DOI: https://doi.org/10.58874/SAAT.2022.202
Abstract:The United Kingdom's House of Commons chamber is a theatre for confrontational political performance, speech making and Parliamentary debate. The space has been subject to considerable architectural change due to historic events such as the Reformation, the English Civil War, the fire in 1834, and destruction in the Second World War. Considering its importance in shaping the history of the UK, together with the political speeches, performances and decisions that have taken place within it, we explore and compare the acoustic characteristics of the House of Commons Chamber in different contexts. Acoustic results are obtained from measurements carried out in the modern House of Commons chamber, and the University of Oxford's Divinity School and Convocation House as alternative spaces used for Parliamentary debate in the 17th century. An overview of the acoustic parameters and a comparison between them is presented, with a specific focus on speech intelligibility and the perception of speech in the context of Parliamentary debate. Auralisation examples are provided as a listening experience of these spaces and the data will be used to inform further acoustic modelling work of the historic House of Commons chamber site within the Palace of Westminster.
Keywords:Speech intelligibility, House of Commons, Measurements
Pages:110-113
Paper: