A lecture hall is a large room used for instruction

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, typically at a college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 or university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

. Unlike a traditional classroom

Classroom

A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...

 with a capacity from one to four dozen, the capacity of lecture halls is typically measured in the hundreds. Lecture halls almost always have a pitched floor

Floor

A floor is the walking surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many-layered surfaces using modern technology...

, so that those in the rear are sat higher than those at the front, allowing them to see the lecturer. The importance of lecture halls is so significant that some schools of architecture have offered courses exclusively centered on their design. The noted Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 architect Earl Flansburgh

Earl Flansburgh

Earl R. Flansburgh was an architect known for his extensive work in the Boston area.Flansburgh graduated from the Cornell Architecture School in 1953, where he was also a member of the Quill and Dagger society...

 wrote numerous articles focusing on achieving efficacious lecture hall design.

Lecture halls differ from standard classrooms in that they allow for little versatility in use. Experimentation, group work, and other contemporary educational methods are not practicable in a lecture hall. On the other hand, lecture halls are excellent for focusing the attention of a large group on a single point, either an instructor or an audio-visual presentation, and modern lecture halls often feature audio-visual equipment. A microphone

Microphone

A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...

 and loudspeaker

Loudspeaker

A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...

s are common to help the lecturer be heard, and projection screens may be used for large displays. The acoustic properties of lecture halls have been the subject of numerous international studies, some even antedating the use of electronic amplification.

In 2008, while visiting the University of Essex

University of Essex

The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

, Prince Charles criticized a new lecture hall designed by Patel Taylor as looking like a dustbin.