Listening our city's sound

As designers and planners have focused on and promoted public space in the wake of the industrial revolution, more and more outdoor public spaces have been designed and implemented to encourage people to travel on foot. However, in our outdoor public spaces, design has often focused on the visual landscape experience, while other sensory experiences, particularly the auditory experience, have been neglected. It is well known that the human senses interact in an experiential manner, yet the current design of public spaces has led to a disconnect of this hearing sensory interaction.

In New Zealand, great potential for sound to create sensory experiences remains, and in the capital city of Wellington, artists have Endeavoured to evoke auditory perception through sound installations. However, increasing urban noise often overshadows the optimisation of the acoustic environment that these installations provide. In response to these challenges, landscape architecture has the potential to contribute to the improvement of the acoustic environment and establish a link between the sensory perception of sound and the experience of everyday travel.

This study explores how landscape architecture can help facilitate the experience of sound, creating an acoustic environment that allows people to enjoy sensory perceptual engagement during their daily walking journeys. It analyses the walkability of outdoor spaces and how landscape elements can be improved to facilitate the perceptual experience of sound in outdoor spaces. Wellington City was used as a case study with a focus on different sound experiences within a 30-minute walking catchment area around Wellington Central.