Kulturljudzon Sofielund, Malmö: : a study on the residents’ auditory perception

Sammanfattning: To become better at planning vibrant mixed-use cities, we need to know more about soundscapes and noise perception in urban environments. The development towards culture being pushed out from the cities lead to the creation of a kulturljudzon in Malmö, where culture and industry sounds are allowed to exist almost unrestricted. This thesis aims to examine the perspective of the residents living in vicinity and how their perceived health and well-being is affected. It contributes through assisting professional planners in navigating the work with soundscapes in the planning of vibrant cities and enhancing peoples’ health and well-being at the same time. The mixed-method approach is based on a quantitative part in form of a questionnaire that gave an overall image of the residents’ attitude towards the kulturljudzon and helped identifying follow-up interview partners for the qualitative part, that emphasized diverse narratives with individual experiences for a deeper understanding of their perspectives. The study indicates that traffic noise seems to be the main problem among the residents in the kulturljudzon, whereas the mentioning of bird song and other natural sounds as appreciated suggest their positive effects on health and well-being. Sounds that fit their surroundings and have a function seems to alleviate the annoyance and increase the acceptance. Also, the engagement with the environment plays a role. However, the more in-depth interviews revealed some differences in the perception of diverse sounds and individual background stories, which indicate the complexity of noise perception. Creating restorative soundscapes in urban environments must take consideration for the dimensions of urban sound. Thereby both the physical environment and the psychological processes must be considered, which highlights the importance of cooperation between landscape architecture and environmental psychology.