Architectural Acoustics Design Guide (Professional Architecture) [Hardcover]

Acentech (Author), James P. Cowan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071359389 | ISBN-13: 978-0071359382 | Publication Date: August 16, 2000 | Edition: 1

The only practical, solutions-oriented guide to the acoustical tools needed for designing a wide range of projects: open-plan offices, airport facilities, and more. Covers sound enhancement and noise control issues, with checklists, charts, and other project-evaluation tools. Complements the Architectural Acoustics CD-ROM; ideal for architects, interior designers, and landscape architects, and well-suited for continuing education use and licensing exam prep.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Deliver expert acoustical solutions to your clients with this one-of-a-kind guide that transforms theory into practice. This hands-on manual makes it a snap to design the acoustics you want. Written by noted authority James Cowan with the aid of his acoustical consulting firm Acentech, this manual shows you how to control noise and enhance sound in spaces of all types. Inside, you'll find just the right combination of easy-to-use tools, expert tips, and tested solutions.
Developed with over 50 years of international experience by leaders in acoustical design, this resource supplies illustrated answers, a generous assortment of working checklists, charts, and other project-advancing tools, and innovative solutions to many typical acoustical problems. Showing you what it takes to make your projects work acoustically, no matter what the challenges, Architectural Acoustics Design Guide lets you:

• Avoid common acoustical design mistakes.
• Enhance sound in settings such as orchestral halls and auditoriums.
• Control noise in rooms of all shapes.
• Create acoustical privacy in a variety of settings.
• Maximize sound privacy in open-plan offices.
• Design settings such as courtrooms for both appropriate noise control and acoustical projection.
• Stop sound from penetrating walls and floors.
• Understand the uses of masking and background noise.
• Moderate noise in facilities from schools to airports.

Designed as the ideal companion to the unparalleled architectural acoustical design and teaching tool, Architectural Acoustics on CD-ROM, this print resource also stands alone. It contains all the tools and tricks you need to master the acoustics of any space.
Complete Architectural Acoustics Planning Kit
Indoors
Outdoors
Room shapes
Room dimensions
Materials
Sound source
Sound type
Noise barriers
Masking systems
Privacy
Sound isolation
Absorption
Transmission
Redirection
Reduction
Reverberation
Echoes

About the Author

Acentech is an multidisciplinary acoustical consulting firm more than 50 years' old, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Thousand Oaks, California. Acentech senior consultant James P. Cowan, principal author of this book, has extensive experience in architectural acoustics and environmental noise issues and has managed hundreds of projects across the country. He conducts seminars and teaches classes on acoustical topics for the American Institute of Architects and other associations, municipalities, educational institutions, and firms. He is a board-certified noise control engineer and the author of Handbook of Environmental Acoustics, Architectural Acoustics, a CD-ROM, and many educational articles on acoustical topics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (August 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071359389
• ISBN-13: 978-0071359382
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,330,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A basic acoustic introduction, January 1, 2001

By 

Sooch San Souci (St. Pierre les Nemours, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Architectural Acoustics Design Guide (Professional Architecture) (Hardcover)

This book is easy to read with many practical examples described in simple basic acoustical or structural terms. It is a very good place to start for those who are just beginning but for those with experience or previous training it offers little technical or detailed information nor acoustical equations. As a basic overview it is fine and the resource section is very useful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars less than I expected, August 5, 2006

By 

J. Nickell (greater KC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Architectural Acoustics Design Guide (Professional Architecture) (Hardcover)

Based on the pedigree of the authors and price of the book I expected more information. Is there need for another introduction to acoustics?

The sections on Tools and Examples did not provide enough information for me. In some ways these chapters read like an article written in a trade maagzine. IE,'.. the facility had this issue ___, we did ___ and everyone is happy now....'

I hoped to find more detail on the analyses of an acoustical problem, and detail on why and how a solution was determined.

So if this is a single text introduction to architectural acoustics it's OK. I think Architectural Acoustics by Mehta, Johnson & Rocafort, Marshall Long (see my review), or Acoustics and Noise Control for Architects and Builders by Irvine and Richards are more informative and a better value.