Residential acoustics · London
I’m Sebastian Paszek, an acoustician writing about noise, buildings and the difference between laboratory claims and what people actually hear at home.
Quiet should be engineered and measured, not guessed.
Selected writing
Environmental noise
Drone noise is shaped by tones, rapid fluctuations, repetition and the quietness of the setting. A useful residential assessment therefore needs more than one headline sound level.
Environmental noise
Removing engine noise can improve a street’s soundscape, especially in slow and stop–start traffic. But at the bedroom window, speed, tyres, road surface and traffic mix still decide much of the result.
A single dB figure cannot describe changes in operating condition, tonal character or the masking effect of a neighbourhood. New research helps explain why careful placement still matters.
A smaller opening may reduce noise, but it also changes cooling airflow. New field research shows why acoustic and overheating design need the same window geometry.
Why the front and back of the same home can provide radically different acoustic environments, and what that means for retrofit design.
Windows and doors
Sound finds the weakest path. The glass may test brilliantly while frames, vents and surrounding walls tell a different story.
Measurement
Two rooms can share a headline noise level and feel entirely different. Frequency, peaks and timing help explain why.
Buildings
Closing a sound path can also close an air path. Successful acoustic design has to resolve both requirements together.
About
I specialise in practical residential acoustics: the paths noise takes through windows, doors, ventilation openings and surrounding building elements. My work combines on-site acoustic measurement with the realities of architecture, conservation and installation at The Soundproof Windows.
Outside work, sailing and photography are the counterpoint: both reward attention to weather, light and small changes in the environment.