The Evolution of Acoustic Comfort in Italian Houses

The research reports the evolution of building technologies and acoustic quality of buildings from 1950 to 2010. Both field measurements and prediction models have been used to determinate the evolution of Italian buildings' acoustic performances. The acoustic performances of Italian buildings realized in the last period (after 1997) were done by authors or obtained by expert members of the Acoustic Italian Association. Due to limited number of measurements in the earlier years (1950 - 1997) of the considered period, acoustic performances were calculated by using EN 12354 models; these calculations were verified by measured values. There was a significant increase in the acoustic quality of the buildings over the years especially in the last decade due to the publication of regulation and laws with new threshold values.