## The effects of technology transfer from the Nordic countries on the Finnish sound insulation requirements of 1967

Mikko Kylliäinen

Insinööritoimisto Heikki Helimäki Oy

Pinninkatu 58 A

33100 Tampere

Finland

tel. +358 20 711 8592

mikko.kylliainen@helimaki.fi

The Finnish Association of Civil Engineers published the first Finnish sound insulation requirements of

buildings in 1967. The drawing up of the requirements was first time suggested in 1948, and several drafts

were done during the 1950’s and 1960’s. At the same time, there was no chair for building acoustics in

Finland, neither a modern acoustical laboratory. Thus, the possibilities to do domestic research were quite

limited and different organizations and researchers had to get information of building acoustics from other

countries.

In Finland, the German measurement methods of sound insulation were adopted and used through the 1950’s

and 1960’s. Since the end of the 1940’s, the Finnish engineers had close contacts with their colleagues in the

Scandinavian countries. In the end of the 1950’s, the Nordic countries tried to make a common draft for

sound insulation requirements, but no consensus dealing with the measurement methods was not achieved.

When Sweden decided to publish new requirements on the basis of ISO standards, Finland made a similar

decision in the middle of the 1960’s. During the 1960’s, the contacts with Sweden had generally become

more important: for example, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland had started a research project

dealing with prefabricated residential houses as knowledge of problems in their sound insulation was got

from Sweden.

The paper is based on analysis of the contemporary research reports from the 1940’s to 1960’s, drafts for

requirements and articles published in the Finnish journals. As an archive source, also the material of the

Acoustical Society of Finland is used.