Improving soundscape studies and policies states that the soundscape approach, which also considers noise interventions, should replace noise management. However, a considerable number of soundscape studies have been concerned with the quality of acoustic environments of open and urban public spaces. This study focuses on indoor soundscaping and its possible integration into the architectural design and application process. Therefore, the present and ongoing Turkish and European soundscape and noise management policies were evaluated in detail and compared in order to characterize the gap regarding the state of indoor soundscaping between the literature and the policy development level. Furthermore, we identified and classified factors and methods which have an influence on indoor soundscaping to be integrated into the final proposed model. As a result of the detailed evaluation regarding policies and indoor soundscaping principles, five stages were proposed that can be used in an integrated indoor soundscape model: (1) the establishment of a topic specific institution or working group on indoor soundscaping; (2) the preparation of a standard that includes definitions, indoor soundscape factors and methods; (3) the preparation of an indoor soundscape directive; (4) the preparation of indoor soundscape guidelines; and (5) the provision of maintenance and supervision by experts and authorities.

Indoor soundscape is a relatively new and developing field compared to urban soundscape in practice. To address this gap, this study aims to identify the key influencing factors as a first step of the indoor soundscape intervention approach. The study employed a two-phase methodology. Phase one involved a Systematic Review (SR) of the literature, conducted through the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, to collate data on the influencing factors and intervention criteria of the indoor soundscape approach. Searching was conducted using two databases, Web of Science and Scopus. As a result of the search, a total of 29 studies were included in the review. The review included studies addressing the soundscape influencing factors and theoretical frameworks. Studies that did not address these criteria were excluded. Phase two comprised the application of the Grounded Theory (GT) coding process to organize, categorize, and merge the data collected in phase one. As a result of the coding process, three levels of categories were achieved; L1: key concept, L2: overarching category, L3: core category. Four core categories were identified as ‘Sound’, ‘People’, ‘Building’, and ‘Environment’ by proposing the Indoor Soundscape Intervention (ISI) criteria. The repeatable and updatable nature of the proposed method allows it to be adapted to further studies and different contexts/cases.