Liveable Listenable Cities: Human-Centred Planning and Appraisal of Applied Soundscape Design for an Auraldiverse Population — An Introduction

This transdisciplinary project will devise, apply and analyse place and user specific soundscape design. The prompt is the ISO’s adoption of the term "soundscape" (BS ISO 12913-1:2014) and the nod to soundscapes in ProPG (2017). Effective and meaningful implementation of this standard and guidance requires rounded approaches to measuring and assessing the human response to sound in all its diversity and its larger effects on the urban environment. This requires new transdisciplinary research in academia including sonic arts practice and urban theory, evidenced in case studies demonstrating soundscape practice and applicability in "real-world" contexts — of which at present there are few. The project acknowledges the need for creative approaches to designing contextually pertinent sonic environments that can contribute to our wellbeing against the backdrop of rapid urbanisation, along a continuum from passive noise control, classic soundscape design and art intervention.