Cultural differences in perceived traditional and smart indoor soundscape of domestic spaces: A focus on Arab and Turkish residents

The aim of this study is to understand the current acoustic condition of smart houses, evaluate the effect of smart technology on perceived indoor soundscape, and measure cultural differences regarding that perception. Arab and Turkish residents living in Türkiye were the focus of this study. A method to distinguish traditional and smart houses was not found. Thus, an indoor acoustic environment scenario was designed for each house type. Indoor residential soundscape questionnaire was conducted to answer the research questions, participants were asked to listen to the designed traditional and smart house acoustic environment audio samples, and evaluate the audios using an indoor residential soundscape scale found in the literature. English attributes of the scale were translated to Arabic and Turkish with focus group method. It is found that cultural differences do not affect indoor soundscape perception, embedding smart technology into houses increase eventfulness, yet not decrease comfort ratings of the users, and sensitivity to noise had an influence on indoor soundscape perception.