National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Published purpose

One’s environment can have a significant effect on one’s wellbeing. Even an inviting room with light and warmth can be ruined by noise from neighbors intruding in the space or the fear of making noise that disturbs the neighbors. Impact noises from neighbors can negatively affect a person’s mental and physical wellbeing with people who are described as noise sensitive being affected the most. Often, people don’t equate the noises to the poor design of the dwelling. Instead, they consider their neighbors to be inconsiderate and people will often withdraw from the very social interactions with neighbors that are so important to many people who are aging in place. This project, which is a collaboration between the NRC and AIST in Japan, aims to develop guidance for the minimum protection from noise for dwellings for aging in place and to study noise sensitivity and if it can be reduced.