Enforcement of acoustic performance assessment in residential buildings and occupant satisfaction

ISO/NP TS 19488 constitutes a basis for classifying residential buildings according to their acoustic performance. The new Turkish Regulation defines the minimum requirements for all building types and introduces a similar classification scheme. This paper aims to contribute to the applicability discussions by clarifying and testing the methodology that is to be pursued in order to verify the acoustic performance of a building or a dwelling unit, and to reveal possible questions. In order to test the enforcements, some field studies were conducted. Acoustical measurements were performed in 6 selected residential buildings and 136 occupants' were interviewed with a questionnaire. The acoustic performance was evaluated based on the noise levels, sound insulation and reverberation time. The occupants' data were gathered in face-to-face meetings and the responses were analysed to reveal annoyance issues and the overall satisfaction with the acoustical environment. The results showed that the verification processes described in the ISO/NP TS 19488 and the Regulation could be easily applied. However, some issues regarding the applicability and interpretations were discovered and presented in the discussion. The measurement results were consistent with the subjective evaluation in most cases. The overall satisfaction with the acoustical environment depended on more aspects than examined annoyances.