Classroom acoustics design: algorithms to optimize typology, extension and position of acoustic materials to improve teaching-learning activities.

The acoustic conditions of classrooms received a lot of attention in the last decades because of their essential role to guarantee effective teaching and learning, especially at the baseline levels of the educational path. Most classrooms in Italy, of every grade and type, do not meet the minimum acoustic requirements for make them fit for their function since until now the laws were obsolete, therefore not in line with the most updated international standards or too often not observed. The purpose of this work is to provide a tool to ensure the acoustic quality of the classrooms for a better teaching-learning process. In this case, an algorithm that transposes the indications of the new UNI11532 standard, now being published, has been developed and designed with Grasshopper and Python. In addition to checking compliance with the acoustic targets, it also allows them to be optimized and has been thought to support architects, engineers and technicians both in design and the acoustical renovation of classroom environments. Three different variants of the algorithm were compared trying to determine which one best predict the acoustical parameters laid down in the technical standard. All the potentialities and the limits, related to a set of geometric features and properties of the acoustic treatments implemented in the algorithm, will be illustrated and explored through tests on a real classroom in Turin.