Acoustical design of Turkish Religious Affairs Mosque

The new Turkish Religious Affairs Mosque(DIB) with its prayer capacity and outstanding volume is the largest neo-classic mosque project of the past decade built in Ankara, Turkey. The Mosque is also one of unique examples of its scale for which the room acoustic design is applied in its design phase. Acoustical design of DIB Mosque is critical considering speech and music related activity patterns held in such religious spaces. Interior surface forms and materials of walls, floor, flat ceilings and dome are studied simultaneously with the architectural design as early as in the concept phase. Impedance tube is used for testing alternative materials for specifying sound absorption characteristics of reliefs and perforations. Computer simulation is applied as an acoustical design tool and estimations are held by ODEON v.11.23. Objective acoustical parameters including reverberation time, speech transmission index and A-weighted sound levels are assessed with and without sound reinforcement systems for fully and partially occupied mosque conditions. Auralizations are held for imam and muezzin in different forms of religious call out to prayers. Evaluation of the space indicates that the optimized acoustical field is proper for intended functions of use in a mosque and satisfies desired tranquil environment.