Keeping Out Street Noise

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 300, 15 September 1936, Page 13

Keeping Out Street Noise

Ip all civilised countries man has to save himself from his own nolises, which are mainly machine-made. Architects and structural engineers are co-operating to check the invasion of noise into accommodation houses and private homes. In the case of large city structures it is mentioned in a recent issue of the “Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects” ithat the exclusion of noise from buildings by means of double windows, in conjunction with air-condi-tioning, has frequently been advocated. But hitherto it has been tried only on a small scale in England. Although several complete buildings have been so treated in America, there is,only one, a hotel, in London, The site, on the cofner of Piccadilly and Berkley Street, is one of the noisiest in London. The street traffic is very heavy throughout the day and continues in varying degrees during the night. Before alteration the hotel had been fitted with double wooden windows, but these had to be opened to allow of proper ventilation, and even -when they were closed the noise of traffic penetrated the rooms with disturbing effect. The “subject” was therefore an excellent one for experiment The work consisted first in replacing the wooden windows with heavy stainless steel casements, each opening being fitted with two separate similar Casements, three inches apart The glazing is 5-Bin. plate, bedded in chamois leather,and mastic. A typical light con sists of a pair of tall casements (each about 5 feet by 2 feet), with a centre mullion, and having a pair of similar opening lights above a transome. All casements open in end are secured by

espagniolette bolts, which not only fasten st top and bottom but also in the middle on an ordinary type of casement fastener hook opposite the lever handle. The bolt and socket surfaces are slightly tapered so that they give a wedging action, tightly shutting the casement against the frame. Glazing bars have been omitted to allow a good view of,the street The air-conditioning plant has been placed near the roof and the difficulty of concealing trunking in an existing building has been largely overcome by using the flues of the existing fireplaces with which most of the bedrooms were equipped. The coal-burning fires have been replaced with electric fires, and the usual exit for the conditioned air is from the top of the projecting overmantle. It is stated that the results are astonishing. Even the high-pitched notes of motor-horns are completely excluded. It should be realised that the structure ,is mainly solid brickwork, which undoubtedly helps to damp down struc-ture-borne noise. It is possible that results would not he so good with a modern light steel-framed or reinforced concrete building, though even in these cases adequate defence might be provided by insulating the building from the ground. The remarkable success of this, experiment gives ground for the belief that effective exclusion of street noises need not be so difficult technically nor so costly to achieve as has been generally anticipated. Where a new building is planned to be equipped with air-conditioning, any ■ increase in structural cost should be negligible. The requirements for tae double windows are that they should be airtight, rigid and heavy.