Acoustic engineering

For urban CoHousing you're gonna want to hire one to really feel comfortable

I believe the specialization is architectural acoustics

( It's also possible the construction company you use already has one )

They can help guide the construction in ways that allow you to live closer and take up less sq footage. Small gains can add up. Then when it comes time for private homes you can dedicate more space to being creative and fun vs pure noise cancellation.

In general you want to try to keep some space in walls floors and ceilings, and you want mass in between them to absorb frequencies .

Theoretically you could just have 5 feet in between apts but an acoustic engineer will give you building materials, room planning and other solutions that get you a good stc rating

STC stands for sound transmission class and STC of 50 is the norm for apt buildings. ( STC 60 is extremely good to where you can barely hear loud conversations and STC 40 is where you can start to decipher loud convos ) STC 50 means that loud conversation sounds can be heard but are not really decipherable speech. So the walls , floors and ceilings of your apt should be rated at STC 50+ . Any STC below that should be reserved for places where you can compromise like windows and doors inside private homes ( but also you don't have to. You can build all your walls , doors and windows to STC 50+ rating. It's just really expensive )

Until next time 😎

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