Project DeStress
Project DeStress is a research and public engagement project exploring the connections between the sounds we hear in places (soundscapes), our ability to relax and recover (cognitive restoration) and the design of the built environment. The intention is for Designing and Engineering Soundscapes To enable Restorative Environments for Sustainable Societies.
The project combines knowledge on the health and wellbeing outcomes from experiencing sound in quiet and calm places and how this varies depending on the design of the surrounding buildings and infrastructure.
Positive Soundscapes Project
In the acoustics community, sound in the environment – especially that made by other people – has overwhelmingly been considered in negative terms, as both intrusive and undesirable. The strong focus of traditional engineering acoustics on reducing noise level ignores the many possibilities for characterising positive aspects of the soundscapes around us.
Desirable aspects of the soundscape have been investigated in the past, mainly by artists and social scientists. This work has had little impact on quantitative engineering acoustics, however, perhaps because of barriers to communication across different disciplines.
