Abstract
According to social surveys in several European countries, occupants of multifamily housing are considerably annoyed by noise from neighbours’ activities. The noise issue has also received increasing attention from WHO. Neighbour noise has been identified as a health problem and reduction of noise exposure in the home included in the proposed main objectives for a housing policy. In most countries in Europe, building regulations specify minimum requirements concerning acoustical conditions for new dwellings. In addition, several countries have introduced sound classification schemes with classes intended to reflect different levels of acoustical comfort. Consequently, acoustic requirements for a dwelling can be specified as the legal minimum requirements or as a specific class in a classification scheme. Most schemes have both higher classes than corresponding to the regulatory requirements and at least one class with lower criteria intended for renovated dwellings, if improvement up to requirements is inappropriate or impossible for architectural, technical or economic reasons.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Improving the quality of suburban building stock : COST Action TU0701 |
| Editors | Roberto Di Giulio |
| Publisher | Faculty of the Built Environment, University of Malta |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Pages | 641-648 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-99932-0-880-8 |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |