The acoustics and ventilation design tool applied retrospectively to four 19th century buildings

The acoustic and ventilation simple sketch design tool is a spread-sheet. It was constructed to encourage designers to explore a proposed building's size and shape, the natural ventilation and simple acoustics, in order to promote sustainable architecture. A number of simple input parameters are necessary, the number of people the space must accommodate and the volume of air per person appropriate to the acoustic function. Allowing the internal air temperature to rise by some 10–15%, the building geometry, the natural ventilation and acoustics can be discussed via the volume of the space. This paper has two aims, firstly to demonstrate the acoustic and ventilation design tool generating the geometric features, the simple acoustic properties and the natural ventilation rates for buildings, ranging from a simple open-plan office to a multi-purpose space. Secondly, the design tool is applied retrospectively to the London Custom House Long Room, the Truro Methodist Church, the Vienna Court Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall, so that the validity of the design tool may be discussed, and its effectiveness demonstrated and evaluated. This is achieved by comparing the design tool output with real data from the literature on these four 19th century buildings.