The conference was organized by the international group Knauf, the Moscow Architectural Institute (MARHI), the Research Institute of Building Physics (NIISF) and the Union of Moscow Architects (SMA). On the eve of the event, a press conference was held, in which the leaders and leading experts of the organizers took part. Presentations were made and answered questions from journalists: Janis Kroulis, manager of the KNAUF CIS group; Hans-Ulrich Hummel, Head of Markets Management, Knauf International Group; Dmitry Shvidkovsky, Rector of Moscow Architectural Institute; Natalya Shchurova, Head of Certification and Patent Science Department, NIISF; Nikolay Shumakov, President of the Agrarian Academy.
Janis Kroulis, managing director of the KNAUF CIS group, about the ecology of living space:
Janis Kraulis noted that KNAUF regularly holds such conferences on various construction issues, and always tries to attract the best research centers and professional associations to participate in them. According to him, in recent years, considerable attention has been paid to factors that affect human health, physical and emotional state. We are talking about the ecology of living space, in all its manifestations. One of these factors is undoubtedly the creation of a favorable acoustic environment. In turn, acoustic comfort is, on the one hand, protection of a person from harmful external noise; on the other hand, the creation of conditions in which a person could fully enjoy sounds pleasant to his ear. Until recently, only a few outstanding structures had the fullness of acoustic comfort. Now such a task is being set in relation to a number of premises, the regulatory framework is being developed and improved, and an accessible arsenal of acoustic materials, structures and technologies has been created, including through the efforts of KNAUF. Knauf company manufactures and supplies to the market various panels and sheet materials, as well as structures, the use of which not only creates a worthy barrier to external noise, but also solves the issue of comfortable sound propagation in the room. At the same time, the problem of high economic efficiency of construction is being successfully solved. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, Rector of Moscow Architectural Institute, about Russian-German cooperation:
In his welcoming speech, Dmitry Shvidkovsky thanked Knauf for the joint work in promoting and establishing in Russia the principles of the so-called "sustainable architecture", which is impossible to imagine without modern technologies and modern building materials. “Today we are talking about creating a new environment in Russia, and, above all, new thinking based on the possibilities of new building materials,” Dmitry Shvidkovsky emphasized. This process is not easy in Russia, which suddenly faced a new reality, after many years of having to make do with the meager set of funds offered by the domestic industry. Now a completely new world has opened up for Russian architects - a world of new possibilities and, at the same time, a world of new requirements. At MARCHI they do everything to prepare architects in the best possible way to meet the challenges of our time. Since its foundation almost 300 years ago, MARCHI has been the center of architectural thought in Russia. The same professors worked at the Moscow Architectural Institute at one time as in the famous center of modern architecture "Bauhaus" in Germany,these people created in Moscow and Germany at the same time a new culture of construction using new materials and structures. According to Dmitry Shvidkovsky, the current situation is similar to the one that developed during the Enlightenment in the 18th century, and at the beginning of the 20th century in the Avant-garde era, when many new and diverse materials and structures appear that replenish the arsenal of modern architects, which is a great merit and company KNAUF. Nikolai Shumakov, President of the Union of Moscow Architects, on the attitude of Moscow architects to KNAUF:
Nikolai Shumakov noted that the Union of Moscow Architects readily responded to the offer to co-organize the conference, which provides an important opportunity for professionals to meet with their colleagues, discuss the current situation and industry prospects. Knauf is a favorite production company of Moscow architects, because Knauf provides consistently high quality. The next day, October 22, during the conference itself, Russian and foreign experts discussed the current state and future of construction science and practice in the field of creating and maintaining acoustic comfort. More than 130 people from 9 countries have registered to participate in the conference. In four sessions, various aspects of acoustics in a human-created environment were discussed.
Nikolaus KNAUF, co-owner of the international group KNAUF, on the importance of acoustics in modern construction:
Nikolaus Knauf shared his personal experience in creating acoustic panels, the production of which he introduced at one of his father's and uncle's enterprises - the first experiments in creating acoustically comfortable rooms using innovative technologies as opposed to simply increasing the thickness of walls and floors. “Over the past decades, there has been a tremendous technological shift in this area, and the 400 million dollars in annual turnover in the segment of acoustic building finishing materials in the Knauf Group alone is a clear indicator of the importance now being attached to this area of construction,” emphasized Nikolaus Knauf. Hans-Ulrich Hummel, Head of Market Management at the Knauf Group, on the new European requirements for acoustics:
Professor Hans-Ulrich Hummel opened the working part of the conference with a report on the fundamentals of changes that sound undergoes in single-layer and multi-layer structures of various types, and also spoke about new European requirements in the field of sound attenuation, their perception by experts and a wide range of consumers. According to him, the desire of the relevant bodies of the European Union, on the one hand, for unification, and, on the other, for excessive regulation, can not only slow down the process of technological development of acoustic systems in construction, but also force a return to outdated technologies. Leonid Borzenkov, chief architect of the passenger terminal "A" "Vnukovo", on the acoustic solutions of the terminal
The architect spoke about the design and construction of this terminal, including what acoustic solutions were used to create comfortable conditions for passengers and guests of the complex. Even before the construction of the new airport complex began, the first underground railway terminal in Russia was opened, which allowed passengers arriving from the Kievsky railway station in Moscow to get directly into the airport building, while the interior of the station became an integral part of the terminal, in which the level of comfort, including acoustic, as close as possible to the indicators inside the airport. The surface of the walls of the station was divided into uniform sections of protruding and falling planes, and sinuses were formed between the ceiling panels, behind which the surface of the reinforced concrete walls was covered with acoustic mats, which muffle the sound entering these gaps. Also, in the decoration of walls and ceilings, a combination of composite panels with perforated metal panels was used, which also reduced the sound reflecting ability of most of the station's surfaces. Due to strict safety requirements and for practical reasons for maintenance and operation, a large number of non-combustible materials - granite, glass and metal - are used in the passenger part of the airport terminal, which do not absorb sound, but, on the contrary, perfectly reflect it. Therefore, special ceilings were designed, which have a different configuration depending on the type of room and absorb sound well. All office premises of the terminal have KNAUF-Acoustics acoustic ceilings. Nikolay Shchepetkov, Head of the Department of Building Physics at Moscow Architectural Institute, on the need to improve the educational process:
"The acoustic design of halls today is based on a rational choice of modern innovative sound-absorbing and sound-reflecting materials that form the basis of enclosing walls, partitions, ceilings, suspended acoustic ceilings," said Nikolai Shchepetkov, head of the Department of Building Physics at the Moscow Architectural Institute. Therefore, the study of sound-absorbing materials and structures, along with an understanding of the main characteristics of the sound field and the design of auditoriums for various purposes, are components of the course in architectural acoustics at the Moscow Architectural Institute, the necessary knowledge for a modern architect. Until recently, a student - a future architect - performed acoustic design or acoustic analysis in the abstract form of 2D models on the basis of lecture and practical material. This happened mainly with the help of graphic constructions of the propagation paths of direct and reflected sound, while the practice of diploma design indicates the urgent need to master the elements of spatial environmental acoustic design using computer three-dimensional models with the wide use of modern materials and structures. Giancarlo Magnoli Bocci, Italian architect, about acoustics in their projects:
A lively interest of those present was aroused by the presentation of the Italian architect Jean Carlo Magnoli Bocci of his three projects at once: in Cremona, Bergamo and the city of Vinci near Florence (the birthplace of the great Leonardo). The first is the creation of a unique acoustic laboratory serving not only the fields of science and education, but also the industry of the production of musical instruments. Cremona is the birthplace of famous violins. Here Amati, Stradivari and Guarneri created their masterpieces. The acoustic laboratory enables modern craftsmen to compare the sound of their instruments with their great predecessors, to refine them in order to achieve and surpass them. The Bergamo project is an ambitious social housing project that meets the highest sustainability and energy efficiency requirements. Independent test experts estimate that these houses will consume 18 kWh per square meter per year, while the acoustic efficiency of the building envelope averages 52 dB. This is a unique indicator for this class of housing in Italy. The goal of the third project is the construction of buildings and a city of the future in the homeland of the great Italian inventor and scientist Leonardo da Vinci in Florence for the 500th anniversary of his death in 2019.
Eric Ipsen, Head of Research and Development at Knauf-Danoline, on the perception of sound and the characteristics of rooms for various purposes:
Eric Ipsen talked about what “good acoustics” is, about three dimensions of acoustic comfort in rooms: what we hear, what we don’t hear and the sensations that are born in this case; how different the perception of sound can be. He presented a palette of Knauf Danoline materials with various absorption, reflection and dispersion of sound, as well as structures using them. Knauf Danoline acoustic panels are interesting in that their acoustic properties cover the entire range of applicability for any type of room and complex geometric shapes of ceiling decoration. Among the premises in which various Knauf-Danoline panels can be effectively used are cinemas, where an extremely high quality of sound comfort and loudspeaker signal transmission is required, a very short reverberation time within 0.2 - 0.3 seconds; kindergartens; schools where it is necessary to ensure comfortable communication between students and teachers, high resistance of the material to stress, reverberation time of 0.6 - 0.4 seconds; offices where it is often necessary to implement blended solutions, while ensuring both the interaction of employees and the ability to focus on thinking about solving a complex problem. Also "Knauf-Danoline" offers solutions for conference rooms and concert halls, rooms for listening to music and music studios in private homes, taking into account all the differences in the requirements for the acoustics of such premises. Currently, such materials and structures using them are being tested and certified in Russia and will appear on the Russian market in the near future. Sebastian Mittnacht, Head of Market and Technology Management Department, about KNAUF-Riesler products:
A wide range of systems for solving various acoustic and decorative tasks is also formed by the products and systems of the Knauf-Riesler company, which is part of the Knauf group. Sebastian Mittnacht presented sophisticated decorative solutions for premises that are capable of providing a person with a high level of acoustic comfort in premises of various purposes. Knauf-Riesler offers gypsum-fiber boards with various decorative surfaces that have the highest fire resistance, ease of maintenance, and resistance to high loads. So, in the waiting rooms of the British Heathrow Airport, panels are used that imitate the structure of light wood and provide amazing visual and acoustic comfort.
Frame-sheathing structures using various KNAUF panels and sheet materials are not only able to create a decent barrier to external noise, but also to solve the problem of sound absorption in the room. When creating structures, the main emphasis in sound insulation tasks is placed on combining the minimum thickness of the structure with the maximum achievable sound insulation.
Knauf regularly holds conferences and symposia in Russia devoted to topical and non-trivial issues of construction science and practice, attracting leading research centers and professional associations as partners. Among the topics of the events already held: "High-rise construction", "Earthquake-resistant construction", "Eco-sustainable construction", "Low-rise construction", "Construction of sports facilities and infrastructure."
