Teaching acoustics to architects

Teaching acoustics in most Canadian universities, with one exception, is an exercise in isolation. In many departments across Canada, acoustics is presented to suit the particular student population. Somewhat similar conditions exist in the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University. My colleague in the department will discuss his experiences of teaching an undergraduate course to third year architecture students. The current paper will focus on an elective building acoustics course taught at the graduate level. Even though the department is part of the engineering faculty, architects seem to impose a disconnect with engineers. In addition, when architects design spaces the focus is seen to be on possibilities rather the potential implementation of the design. How to overcome the disconnect is the main obstacle for engineers. Can one still teach a useful and practical acoustics course? The answer to the above vexing problem is the main focus of the current paper. © 2017, Canadian Acoustical Association. All rights reserved.