This paper presents an acoustic reconstruction of the UK House of Commons between c. 1820 and 1834. Focusing on a historically important site where political decisions were debated over the centuries, we aim to simulate and present the intangible principles of the acoustic properties and sounds heard within the space. The acoustic model was created based on available historical evidence with the aid of commercial acoustic simulation software. We discuss the decisions made for this reconstruction based on further experimentation with the acoustic characteristics of the constituent materials and settings of the available software. An additional comparison of the achieved acoustic results with spaces of similar historical importance and layout is presented, as a calibration of the model with in situ measurements was not possible in this case study. The values of T30, EDT, C50 and Ts are presented, while auralization examples are also available for a subjective evaluation of the results.

Communicating the impact of decisions in the management of environmental noise presents several significant challenges, requiring non-experts to rationalize changes to the environment through the comparison of metrics that can be difficult to relate to tangible outcomes. Virtual reality technologies provide a platform for the auralization and visualization of environments, providing the opportunity to experience the impact of changes to the environment through a virtual representation before decisions are made. This paper presents The Virtual Reality Soundscape Evaluation Framework, a set of tools for performing environment evaluation experiments in virtual reality.