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Bouregreg Valley

Venue

Rabat, Morocco

Tasks

Pilot operation in terms of acoustic regulations, environmental acoustic mission

Owner

City of Rabat

Amount of work

€1,150,000,000 (excl. VAT)

Architect

Foster

Year

Delivered in 2011

Surface

6,000 hectares

In 2006, the city of Rabat launched a major development project in the Bouregreg river valley. This project brings together several neighborhoods with a cultural vocation (Grand Théâtre de Rabat, national museum of archeology) as well as residential and tertiary (O Tower, shops, restaurants, etc.). This project was also a pilot operation to experiment with the new acoustic regulations that we participated in establishing.

Methodology

With 40 years of experience in environmental acoustic engineering and in international consultancy on acoustic regulations, the acoustic firm Tisseyre + Associés makes its expertise available to public institutions. Thanks to our constant research and development, our recommendations on the regulations to be adopted are based on databases collecting tens of thousands of different sites (Urbanistic Noise Map®) that we analyze through 3D modeling methods. More than a working methodology, our 3D temporal sound maps of landscapes are real working aids promoting collaboration with different actors since they are dynamic and didactic.

 

Tasks

Pilot operation in terms of acoustic regulations

As part of a college of project owners and contractors, we led various round tables to set up acoustic regulations for different types of buildings and in environmental matters. The development of the Bouregreg Valley served as an experiment for this new acoustic regulation, focused on acoustic comfort in the service of uses, then was presented at the acoustic congress of the Mediterranean in 2010.

Environmental acoustic mission

BIMAE®, our tool and method for digital 4D modeling of soundscapes in the future state of completion, constituted an essential working support for close collaboration with architects and urban planners at all stages of the project. Indeed, it allows a joint study of the internal and external functions of the projects and the 3D visualization of the sound propagation at the foot, on the facade and around a building at any time of the day. By taking into account all sound sources at each hour (transport and human activities) we can anticipate, optimize and integrate acoustic solutions within urban planning in order to create coherent sound spaces with respect to needs. Finally, as we are able to model soundscapes from the design stage, we can provide urban planners with different solutions so that they can create coherent sound spaces. Thus, they can arbitrate between the allocation of buildings, their orientations, the sound insulation of buildings according to use and the design/layout of acoustic street furniture.

Search for sound balance between the noise of human activities (left) and the noise of transport (right) according to the uses in order to create coherent spaces

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