Typical acoustical performances of façades of Italian schools: the effect of the outdoor noise on the indoor acoustic comfort

The paper deals with the façade sound insulation of Italian schools placed in Lombardy and Tuscany Regions. The selected sample consists of more than one hundred façades of Italian schools of all levels (from nursery to upper secondary school) and built in different time periods and building technology. For this reason, the selected sample can be considered as representative of typical Italian schools. For each school, the façade sound insulation, the reverberation time, the average outdoor noise, the age of building and the main characteristics of the façade have been studied (kind of glass, kind of ventilation, dimension of the windows etc.). Based on these data, it has been studied the correlation between the main characteristics of the façades and the façade sound insulation and between the year of construction and the acoustic performance. These results are also referred to the complete building stock of the Italian school buildings based on a recent census realized by the Italian Ministry of School. Further considerations concern the influence of the noise coming from outdoor on the indoor acoustic comfort. Based on the above-mentioned items, some indications are given on priority actions needed to improve the acoustic performance of school buildings.