discusses the concept of the sound-absorbing city, its potentials and its apparent limits, with regard to new settlements and existing agglomerations around airports

Advancing a theoretical model for public health and health promotion indicator development: Proposal from the EUHPID consortium

This paper discusses the work of the EUHPID Project to develop a European Health Promotion Monitoring System based on a common set of health promotion indicators. The Project has established three working groups to progress this task - health promotion policy and practice-driven, data-driven and theory-driven. The work of the latter group is reviewed in particular. EUHPID has taken a systems theory approach in order to develop a model as a common frame of reference and a rational basis for the selection, organization and interpretation of health promotion indicators. After reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of those health promotion models currently proposed for indicator development, the paper proposes a general systems model of health development, and specific analytical, socio-ecological models related to public health and health promotion. These are described and discussed in detail. Taking the Ottawa Charter as the preferred framework for health promotion, the socio-ecological model for health promotion adopts its five action areas to form five types of systems. The structure and processes for each of these five systems are proposed to form the basis of a classification system for health promotion indicators. The paper goes on to illustrate such a system with reference to indicators in the workplace setting. The EUHPID Consortium suggest that their socio-ecological model could become a common reference point for the public health field generally, and offer an invitation to interested readers to contribute to this developmen

Metabolic engineering of malolactic wine yeast

Abstract Malolactic fermentation is essential for the deacidification of high acid grape must. We have constructed a genetically stable industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by integrating a linear cassette containing the Schizosaccharomyces pombe malate permease gene (mae1) and the Oenococcus oeni malolactic gene (mleA) under control of the S. cerevisiae PGK1 promoter and terminator sequences into the URA3 locus of an industrial wine yeast. The malolactic yeast strain, ML01, fully decarboxylated 5.5 g/l of malate in Chardonnay grape must during the alcoholic fermentation. Analysis of the phenotype, genotype, transcriptome, and proteome revealed that the ML01 yeast is substantially equivalent to the parental industrial wine yeast. The ML01 yeast enjoys 'Generally Regarded As Safe' status from the FDA and is the first genetically enhanced yeast that has been commercialized. Its application will prevent the formation of noxious biogenic amines produced by lactic acid bacteria in wine.

Genome-wide association study identifies 30 loci associated with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls of European descent, with follow-up analysis of 822 variants with P < 1 × 10-4 in an additional 9,412 cases and 137,760 controls. Eight of the 19 variants that were genome-wide significant (P < 5 × 10-8) in the discovery GWAS were not genome-wide significant in the combined analysis, consistent with small effect sizes and limited power but also with genetic heterogeneity. In the combined analysis, 30 loci were genome-wide significant, including 20 newly identified loci. The significant loci contain genes encoding ion channels, neurotransmitter transporters and synaptic components. Pathway analysis revealed nine significantly enriched gene sets, including regulation of insulin secretion and endocannabinoid signaling. Bipolar I disorder is strongly genetically correlated with schizophrenia, driven by psychosis, whereas bipolar II disorder is more strongly correlated with major depressive disorder. These findings address key clinical questions and provide potential biological mechanisms for bipolar disorder