Civil Engineering and Architecture Vol. 13(6), pp. 4546 - 4558
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2025.130630
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An Architectural Design Guideline for Pain Hyperacusis Patients: Silent House Typology

Onurcan Çakır ^*
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, İzmir Democracy University, Turkey

ABSTRACT

Pain hyperacusis is a serious hypersensitivity condition, where patients feel pain because of everyday sounds. As there is no common medical treatment method for this condition for the time being, patients need to protect themselves against noises, which actually would be defined as daily standard sounds by people with normal hearing. This protection has to be mostly spatial due to the very nature of the sound. Users' needs define the architecture and the spaces created. In this paper, a new "silent house" typology is proposed as a functional group of buildings, with an architectural acoustics design guideline. Recommendations for upper-scale decisions, plans, sections, layers, materials and mechanical installations are given as design strategies. The importance of using heavy and layered walls, floating floors, suspended ceilings and flexible connections is stated. Also, a case study of Barbaros House is presented as a silent house example designed for a pain hyperacusis patient, with the conducted acoustic measurements. Reverberation times, background noise levels, outdoor sound pressure levels L_1,2m at a distance of 2 m in front of the facade, sound pressure levels L₂ in the receiver room, and D_ls,2m,nT sound insulation values for 1/3 octave band frequencies are given in the results part. The single-number quantity D_ls,2m,nT,w (C; C_tr) of this house was measured as 54 (-1; -3) dB. Aural diversity and the need for awareness about this topic are mentioned.

KEYWORDS
Noise Control, Architectural Typology, Silent House, Pain Hyperacusis, Noxacusis, Quiet Areas, Aural Diversity

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Onurcan Çakır , "An Architectural Design Guideline for Pain Hyperacusis Patients: Silent House Typology," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 4546 - 4558, 2025. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2025.130630.

(b). APA Format:
Onurcan Çakır (2025). An Architectural Design Guideline for Pain Hyperacusis Patients: Silent House Typology. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 13(6), 4546 - 4558. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2025.130630.