Vibration Perception in Buildings: A Survey. From the Historical Origins to the Present Day

The paper provides a literature overview regarding the perception of vibrations, with a particular attention to the issues of comfort in buildings. Nowadays, an increasing number of mechanical sources generate vibrations in building structures, causing discomfort to the inhabitants. However, what «comfort» or «discomfort» do really mean? From a purely metrological point of view, it is not possible to define accurately the boundary of «comfort» without performing subjective evaluations. Nevertheless, a promising attempt can be found perspectives and methods of the recent Soft-Metrology. In this context, theoretical and empirical models and measurement procedures are devoted to define and quantify objective and subjective responses to external stimuli on human, on the basis of several aspects (e.g. annoyance, physiological and psychological effects, behavioural effects…).