Bipolar laddering assessments applied to urban acoustics education

Abstract

The role of acoustics in architectural planning processes is often neglected if the designer lacks necessary experience in acoustics. Moreover, few experiments till the date have brought audio design tools to the classrooms. A basic BLA (Bipolar Laddering Assessment) experiment is presented with archi- tectural degree students showing that sound aspects of urban design are as impor- tant as visual ones. Additionally, this experiment indicates the basic guidelines for the improvement of a urban acoustic education tool which pretends to broaden architecture students insight into urban acoustic problems.