This paper deals with the perception of sound qualities inside railway stations. My purpose is to describe sound qualities or sound failures perceived by users in the aim to create a prediction tool for architects. Sociological, acoustical and architectural surveys have been used to understand what users feel while taking several walks inside the stations. Sound quality is approached through acoustical criteria measurement and evaluation of subjective listening criteria. This research led surveys in Paris - Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse and Gare Haussmann (Eole line).
This paper shows how a specific methodology can be used to develop a catalogue which connects spatial forms, sound sources and social practices. As it is impossible to study in situ the same type of architecture in different stations, we choose to study a basic social practice which is common to the three stations : a walk of a person which crosses a station to use another mean of transport - for example, the walk between the suburbs trains platform and the entry of the subway. Several walks in each station have been chosen to value architectural devices, sound sources and social practices that can be observed. The same action was studied (1) at different time in the week -with or without public in the space- (2) in the 2 directions of the walk - go and back - and (3) in the three stations. This paper shows how sound quality perceived by users is depends on the co-existence of sociological, spatial and acoustical variables. It shows as well in which way the same space can create several sound qualities. All these results are feeding general thought on predictability of the sound quality inside public indoor spaces.