Sound Screen

Urban areas face noise exposition issues which limit the use of public spaces as well as social and urban life within cities. The Scientific and Technical Construction Center (CSTB) and the Grenoble National School of Architecture (ENSAG) would like to experiment an innovative street furniture which aims at reducing noise in public spaces, either by acting close to a source of noise (traffic) or by offering a quiet alcove accessible to anyone. Our goal is to design an urban prototype, which can take several shapes, depending on its function as a street furniture (a bench, a green area or a kiosque) and its implementation (linear or alcove), within the context of the Python-Duvernois neighborhood, close to the Porte de Bagnolet in Paris.

The design and construction of the prototypes will be achieved by ENSAG and les Grands Ateliers Innovation Architecture (GAIA). The design will pay close attention to the choice of materials and shape to maximize noise reduction. CSTB will be in charge of providing guidance on utilizations and urban integration issues, and will perform an acoustic measurement to quantify the acoustic performance of the installed prototype.

Project by 
Alexandre Jolibois, research engineer/ CSTB / ENSAG / Grands Ateliers Innovation Architecture

 The project team is multidisciplinary: it is composed of CSTB (A. Jolibois - acoustics expert, E. Bailly - urban planner and S. Laroche – architect), Grenoble National School of Architecture (M. Paris and W. Simone – WikiBuilding School program) and Les Grands Ateliers Innovation Architecture.