Indonesian shopping malls: a soundscape appraisal by sighted and visually impaired people

Similar to normal-sighted people, visually impaired people also like to spend leisure time in shopping malls. Regrettably, public facilities in developing countries hardly accommodate the visually impaired, who mainly use their sense of hearing. A soundwalk method was employed to collect the sonic perception of sighted and visually impaired people in shopping malls, and varimax rotated principle analysis was used to extract the data. The results reveal that soundscape dimensions of pleasantness and space are the two most prominent factors for both groups of participants. In general, the visually impaired perceived the surveyed shopping malls more favourably than the sighted, which is unexpected. They also perceive soundscape dimensions of danger and direction using the hearing sense alone, which can help improve shopping malls. In contrast, the sonic perception of the sighted is somehow mixed with visual perception

The sound perceptions of urban pavements by sighted and visually impaired people � a case study in Surabaya, Indonesia

The valuation of pavements using sound aspects is crucial for a country with poor pavement conditions and a large population of visually impaired people. This study recruited sighted and visually impaired participants to conduct a �soundwalk� to appraise the urban pavements. It was held in-situ on nine renovated pavement segments in Surabaya, Indonesia. Data were collected using a questionnaire comprising open and closed-ended questions in the format of a semantic scale. The SPL was also measured to describe the sound level concerning participants� sonic perception. The semantic data were then extracted using varimax-rotated principal component analysis with a polychoric correlation. The sighted group elicits two solid soundscape dimensions; pleasantness and eventfulness. The visually impaired group evokes four soundscape dimensions; pleasantness-direction-safety, space, eventfulness, and contour. The soundscape dimensions reflect the pavements� critical factors and show that visually impaired participants appraise the pavements in more detail than the sighted

Corn Cob Absorption Rate As Acoustic Material

Reducing CO2 emission through innovation discovery is essential to respond to the global warming issue. The research states that construction material contributes 11% of CO2 emission on building. Agricultural waste in Indonesia is plentiful, but it has not been used optimally, one of examples is corncob waste. The study to theoretically identify the absorption level on acoustic panel of corncob waste using two kinds of panel thickness dimensions composed of natural corncob through literature study and laboratory test of impedance tube by identifying the absorption panel coefficient phenomenon of corncob waste. The physical characteristic of corncob is porous, and this study found that there was a good absorption level in two dimensions of panel thickness of 3 cm and 5 cm. It was strengthened by the finding of a frequency shift phenomenon of two dimensions of panel thickness due to resonance in air cavity/gap among corncobs

The Implementation of Soundscape Composition to Identify the Ideal Soundscape for Various Activities

Soundscapes are affected by several factors and one of them is the activities done in the space concerned. People expect different acoustic environments for different activities, but there is no specific guidance for designing an ideal acoustic environment for different activities. This study aimed to identify ideal urban acoustic environments for four different activities: reading, relaxing, talking with friends, and playing with children. The ideal acoustic environment was evaluated using the soundscape composition concept. The concept was implemented by an acoustic environment simulator that enabled the respondents to compose their ideal acoustic environment and identify the perception of their composition. The sound source selection and perception rating were analyzed to understand the ideal acoustic environment and perception for different activities. This study identified the ideal soundscapes for four different activities and the perception expected to be present in the ideal environments for those activities. The result can be beneficial as guidance for urban soundscape design

The Implementation of Soundscape Composition to Identify the Ideal Soundscape for Various Activities

Soundscapes are affected by several factors and one of them is the activities done in the space concerned. People expect different acoustic environments for different activities, but there is no specific guidance for designing an ideal acoustic environment for different activities. This study aimed to identify ideal urban acoustic environments for four different activities: reading, relaxing, talking with friends, and playing with children. The ideal acoustic environment was evaluated using the soundscape composition concept. The concept was implemented by an acoustic environment simulator that enabled the respondents to compose their ideal acoustic environment and identify the perception of their composition. The sound source selection and perception rating were analyzed to understand the ideal acoustic environment and perception for different activities. This study identified the ideal soundscapes for four different activities and the perception expected to be present in the ideal environments for those activities. The result can be beneficial as guidance for urban soundscape design

Appraising the sonic environment of urban parks using the soundscape dimension of visually impaired people

The study aimed to investigate the specific soundscape dimensionof visually impaired people and to learn about the possiblyunique soundscape dimension elicited by the hearing sensealone. The soundscape dimension of the visually impaired will beused as a reference for improving urban parks to accommodateusers inclusively. A semantic-scale questionnaire survey of sightedand visually impaired people in both in-situ and off-site modeswas performed. Data were extracted using principal componentanalysis with polychoric correlations, which produced threesoundscape dimensions elicited from the sighted and six from thevisually impaired. In sum, evaluation of the park�s sonicenvironment identified the eventfulness soundscape dimensionand the pleasantness soundscape dimension as being the mostprominent for visually impaired and sighted people, respectively