Acoustic Quality of a Tensile Membrane Structure used as a Lecture Hall, and Proposals for its Improvement

Tensile membrane structures can offer considerable weight saving, becoming attractive fordesigners in several technological areas. They also have the advantage of realizing an enormousspace without columns and beams. Furthermore, they can produce a unique atmosphere as wellas savings on electricity for interior lighting, due to their light transmission properties.Unfortunately, membrane structures have serious defects in sound-insulation performance, rainnoiseproblems and low thermal insulation. Consequently, it is not easy to ensure acousticcomfort inside tensile membrane structures, because the techniques that normally apply totraditional buildings are not suitable in lightweight structures. For these reasons, this paperinvestigates the acoustic behaviour of a tensile membrane structure used as a lecture room,through instrumental techniques and simulation with software for room acoustics, in order topropose possible solutions applicable to similar structures