On the ability to correlate perceived sound to urban space geometries

The role multisensoriality plays in the perception of the surrounding environment it is nowadays a universally recognized fact and sound perception is known to have an influence on how we live and move through spaces. But while drawing a public urban space, are Architects aware of how different geometries will affect auditory perception of people living such space, as they are aware of how it will influence visual perception? And do architectural background contribute to such awareness, by somehow "educating" our ears? This work aims to investigate on urban spaces discrimination through reverberation of a self-emitted impulsive sound and on listeners' characteristics that work as factors of influence, building on previous works on human echolocation and rooms geometry assessment through auditory perception. To this purpose, three listening tests were conducted using insitu registrations of an impulsive sound in different urban spaces in the city of Turin, Italy. Results showed that, except for the street/square dichotomy, subjects are hardly able to discriminate among different space geometries. Moreover, architectural background is not influential, while musical experience and visual impairment turned out to be influential, which is consistent with results from previous studies.