A pilot framework for heritage-oriented soundscape analysis: Development and testing of the Materialized Sonic Memory Index in Chinese urban public spaces
Sound is a significant yet frequently neglected aspect of how people experience architectural heritage. Cultural memory in Chinese heritage-oriented public space is shaped not only by visual form and material surface but also by the repetition of human and natural sound, by spatial enclosure, and by the masking effect of mechanical noise. This article develops and tests a pilot analytical framework for interpreting soundscape features and their relationship to cultural meaning-making through the concept of materialized sonic memory. Using a publicly available integrated multimedia database of urban soundscape surveys (the International Soundscape Database), 1,831 cleaned questionnaire records from eight non-heritage public-space sites in Shenyang and Shenzhen, China, were analyzed. The study computes ISO-style pleasantness and eventfulness coordinates, classifies dominant sound sources, and introduces the Materialized Sonic Memory Index (MSMI) to gauge the balance among culturally significant human and natural sonic presence, perceived pleasantness, and mechanical noise disturbance. Soundscape quality varied significantly across locations (one-way ANOVA, F = 26.91, p < 0.001 for MSMI); three Shenzhen park sites achieved the highest MSMI values (0.44–0.48), while four Shenyang civic squares showed strong negative cultural sonic balance. Human-sound-dominant typologies produced the strongest MSMI values (0.93 and 0.83); chaotic-negative traffic- and other-noise-dominant typologies yielded the weakest (−0.79 and −0.75). All variance inflation factors remained below 1.10, ruling out multicollinearity. A four-scheme weight-sensitivity analysis confirmed that the MSMI location ranking is robust to alternative weighting choices. Because none of the eight sampled sites is officially designated as a heritage site, the findings are presented as a methodological proof-of-concept that establishes a reproducible computational route from soundscape data to heritage-oriented architectural interpretation, providing a foundation for future fieldwork at officially designated heritage settings.
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