Acoustic rendering of buildings

While visual rendering of buildings is the state of the art in today' s design programs, acoustic or auditory rendering is still in its infancy. This paper reviews some promising approaches to the computer simulation of sound propagation and perception in buildings. The range of methods spans from the numerical solution of the wave equation to advanced geometric methods based on ray tracing and radiosity algorithms. Furthermore concepts for modelling the human sound perception are discussed. Finally some issues of practical implementation will be addressed.