Academics at the UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering have won funding from CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) for a research project that will be carried out in cooperation with Professor Rossano Albatici (Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Trento), and Dr Francesco Babich and Simone Torresin (Eurac Research, Institute for Renewable Energy).
The research study will investigate “Home as a place of rest and work: the ideal indoor soundscape during the COVID-19 pandemic (and beyond)”. Due to the COVID outbreak and consequent lockdown situation, home is being experienced as both a place of rest and work. The purpose of the researchers is to explore how the acoustic environment and building features affect people’s quality of life and work through an online survey that aims to:
- get insights into how the stay-home period has changed the acoustic experience at home
- inform about people's expectations in terms of their ideal indoor soundscape while relaxing and working at home
- highlight cross-cultural differences between the UK and Italy.
The findings of the project should allow researchers to design actions to improve the built environment in order to provide high-quality living and working home environments.