Responsive acoustic surfaces: Computing sonic effects

Acoustic performance is defined by the parameter of reverberation time; however, this does not capture the acoustic experience in some types of open plan spaces. As many working and learning activities now take place in open plan spaces, it is important to be able to understand and design for the acoustic conditions of these spaces. This paper describes an experimental research project that studied the design processes necessary to design for sound. A responsive acoustic surface was designed, fabricated and tested. This acoustic surface was designed to create specific sonic effects. The design was simulated using custom integrated acoustic software and also using Odeon acoustic analysis software. The research demonstrates a method for designing space- and sound-defining surfaces, defines the concept of acoustic subspace, and suggests some new parameters for defining acoustic subspaces.