Speaker
Description
As a quintessential urban element, courtyards foster restorative spaces within dense cities. However, their soundscapes remain underexplored compared with open urban spaces and indoor environments. Utilising the soundscape description system, this scoping review synthesised empirical evidence from 90 studies on the acoustic environments of urban courtyards. First, regarding sound characteristics, courtyards are not inherently quiet (SPL IQR = 49.15-59.07 dBA) but provide substantial sound attenuation. Because overall SPLs are moderate, design strategies can shift from noise mitigation to amplification of natural, human, and context-specific sounds. Second, diverse spatial configurations influence reverberation (RT = 1.05s), with boundary conditions, openness, and adjunct building elements (e.g. covered corridors, pavilions), serving as effective physical intervention strategies. Third, reported social and demographic aspects of users are primarily related to residential courtyards, exhibiting a dichotomous design narrative between domestic and public urban courtyard soundscapes. Finally, observed mesothermal climate classification and visually dominated environments fundamentally accentuate auditory perception. Regulating physical environmental conditions can facilitate feasible microclimatic soundscape strategies. To advance this, the review identifies underexplored opportunities for designing courtyard soundscapes through spatiotemporal acoustic properties, spatial geometry, and interactions between environmental domains.