Abstract

The development of sustainability has made the application of green concepts to cityscapes and urban design mandatory and has popularized the installation of vegetation on external street walls. Introducing greenery on external building elements is beneficial to the environment, reducing the heat impact experienced in “urban heat islands” and enhancing an areas visual effect. The popularity of such green systems has necessitated the assessment of their acoustic characteristics and their impact on long-distance noise propagation. These effects become important in hot climates, where the topology of the dense urban texture gives building walls larger areas than exposed streets, thereby amplifying the effects of the formers acoustic characteristics on noise levels. Considering the resultant sound level at a particular location between buildings as the contribution of several remote sources, a simplified computer model based on energy exchange is developed in this study. Owing to the complexity of the urban landscape, buildings are assumed to be an array of rectangular blocks. The computer model is used to investigate the effects of the installation of street vertical vegetation on long-distance noise propagation, as well as those of the geometric parameters of the dense Islamic urban texture on the resultant noise levels.

Abstract

Acoustics is an important factor in mosque prayer halls that had not been given extensive concern during the architectural design stages. Eventually, the importance of speech intelligibility became more important, given the integration of other activities into the prayer halls, such as the holy Quran recitation, speeches, and lectures. Early attempts have been made to control the propagation of sound and to maintain good acoustic quality within the prayer spaces. Architects during the conceptual design stage had barely paid attention to the design issues that affect the acoustic environment inside the prayer zones, which is either due to lack of time during the project development or, in most cases, a lack of simple design guidelines to overcome any drastic acoustical defects arising from the incorrect design, shape, or material selection. The basic guidelines for designers to select the appropriate shape, geometry, size, and finishing materials are an essential design tool. This work examines the three common design topologies of mosques, which differ in size, shape, and finishing materials. In this study, a geometric and material parametric analysis was conducted based on the shape, surface area, volume, and finishing materials of each of the three designs. For the geometric acoustics, a computer model employing the ray tracing theory was employed to investigate the three configurations. Different acoustic treatments were tested relative to the geometric disposition of each design. Finally, basic recommendations and design guidelines were presented.