promote international cooperation within different specific fields of acoustics, provide assistance in organizing EAA events, suggest special issues for Acta Acustica or Acoustics in Practice, initiate studies and prepare documents such as strategies, policy statements, state-of-the-art assessments, reports, etc, within its defined technical field.

Room & Building Acoustics

The Technical Committee on Room and Building Acoustics (EAA TC-RBA) was established on 15 March 1999 in Berlin, at the occasion of the joint ASA and EAA conference (2nd Forum Acusticum). 25 experts from 9 EU countries (Belgium, Germany, England, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands) joined for discussion about creation of a TC-RBA.  This committee has been established as a horizontal forum within EAA for mutual information, discussion and preparation of activities in the respective field. Michael Vorländer has been elected as a first chair of TC-RBA.  In the later years, Jens-Holger Rindel, Patrizio Fausti and Monika Rychtáriková have been chairs of the committee. Since 2015, the committee is led by two co-chairs with one being expert in the field of room acoustics and one in the field of building acoustics to ensure that both fields are equally represented in the committee work. Currently, Stefan Schoenwald is as chair responsible for building acoustics and Arianna Astolfi for Room Acoustics. Decisions on the committee work and activities are taken during the yearly TC RBA committee meeting that is usually held in conjunction with an EAA event. In 2016 an advisory council has been established to assist the chairs in decision processes in-between the committee meetings. Members of the TC RBA advisory council are Birgit Rasmussen, Monika Rychtáriková, Patrizio Fausti and Michael Vorländer.


Main aims of the TC-RBA

One of the main aims of the TC-RBA is to provide all those working in the field of room and building acoustics with an information platform about new activities, research results, papers, books, congresses, projects, workshops etc.  Another major tasks are to stimulate joint activities and mutual worldwide co-operation between researchers and related Technical Committees, such as the Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics (TCAA) of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), to initiate common projects in research, development, and education, and to help in organization of structured sessions in room and building Acoustics for congresses, especially for the Forum Acusticum, which takes place every three years. The intention is also to organize, every year, a symposium or similar meeting, alternating between room acoustic topics and building acoustic topics.  In addition, closer contact with members of other scientific groups and members of the related working groups of the ISO and CEN organizations are encouraged.
All colleagues, who are working in the field of Room and Building Acoustics, are kindly invited to participate in these activities and to post contributions.
In order to facilitate the execution of the above-mentioned aims, Working Groups may be established to deal with special topics. Currently, there are five WGs active. Members that are interested in contributing to a WG are invited to contact the person in charge.

WG 1 – Acoustics in Open-Plan Schools and Offices (wg1)

WG 2 – Sound Insulation Requirements and Sound Classification (wg2)

WG 3 – New Measurement Methods in Building Acoustics (wg3)

WG 4 – Speech production and perception in rooms

WG 5 - Human Echolocation

WG 6 - Requirements for Room Acoustical Parameters



Activities of the TC-RBA

  • Meetings of the TC in connection with other meetings or conferences
  • Acting as an advisory committee for structured sessions within Room and Building Acoustics given to organizers of broader acoustical conferences
  • Reporting about activities to the EAA.
  • Organizing symposia on room and building acoustics.
  • Three series of Round Robin for the evaluation of room acoustic prediction models were arranged between 1994 and 2002. Detailed information is available, concerning both the results and the room input data, which means that these three room examples may also be used in the future for testing the prediction capabilities of new room acoustic software and/or the users of such software. (http://www.ptb.de/en/org/1/17/173/roundrobin.htm)
  • An open database for loudspeakers (Common Loudspeaker Format) was established in April 2005. Thus loudspeaker performance and polar data from a wide range of loudspeaker producers are available in an open and secure format, useful in connection with room acoustic prediction models. (http://www.clfgroup.org/)
  • As a result of collaboration within the WG4, very successful COST Action TU0901: “Integrating and Harmonizing Sound Insulation Aspects in Sustainable Urban Housing Constructions” has been chaired by Birgit Rasmussen and Maria Machimbarena in the years 2010-2013.


Future activities of the TC-RBA

  • Stimulate an active communication and exchange on relevant topics and events within the community by promoting the TC RBA-mailing list (https://euracoustics.org/mailman/listinfo/tc-rba)
  • Establishment of a list of representatives for the various European National Acoustical Associations for the field of room and building acoustics in order to better disseminate the information and organize local activities.
  • Inviting new membership to join the TC-RBA.
  • Assisting the organizers of acoustical conferences for structured sessions within Room and Building Acoustics.
  • Reporting about activities to the EAA Board.
  • Promoting the organization of small symposia in several countries in Europe, together with the national acoustical society, on relevant topics. Priority should be given to those organized in the countries in which the activity is not so high and the promotion is welcome.
  • Promoting the EU networking actions (such as COST actions) and multidisciplinary EU projects.

One of the important goals during the last years became promotions of acoustics in general, also towards other related scientific fields.


Membership and Mailing List

All colleagues, who are working in the field of Room and Building Acoustics, are kindly invited to actively participate in our activities, to promote new topics and to foster communication with the community. To become a member simply subscribe to our mailing list (link to: https://euracoustics.org/mailman/listinfo/tc-rba).

This refereed mailing list also serves as a communication platform for exchange on current relevant topics and promotion of activities in Room- and Building Acoustics within the committee. Members are invited to share information on ongoing activities and events on room- and building acoustics, for example from their national societies, with the EAA community.



Chairman of TC-RBA

Stefan Schoenwald (co-chair, building acoustics)
Empa Materials and Science
Laboratory of Acoustics /Noise Control
Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Tel:  +41 58 765 6579
email: stefan.schoenwald@empa.ch
https://www.empa.ch/web/s509/building-acoustics

Arianna Astolfi (co-chair, room acoustics)
Politecnico di Torino
Department of Energy
C.so Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Tel: +39 011 0904496
email: arianna.astolfi@polito.it
http://www.tebe.polito.it/people/astolfi_arianna


The European Acoustics Association (EAA) is a non-profit entity established in 1992 that includes in its membership societies predominantly in European countries interested in to promote development and progress of acoustics in its different aspects, its technologies and applications. EAA gathers 33 societies of acoustics and serves more than 9000 individual members all over Europe. The European Acoustics Association (EAA) is an Affiliate Member of the International Commission for Acoustics (ICA) and of Initiative of Science in Europe (ISE)