A historical overview of Higini Arau’s proposal for calculating reverberation time (1988)

Higini Arau’s 1988 proposal for calculating reverberation time offers a significant advancement over Sabine's classical formula by accounting for the non-uniform distribution of absorbing materials in concert halls. This innovation, developed during the acoustic renovation of Palau de la Música Catalana, introduced a three-directional (X, Y, Z) decay rate quantification that more accurately models sound behavior in real-world auditoriums. Arau’s work, initially published in Acustica and later refined in 1998, gained recognition through comparisons with other formulae and was integrated into leading international acoustic design software by the 2000s. This historical overview assesses the enduring impact of Arau’s proposal on global academic discourse.

Álvarez, J., Graus, R., & Martín-Nieva, H. (2025). A historical overview of Higini Arau’s proposal for calculating reverberation time (1988). Proceedings of the 11th Convention of the European Acoustics Association Forum Acusticum / EuroNoise 2025, 925–931. https://doi.org/10.61782/fa.2025.0012