A historical overview of Higini Arau’s proposal for calculating reverberation time (1988)

In 1988, Barcelona physicist Higini Arau-Puchades published in international journal Acustica an alternative to Sabine's classical formula for reverberation time (T). Arau's formula resulted from a process of reflection that began in 1985, when Arau came into contact with Lothar Cremer during the acoustic renovation of the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, which architect Oscar Tusquets was restoring. Arau proposed a formula that considered the non-uniform distribution of absorbing material in a concert hall. Consequently, the decay rate of sound was quantified in the three directions X, Y and Z. Of course, Arau went on to use his formula in the auditorium designs that he undertook in the 1990s. He developed it in a second paper published in 1998, while his first paper cut a path in the scientific field. During the 2000s, several articles comparing Arau's work with other known formulae led to his formula being incorporated in the statistical calculation section of some of the most highly regarded computer programs on international acoustic design. We aim to analyse the impact of Arau's proposal in international academic publications to date.