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Álvarez-Morales, L.; Girón, S.; Galindo, M.; Zamarreño, T. (2016). Acoustic environment of Andalusian cathedrals.

REVISTA: Building & Environment 103, 182-192.
IMPACTO: JCR (2015): 3,394. CONSTRUCTION, BUILDING TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENT Q1 (3/61)
DOI: org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.04.011

ABSTRACT:
The growing interest over recent decades in acoustic behaviour of heritage buildings has been triggered by the focus on providing new information about their cultural character. Cathedrals form an essential part of Europe’s cultural, architectural and artistic heritage, and the preservation of their sound is of major importance for the safeguarding of their singular ambiences. This work describes the acoustic aspects of the main cathedrals of Andalusia, which constitute vast places of worship currently viewed as multifunctional enclosures capable of housing a large audience. Following a methodology based on measuring the monaural and binaural impulse responses, acoustic parameters are deter-mined that are associated with the various uses and areas of each cathedral. The monu-mental size of these buildings and the characteristics of the materials used in their con-struction render cathedrals highly reverberant spaces. Results confirm that both the dis-tribution of the early reflected energy, and the acoustic characteristics of reverberation, spaciousness, strength, and clarity set for favourable transmission of spoken or sung messages and music, exhibit a remarkable dependence on sound-source location and its areas of influence.

HIGHLIGHTS:
The highly reverberant environments of 6 large Andalusian cathedrals are analysed.
Source locations related with the uses of cathedrals are acoustically analysed.
Formulation of global indices is adjusted to summarise the acoustics of cathedrals.
Acoustic intangible heritage of six Andalusian cathedrals is recovered.