Virtual acoustic reconstruction of a lost church: application to an Order of Saint Jerome monastery in Alzira, Spain

[EN] Archaeological acoustics is the study of ancient environments that were used for performances. The combination of this study with room acoustics enables us to study the acoustic evolution of existing buildings, and make reconstructions of rooms that were destroyed or are in a poor state of conservation. This work presents the virtual acoustic reconstruction of the fourteenth century church of the Jeromite monastery of Santa Maria de la Murta in Alzira, Spain. It was abandoned in 1836 and is now in ruins. The work develops a geometrical model for acoustic simulation, together with a description of the building materials as taken from the historical documents, and an acoustic study of the church. Finally, auralizations in various locations have been made. These auralizations are built around important centres of attention in the use of the church: the organ; the choir; and the reading of a church service from the presbytery.This work has been performed by members of the microcluster Grupo de analisis cientifico de bienes culturales y patrimoniales y estudios de ciencia de la conservacion (Ref. 1362) belonging to the Valencia International Campus of Excellence. Financial support is gratefully acknowledged from the Spanish "I+D+I MICINN" projects CTQ2014-53736-C3-1-P and CTQ2014-53736-C3-2-P supported by ERDF funds. The authors wish to thank Dr. Jose Luis Moya Lopez and Mr. Manuel Planes Insausti (Microscopy Service of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia) for the technical support.Sender Contell, M.; Planells Pérez, A.; Perelló Roso, R.; Segura Garcia, J.; Giménez Pérez, A. (2017). Virtual acoustic reconstruction of a lost church: application to an Order of Saint Jerome monastery in Alzira, Spain. Journal of Building Performance Simulation (Online). 11(3):1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/19401493.2017.134097512211