Abstract:

The interior spaces’ layout consists of materials. People, from the beginning of humanity, seek to get the proper materials that suit their needs, either private or public-social. The more civilization develops, the more life becomes complicated full of technology and materiality depend on the occupations’ needs. The materials typically entail properties and qualities that affect the sound behavior directly in the enclosed spaces or the interiority, and especially in the educational spaces where verbal communication is a key success.

Problem:
Specialization, nowadays, demands more specific details in each interior space type. Each function does require different sets of furniture, furnishing, equipment, material-scape, light-scape, concept, and color-scape. Some of these needs are physical, and others are psychological. The Interior designer should be able to direct these interior needs toward the specific functionality of the place, which is the case of this paper, within the high-educational spaces. Materials consist of the main elements that create the interior layout. Flooring, wall treatments, ceiling treatments, and all the furniture, furnishing, and equipment are material-scape. The selection of these materials affects directly on the interior acoustical environment. The functionality of this place, which starts from the lecture hall, studios, food areas, multi-purpose hall, and activities spaces that lead to its selection, which is the interior acoustical environment, as the acoustical interior affects human mood, function, health, and life.

Goal:
This research should reach the proper selection of the material-scape with the interior acoustical environment that follows the functionality of the place in the different types of interiors within the universities’ buildings. Each of the explicit materials does have specific properties that consider them reflectors, absorbers, or diffusers. This paper should reach the proper combination of the material-scape that reinforces and enhance the interior acoustical environment following the specific functionality.
The interior acoustical functions is a design goal and, therefore, affect the overall indoor environment that affects the students and the instructors directly. Five acoustical functional' categories could be in the academe interiors — the interiors where the quiet atmosphere is a necessity, the interiors where clear speech is a must, the interiors where the public announcement should be a priority, the interiors where privacy is a requirement, and, finally, the interiors where the music enhancement is a target.
Each of these five categories of interior functional spaces in universities needs a clear setup of material-scape guidelines to help interior designers creating the best interior educational environment.

Methodology:
This paper will follow the qualitative approach in reaching the stated goals. Through the case study analysis and the literature process, the paper will explore the importance of acoustics in the universities' interiors. Additionally, as well as the classification of the need related to the type of these interiors. The acoustical design phases lead to the criteria of design [materials types and their efficient positions]. The objective of this paper is to get more familiar with the interior acoustical functionality within university spaces, the variety of materials, and their location through observing and analyzing the different interiors.

Keywords:

Educational Interior Acoustics, Material-scape, Interior Materials, Acoustical Environment, Interior Design of High Educational Spaces.