The Potent Pollution Of Noise
January 31, 2024 at 01:08AMRelated reads: You might also enjoy one of my picks on the rise of bird deaths from glass collision in bioGraphic and a reading list on the sounds of silence by Longreads contributor Chris Wheatley.
So many elements contribute to a city’s soundscape, from songbirds to rushing streams to the collective chatter across a neighborhood. Instead, human- and machine-generated sounds like car engines, leaf blowers, and amplified Bluetooth devices typically drown out these more natural and “pleasant” sounds in urban settings.
For Noema, Jeffrey Arlo Brown explores the research in urban soundscape planning, looking to cities like Berlin for solutions that promote healthier acoustic environments.
At the nexus of the Admiralbrücke, policies carried through and discarded, designs intentional and haphazard, come together to create a pleasingly multi-dimensional experience of sound. “You hear really beautiful gradations of the space,” Kusitzky told me. “You hear noise that happens close by and noise that is further away. Through the sound, you have a really beautiful sense of the shape of the space.”
But, he added, “you need to make sure that the quality of life in cities lives up to expectations not just inside your own four walls, but outside in the city. That you hear the birds, other people, liveliness. Hearing your own steps when you walk. Along many big streets that doesn’t happen.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/01/30/the-potent-pollution-of-noise/
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