Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

To become better at planning vibrant mixed-use cities, we need to know more about soundscapes
and noise perception in urban environments. The development towards culture being pushed out
from the cities lead to the creation of a kulturljudzon in Malmö, where culture and industry sounds
are allowed to exist almost unrestricted. This thesis aims to examine the perspective of the residents
living in vicinity and how their perceived health and well-being is affected. It contributes through
assisting professional planners in navigating the work with soundscapes in the planning of vibrant
cities and enhancing peoples’ health and well-being at the same time. The mixed-method approach
is based on a quantitative part in form of a questionnaire that gave an overall image of the residents’
attitude towards the kulturljudzon and helped identifying follow-up interview partners for the
qualitative part, that emphasized diverse narratives with individual experiences for a deeper
understanding of their perspectives. The study indicates that traffic noise seems to be the main
problem among the residents in the kulturljudzon, whereas the mentioning of bird song and other
natural sounds as appreciated suggest their positive effects on health and well-being. Sounds that fit
their surroundings and have a function seems to alleviate the annoyance and increase the acceptance.
Also, the engagement with the environment plays a role. However, the more in-depth interviews
revealed some differences in the perception of diverse sounds and individual background stories,
which indicate the complexity of noise perception. Creating restorative soundscapes in urban
environments must take consideration for the dimensions of urban sound. Thereby both the physical
environment and the psychological processes must be considered, which highlights the importance
of cooperation between landscape architecture and environmental psychology.