Audiobook


Immerse yourself in the sound of present and future cities!

Modern man has become a city dweller exposed to everyday noise, this is considered "noise pollution". As a result, this has a shifted threshold of perception, which makes people less sensitive to the background noise of the cities.
But what sounds are characteristic for the soundscape of a city?
And how could cities sound in the future, when much of the mobility works electrically?
Let yourself on an acoustic journey through different places in Stuttgart!

Hören

Soon available in english.

Soundscapes


Choose the different locations to hear what they sound like.
You can switch back and forth between the sound of the present and the future in every location.

Subway station

Between the subway train tracks at Ostendplatz Stuttgart.

Highway

B14 in Stuttgart, on the bridge at the fine dust measuring station at Neckartor.

Pedestrian zone

Schlossplatz Stuttgart, in front of the art museum.

Residential area

At Adelsbergerstraße in Stuttgart.

Ostendplatz

Subway station

Click on the icons to switch between "today" and "tomorrow".

Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Zukunft Symbol Zukunft

Bundesstraße

Highway

Click on the icons to switch between "today" and "tomorrow".

Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Zukunft Symbol Zukunft

Schlossplatz

Pedestrian zone

Click on the icons to switch between "today" and "tomorrow".

Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Zukunft Symbol Zukunft

Wohngebiet

Residential area

Click on the icons to switch between "today" and "tomorrow".

Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Gegenwart Symbol Zukunft Symbol Zukunft

Background


We recorded the sound of various locations in Stuttgart (Residential Area, Schlossplatz, Ostendplatz, B14 Neckartorbrücke) with our 3D microphone setup in order to be able to analyze the current acoustic state. Based on this, we have developed a future scenario for every location. Quantity and timing of road users was maintained, only the way of mobility was adapted to possible future scenarios.

The future scenarios are based on scientific research. However, much of it can only be speculated on how the city of the future will really sound. When recording and analyzing the actual conditions, we noticed that the noise of the internal combustion engines in particular contributes significantly to the urban soundscape. Above all, the prominent „humming noise“ in the range of approximately 60-120 Hertz of internal combustion engines will decrease significantly after a measurement of the Fraunhofer Institute for building physics with electric motors [2]. In view of this, it is likely that by increasing the occurrence of electric motors in a future city, the general noise level becomes somewhat quieter. The tire and wind noise, which characterize the noise at high speeds (highway, main road), will remain the same for electric mobility, which is why in these places the general noise level hardly changes. [2] However, what could change is a reduction in start-up and deceleration noise, as traffic through networked systems becomes more efficient, resulting in less congestion potential. [3]

In addition to e-cars drones will be tested from 2050, from 2070 they will then start the operation in cities from 600,000 inhabitants. These fly with four large rotors or many small propellers and will eventually land on skyscraper roofs or parking decks. [4]

Electric scooters and Segways will increasingly be on bike paths on the road [5], the latter being much better developed and therefore also increases the bicycle traffic. [6]

As urban noise is increasingly combated and subdued, other sources of noise, such as fountains or church bells, will become more apparent in the future. [7] The reduced permanent level creates living space for greater animal diversity, which can now communicate with each other again. [8]

Microphone-Array Straße Microphone-Array

References
[1] M. Baumann, „Rauschen im Kopf.“ In: Sanio/Scheib, 1995.
[2] Fraunhofer Institut für Bauphysik (IBP), The Sound of E-Mobility. Stuttgart.
[3] F-J. Van Audenhove, O. Korniichuk, L. Dauby und J. Pourbaix, The Future of Urban Mobility 2.0. 2014.
[4] Spiegel-Online. (2019, 12. Februar). Flugtaxis könnten ab 2025 den Testbetrieb in Deutschland aufnehmen. [Online]. Available: https://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/flugtaxis-deutschland-koennte-2025-testbetrieb-aufnehmen-a-1252829.html
[5] ADAC. (2019, 12. Juli). E-Scooter: Das gilt im Straßenverkehr für Elektroroller. [Online]. Available: https://www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/e-mobilitaet/elektrofahrzeuge/e-scooter/
[6] Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur. (2014, August). Radverkehr in Deutschland – Zahlen, Daten, Fakten. [Online]. Available: https://www.ziv-zweirad.de/fileadmin/redakteure/Downloads/PDFs/radverkehr-in-zahlen.pdf
[7] The Guardian. (2014, 13. März). What will our cities sound like in the future? [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/mar/13/sounds-city-technology-urban-centres-peaceful
[8] U. Waldeck, Klang der Elektromobilität, dessen Bedeutung und Chance für urbane Soundscapes. Stuttgart, 2018.

About


How do different places in a city sound?

What effects does future mobility have on the soundscape of a city?

How loud or quiet will the cities of the future sound?

Do we like the way cities might sound in a few years?

We are a group of three students of the Master’s Program "Audiovisual Media" of the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart. In our project "How Does Tomorrow Sound?" We have dealt with the above questions and tried to find some answers. Especially in the field of mobility futurology there is a large number of visual and written elaborations, but the auditory perception channel is often neglected. That's why we want to get to the bottom of the question:

How does tomorrow sound?

Jona Eisele

Jona Eisele

Jonas Kieser

Jonas Kieser

Daniela Rieger

Daniela Rieger

Contact


Do you have any questions, suggestions or ideas about our project?
Feel free to contact us!