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Winter Buzz and Summer Siesta in Zagreb - Perceptual Differences in Soundscape of the Sequence of Urban Spaces

This ongoing research focuses on perceptual differences within the sequences of urban open spacesin historical city centres of Zagreb, Croatia, and Sheffield, United Kingdom. Both locations are recognised as the sequences of acoustically specific urban open spaces. It is argued that learning their perceptual differences and similarities could lead towards better understanding of the importance the soundscape and authenticity of heritage setting can have for management and enhancement of urban open spaces. In the focus of this paper is the sequence in Zagreb, colloquially known as the Green Horseshoe due to its planar shape. It consists of seven squares and one park characterised by approximately same size and shape (approximately 2 ha), and similar traffic plan but different ambiances due to different plantations, different position of pavilion buildings and different activities. Its visual and acoustic properties differ from one square to another like rooms within the baroque enfilade from salon to boudoir – from the square containing the opera building to the botanical gardens. It was built at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Today it is the vital part of the Zagreb historical city centre characterised by the high level of preservation of the historical setting. However, not every urban open space within the analysed sequence is equally vital, nor adequately used regarding its potential due to the representative design and position within the city centre. The research is primarily concerned with visual and aural perception and their congruence. Methodologically, it is based on onsite recordings, questionnaire held in laboratory conditions and software analysis of both psychoacoustic and objective acoustic parameters. Monitoring of the locations was so far conducted in December 2014, February 2015, June 2015 and December 2016 in Zagreb, and in September 2017 in Sheffield. It consisted of onsite recordings using the monaural microphone and three-dimensional recordings using the sound field microphone and one recording point per square principle. The congruence between the soundscape and visual urban landscape was investigated via questionnaire in laboratory conditions using the selected recordings and photographs of the actual urban open spaces. Difference between results at several urban open spaces so far indicate that the whole sequence isn’t equally congruent. Although there was no significant difference in the average sound pressure levels at the location in Zagreb, as the whole sequence is equally characterised by the high presence of motor traffic sounds, significant difference in the frequency of sonic events, especially the sound of people, was noticed. The effect of adding commercial urban activities in urban open spaces characterized by low congruence values is to be analysed due to the programs planned by the Zagreb city tourist board in 2015 and 2016, such as ice skating or pop up restaurants not being present in 2014 in some of the analysed squares. Therefore, a conclusion towards the influence of commercial urban activities in heritage places on the assessment of soundscape and congruence between the visual and aural perception is expected.

soundscape, public space, cultural heritage, landscape architecture, audio-visual congruence

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