Episode 14: SOUND WALKING INTO 2021 - Renate Zentschnig and Michiel Huijsman - Soundtrackcity & Grant Waters - Tranquil City

Sound Walking into 2021 - Taking strides to improve urban sound design

It’s reported that app usage has surged 40% during the pandemic, reaching an all-time high of over 200 billion hours during April 2020. Videoconferencing, collaboration software, streaming entertainment, fitness and wellness apps have seen booms in recent months.

With this being our first episode of 2021, we thought we’d pick up on that New Year, New You fitness and wellness boom and do something to promote the well-being benefits of Sound Walking.

In this episode, we enjoy a discussion with 3 guests whose companies' products and services help us to not only enjoy sound walks but also gather information and data to help design and build calmer outdoor soundscapes and healthier cities.

Renate Zentschnig and Michiel Huijsman are Directors of Soundtrackcity, a company that investigates sound as a fundamental part of the living environment. Interdisciplinary teams of sound artists, citizens and architects listen to the city and together formulate new concepts and methods for the urban design of the future. Founded in Amsterdam in 2009, Soundtrackcity is now active in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Istanbul and Berlin.

Grant Waters is the CEO and Co-founder of Tranquil City, an Environmental Data Company whose mission is to help everyone lead healthier and more sustainable lives in cities. Their work in creating multidisciplinary solutions that tackle the very human problems of living and thriving in big cities combines big data, local knowledge and public co-creation. Grant is an experienced Acoustic Consultant, also working for Anderson Acoustics, and has worked on many prestigious architectural and soundscape projects that push for a new way to approach acoustic design. At Anderson Acoustics, he has also worked closely with the Quiet Mark acoustic analysis team since 2017.