Quiet places in cities
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Quiet places improve the quality of a city, and improve the life of the inhabitants. At quiet places the inhabitants can relax and recover from their daily life and work. This website describes why and how cities should create or protect quiet places. First have a look at this short introductory video (about 2 min).
Two types of quiet places in cities are considered:
- quiet façades of dwellings,
- quiet areas such as parks and quiet residential areas.
Quiet façades are attractive locations for gardens and balconies. Inside the house, bedrooms may be chosen preferably at the quiet façade. Quiet areas are locations where people can walk and relax, or can perform activities such as running.
Quiet places should be protected against excessive noise, in particular traffic noise. Traffic noise levels at quiet places should preferably be 45 dB or lower, but levels up to 50 or 55 dB may still be acceptable. This is explained in detail on this website.
Quiet places should also have other qualities than low traffic noise levels. For example: nice architecture in a quiet residential area, nice vegetation in a park, or attractive sounds such as bird song. These qualities are also considered on this website, but the main focus is on the protection against traffic noise.
The website consists of the following sections.
- Introduction - this page.
- Overview - an overview of the website.
- What is a quiet place? - Definition of "quiet area" and "quiet façade" in relation to existing policies and research findings.
- How can cities create or protect quiet places? - Examples on quiet areas with figures and videos, and a discussion on urban planning and quiet areas and façades.
- Scientific support - Information on human response in terms of annoyance and sleep disturbance, and on how to calculate correct sound levels at shielded sides.
- QSIDE project - this website was prepared by partners of the EU Life+ project QSIDE, which is summarized in this section.
- About - About this website.