Hush City

Hush City: the app to discover, map & evaluate quiet spots around you!

This app will help you find quiet areas in your city and worldwide where you can escape the city chaos, relax, play with your kids, read a book, have peaceful conversations. Enjoy slowing down!

Join the Hush City community. It is simple.

• Download Hush City app
• Go to one of your favourite quiet spots
• Record the sound where you are in the quiet spot
• Take a picture of the spot where you recorded the sound
• Answer the questionnaire about this quiet spot
• Share this information with your community.

Or, use the app to find a quiet spot near to you. Go to it and enjoy spending some time there.

With this app, you are an active part of worldwide research to map quietness in cities. Our cities have become increasingly noisier by the hour. Only in Europe, over 125 million people are affected by noise pollution from traffic every year, and apparently, quietness has become a luxury available only for a few of us. With Hush City, quietness is available for all those who appreciate it.

You can learn more about the research project at www.opensourcesoundscapes.org: where citizen science meets soundscape research.

• Please be aware that noise levels measured by the mobile app may not be entirely accurate, depending on which smartphones are used, weather conditions and other factors

Credits The first version of the Hush City app was released in April 2017 within the framework of the project: “Beyond the Noise: Open Source Soundscapes” (2016-2018). The second version of the app was developed within the framework of the project: “Hush City Mobile Lab” (2018-2020).

• Inventor and principal investigator of both the projects: Dr. Antonella Radicchi (Technical University of Berlin).
• Project supervisors: Prof. Dr. Dietrich Henckel (Technical University of Berlin), M.A. Jörg Kaptain (Berlin Senate, Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection).
• Soundscape advisor: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp (Technical University of Berlin).
• Acoustic advisors: Dipl. Ing. Michael Jäcker-Cüppers (ALD, Technical University of Berlin), Dipl. Ing. Manuel Frost (Berlin Senate, Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection), Dipl. Ing. Mattia Cobianchi (Bowers & Wilkins, UK).
• Software development: QUERTEX GmbH (GER) in cooperation with EdgeWorks Software, Ltd.

Acknowledgments

• The Hush City mobile app is derived from the concept of the HUSH EXPO app envisioned by Dr. Antonella Radicchi for the EXPO Milan 2015. Dr. Antonella Radicchi designed the HUSH EXPO mobile app’s mock-up in collaboration with Roberto Lombardo.
• The project: “Beyond the Noise: Open Source Soundscapes” received funding from the IPODI-Marie Curie Fellowship – People Program (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement no. 600209 (TU Berlin/IPODI).
• The project: “Hush City Mobile Lab” received funding from the HEAD-Genuit Foundation.