Designing Music Spaces in Educational Buildings: Challenges and Considerations

Prokofieva E. Designing Music Spaces in Educational Buildings: Challenges and Considerations. In: Express Paper. Audio Engineering Society; 2026. Paper 436. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23161

@inproceedings{Prokofieva2026_23161,
  author = {Prokofieva, Elena},
  title = {{Designing Music Spaces in Educational Buildings: Challenges and Considerations}},
  note = {Paper 436},
  year = {2026},
  month = may,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23161}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Designing Music Spaces in Educational Buildings: Challenges and Considerations
AU  - Prokofieva, Elena
M1  - Paper 436
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/28
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23161
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - The acoustic design of music rooms is well supported by existing guidances, which are covering recording spaces, practice rooms, green rooms, and large-scale performance environments. However, the direct application of these standards to high school and college buildings is often constrained by limitations in budget, space, client requirements and construction timelines. As a result, educational music spaces present various design challenges that require specially considered solutions. This paper examines key architectural and acoustic issues for music teaching and performance spaces in high schools, including wall performance between music spaces, limited room volumes, and other acoustic challenges, i.e. interconnecting doors and windows between the spaces. Several case studies of a good design implemented at the high school projects are presented to demonstrate how strategic planning and interdisciplinary coordination can result in high-quality, functional, and acoustically successful learning environments. It is highlighted that the collaboration between the design team and acoustic consultants was the key to resolve the major project challenges to achieve the best possible performance results across all projects.
ER  -