Soundscape evaluation in a Catholic cathedral and Buddhist temple precincts through social surveys and soundwalks

Religious precincts in urban spaces have their own religious spatiality formed by their sociocultural and historical background. It is necessary to identify the spatiality of urban religious precincts in their sociocultural contexts because soundscape perception is determined largely by context. In the present study, social surveys and soundwalks were performed in a Catholic cathedral and in Buddhist temple precincts in Seoul. In the surveys, important spatial functions, sound, and visual components of the Catholic cathedral and Buddhist temple precincts were investigated by principal component analysis. The results showed that the cathedral precincts play a more important role in social functions related to mainly visual components than the temple precincts do, whereas the functions for religious activities related to sound elements are more stressed in the temple precincts. In the soundwalk evaluation, contributions of soundscape and landscape components to tranquility in the two religious precincts were explored. It was found that pleasantness of soundscape and attractiveness of landscape significantly affected the perception of tranquility. In addition, it was revealed that a sense of enclosure could enhance tranquility in urban religious precincts.