Sound disturbance and enjoyment

Sound is extremely important to consider when designing in landscape architecture. Ever been overwhelmed when in a landscape? Noticing how far the noise travels from a main road. This is why sound is a vital element of design consideration and should be picked up through site analysis.

Some of the ways in which landscapes can help reduce noise is through plants. These acts as sound absorbers, they absorb the noise vibrations through leaves, twigs, and branches. Broad leaved trees will deflect the most noise vibrations, however throughout the winter when they lose their leaves there will be minimum noise reduction, therefore a mixture between deciduous and evergreen will create the best noise defence.

Sound deflection and reflection is created when using physical barriers such as walls or fences to completely reflect the sound waves back to its source. This becomes problematic as some waves travel at hight, so may not be able to stop all of the sound.

Sound diffusion is also used to spread the sound wave in many directions, this might be a textured wall that projects the sound waves back and spreads them out evenly.

Another way to lower the noise disturbance in places is use white noise. An example of this is water within landscapes. The splashes lower the impact of other noises such as cars, and large bodies of water can slow down the speed in which noise waves travel.  

Gilmer, M. (2014) Landscape Noise Barriers - Landscaping Network, LandscapingNetwork.com. Available at: https://www.landscapingnetwork.com/landscape-design/noise-reduction.html. 

Visiting Puzzle Woods, the other week in the Forest Of Dean highlighted the importance of how we can influence sound within our landscapes. There were instruments that the public could play in a relatively flat field that went of for miles. It was beautiful, all of us had a go at playing them, and when you were just walking through you could hear the chimes from the large xylophones in the background. It created a very whimsical scene, which was very enjoyable. We then sat in the café about 100 meters or more from this space and you could hear people chiming away. It wasn’t overpowering just enough to listen and enjoy it when there was a moment of silence.

 I though it worked really well and is something that I would consider putting in my own design as a landscape architect, it was very enjoyable to both play and watch people interact with it.