COVID-19 Impacts on Historic Soundscape Perception and Site Usage

The ISO 12913 standards acknowledge the primacy of context in perceiving acoustic environments. In soundscape assessments, is constituted by both physical surroundings and psychological, social, cultural factors. Previous studies have revealed similarities people’s assessments comparable surroundings, such as urban or national parks, despite differing individual associative contexts. However, these were found to be capable shifting historic setting Berlin Wall Memorial. Providing contextual information from past appears some bearing on perception. COVID-19 lockdown measures enacted since March 2020 Germany prevented most tourist activity at memorial, a resulting shift user has been observed otherwise open accessible memorial landscape. Building previous investigations conducted this paper investigates what effect restrictions had its perception visitors. Informal interviews paired with comparative measurements indicated pliability for local stakeholders. contrast site programming alone, presence also affect users. This holds repercussions heritage designs serving populations—and their divergent perceptions—alike. impacts being neither static nor generalizable across stakeholders are discussed suggestions further research.