Abstract:
This research analyzes the characteristics of sound environment and soundscape perception in the outdoor space of large general hospitals via the soundwalk approach, in order to promote the soundscape quality of outdoor space of hospitals, and provide basic data and scientific references for the soundscape design of healthcare environments and therapeutic landscapes in the future. The research shows that the average noise levels of the hospitals are 5.2-10.4 dBA higher than the national recommended values. The outdoor space of outpatient buildings is greatly affected by road traffic noise and people talking, which are 4.2-5.8 dBA higher than the average noise level. ‘Natural sound nearby and artificial sound in the distance’ is the sound expectation in the outdoor space of hospitals. The LAeq is negatively correlated with soundscape comfort, soundscape naturalness, and audio-visual coordination. It puts forward suggestions for acoustic environment control and soundscape optimization from the aspects of low-frequency noise control, dynamic and static traffic optimization, sound-masking, natural sound enhancement and visual landscape optimization. This research proves the validity of simultaneous soundwalk for soundscape evaluation, and provides support for the in-depth development of hospital therapeutic landscape from the perspective of soundscape creation.