Methods for acoustic classification in buildings: An example of application of BIM procedures on wooden buildings

Recently private buildings built with wooden structures in the Mediterranean area have been subjected to an increasing spread. In particular, construction of new buildings made with Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) technology, which has considerable advantages in terms of construction times and several excellent performance among which mechanical, acoustic and energy saving properties. However, this technology requires a high level of design and project management, because many elements being prefabricated far away from the construction site. This is combined with an increasing demand of comfort and advanced performance for the building. The acoustic performances, that have been for long time neglected or at least underestimated, are now a basic requirement and increasingly requested with attention to detail and cost effectiveness by the customers. The aim of this work is to analyse the standards currently available on the market for the acoustic classification of buildings by applying them to a case study, pointing out the potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM), highlighting on the one hand the performance achieved by the case study according to the different procedures and on the other the peculiarities of the applied standards.