Abstract
The subject of this research paper is to diagnose the link between the architecture of a classroom and the reverberation time. The reverberation time is one of the most important factors regarding the room acoustics. Five classrooms from the Otto-von-Taube Gymnasium in Gauting where analysed during the study. The first two rooms had the same volume and the only difference where acoustic enhancements, with Absorption surfaces and a new ceiling in room 1 due to a hearing impaired pupil. Surprisingly, the measurements showed, that these installed enhancements led to no improvement regarding the reverberation time. Another hypothesis was, that there is a measurable difference between the reverberation time in the first and the last row of the classroom.
This assumption was confirmed by measurements and may have an impact on the way louder pupils are seated in classrooms from now on. The last hypothesis of this research paper was that the reverberation time grows with the rising number of window gaps. This supposition was confirmed by two out of three comparisons. The sample size of classrooms was not big enough to say, if this factor is decisive for the reverberation time inside a classroom.
In general it was also tested if these classrooms are within the guideline of the DIN norm. The measurements showed that every classroom out of the five chosen rooms where inside the range of tolerance of this norm.