A proposal for creating auditory spatial awareness in architectural education

Today, the question of what the desired and undesired sounds are being discussed, and the sensitivity of the human is taken into consideration in many respects. While the sound reflects the volume, the absorbed and refraction, it associates the time with the space, and the part of the individual perceives the sound gives an idea about the architecture and hence the atmosphere of the space. Contents of acoustics courses in architectural education; teaching of physical properties of sound, hall design, sound insulation and noise control. However, the auditory conditions caused by the architect are not understood sufficiently and are not reflected in the daily life and in the environment. The negative effect that comes out as noise is often put forward. When viewed in this frame, the idea of designing negative effects of sound as well as positive effects is suggested. The architect candidate, who is seen as a future-oriented environmental designers, has thought that architectural students should have an idea about the physical and auditory characteristics of the sound. At the beginning of the design and / or during the design process the auditory comfort requirements of the space become important. The space they design is expected to be able to determine the auditory comfort needs of the users and to think about their ability to make form, volume, size ratios and materials selection in the conditions of the room. The fact that architecture education is mostly based on visual perception and giving little place to the sound causes the students to take these subjects back to the background. In today's architectural education, in the projects carried out in architectural design studios and in the design approaches in architecture competitions, the integration of the sound nature and architecture, the experience of the user and the impossibility of reading the design reflection of these inputs is seen as another important problem; in particular the not questioning of the auditory environment of spaces outside performance centers. Without the acoustical expertise, it has been determined that students who are architects and future architects who can not have an idea about the auditory environment of spaces are unaware of this responsibility. In addition, the knowledge of physics and advanced mathematics required by acoustics has been caused to send students to learn hardly architectural acoustics, and to backward in which students are for this reason. For all these reasons, there is a need for a proposal that will create awareness on the problems of the auditory space and the students in the solution of architectural education. Examples of works of writers and architects examined in the literature on the experience of auditory space are given in the course of history. However, sound studies have been mentioned. New architectural concepts that are thought to respond to aural design needs are explained. The methods used in voice studies are explained in terms of soundwalk, blindwalk, standards and devices, and statistical analyzes used in surveys. As a new concept in thesis study, 'aural architecture' and indoor soundscape have been examined. The basic distinctions between aural architecture and architectural acoustics and acoustic engineering have been tried to be made. Within the scope of aural architecture, the social, symbolic, navigational, aesthetic and musical effects of the sound are emphasized. In addition, indoor soundscape studies have been examined. However, the soundscape of interiors has been studied since it is possible to tell students how to experience indoor sounds. Three basic criteria are seen in the indoor soundscape. While subjective measures constitute auditory perception, noise disturbance, and acoustic satisfaction, structural measures constitute function, user and activity and architectural features, objective measures of sound, noise composition and individual sounds. However, during the literature survey there are not many examples of the soundscape of closed spaces. A pilot workshop study was conducted with 9 students in order to learn the auditory experience of the architecture, followed by a elective course with 45 students. It is aimed to show how students imagine the auditory atmosphere of the space they designed. Field trips and questionnaires helped to support the literature studies in terms of contributing to architectural education. After these stages, students were given an aural architecture and an acoustical architecture project. In the aural architecture project, students imagined the auditory environment in the design process. By integrating the project with 3D animations and sounds, they prepared a presentation and evaluated each other's project with the questionnaires. In the acoustic project, design decisions are taken for the appropriate project, and appropriate materials are determined for project. In the modeling programs, the project has made 3-dimensions and auralization in the acoustic simulation program. As a result, with the project of aural architecture and acoustical architecture, the student first imagined the auditory environment and then had a chance to listen by auralization. In addition to classical architectural acoustics teaching, technological tools and software programs are used to support teaching. Additionally, the students were asked to listen to the sound recordings of different venues and to investigate the audiovisual landscape of 12 different venues. The preparation of this research was carried out in the following four steps. In the first step, identification of the places where sound recordings will be taken and construction of questionnaires. In the second step, recording the sounds, measuring equivalent noise levels (LAeq) and taking pictures in the rooms. In the third step, the recording of the voice recordings and the listening environment in the laboratory. In the fourth step, the listening tests are done, the pictures are paired and analyzed later. Survey questions were prepared on a 5-likert scale. It was analyzed in the SPSS program. There are many theories about learning and teaching. Among the best teaching methods investigated throughout the course, it was tried to determine the appropriate ones for the course. Some of those; lectures, group discussions, individual presentations, assignments, seminars, workshops, conferences, brain storming, questionnaire, role-playing and case studies. Effective teaching methods in high education and virtual reality-motivated education model shed light on how to proposal the students and what kind of studies should be done to the students within the scope of the thesis. During the study, the students were asked to appraise the results of the lesson evaluation in order to understand how much the intended achievements were attained, how much the students developed with the course proposal, and to shed light on feedback received from future studies. The feedback of the students has shown that the work towards establishing auditory spatial awareness in architectural education is positive. In addition to acoustic formulas and calculations, architectural students did not have to specialize in acoustics, but the effort to design with aural architectural parameters and indoor soundscape criteria in the thesis was successful for this study. New studies should be done to examine these variables and to participate in the space sound design. Students who gain this awareness during the training process may have an idea of the auditory atmosphere of all the spaces we use in everyday life by adding a new problem to the problem-solving architecture and design process.