Could you tell us about the work that went into creating the Italian acoustic standard for schools, UNI 11532-2?
Some years ago, inside the UNI Committee for Acoustics and Vibration the idea was born to design a standard to address acoustic comfort inside different indoor spaces, like schools, offices, hospitals, etc. The task of coordinating the new working group was assigned to Linda Parati, who has a wide professional experience on this topic. Many academics and professionals put their experience in this collective work. I had the chance to participate in this collective work, too. I shared my experience in classroom acoustics acquired in more than twenty-years of study in this field, to the service of the standard. I published many articles on the topic and this was for me the way to serve the UNI committee. Another important contribution came from the acoustics researchers of the University of Bologna, who shared their experience on the refurbishment of several university lecture halls.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in implementing this standard?
The UNI working group had to select the relevant acoustic criteria, to propose suitable target values for them, to clearly explain how to estimate them at design stage and how to measure them after the construction, considering also the measurement uncertainty. And all this avoiding any clash with the old national regulations on the same topic. One person cannot do all this, but all together in the UNI group we did it.
