Enhancing Architecture with Acoustics
Sound for an emotional response
Sound is underappreciated and underutilized in architecture but can greatly enhance our perception and emotions of space. It is a field of possibilities that has the potential to revolutionize our interaction with the built environment. Acoustics is a constant presence in our daily lives and a very social interaction; but we tend to focus simply on the visual aspects of architecture. We draw our buildings in plan and elevation and represent them in detailed renderings with barely a consideration to how they will sound unless we are attempting to suppress noise. With the exception of concert halls, acoustic in architecture is generally focused on the suppression of unwanted noise such as outside traffic, noise between rooms or mechanical systems. What if architecture were a finely tuned instrument? How would our perception of space change and what unexpected delight would we find? Architecture can change our emotions, to excite us in a moment of anticipation entering a fairground or to sullen us at a memorial. Generally, this is done in combination of visual and lighting but could also include acoustics. The use of sound, either through installations, natural sound producing devices or electronics can enhance both the impact of our architecture and generate an emotional response. One needs only to look at In Praise of Shadows and Nakagawa’s description of the Japanese toilet as a spiritual repose to see how sound can change our perception of space. The “physiological delight” of the described toilet is not due solely to the dim light or the view of the garden but also the ability to “listen from such a toilet to the sound of softly falling rain where one can listen with such a sense of intimacy to the raindrops failing from the eaves and the trees.” The architectural enhancement is the inclusion of audible rain which generates an emotional response of happiness. For architects to include auditory elements in space as an enhancing element they first need to understand how to generate and evoke an emotional response and second, they require adequate design tools to be able to fully design imaginative places.
The history of acoustics in architecture can be traced back to the sixth century BCE and the remains of ancient Greek amphitheatres. Not only were these monuments major forms of social intercourse at the time but have been used as prime examples in the design of concert halls, opera houses, and lecture rooms from the renaissance to the modern era. Wallace Sabine made a major technological leap in enabling the scientific calculation of a room’s reverberation time and the processing power of the computers has enabled architects to generate simulations but the field of acoustic architecture is still in its infancy. One reason that architecture is not a finely tuned instrument is that we lack awareness of sound as a positive attribute. “By neglected ear culture, which is too diffused for the categorical hierarchy of the left side of the brain, he has locked himself into a position where only linear conceptualization is acceptable” (McLuhan). This is also provable through experimentation such as the Sonic Environment of Cities by Southworth which shows that our perception of sound changes when we are or unable to see the source, “the correlation between visual and auditory perception or the extent to which the identity and delightfulness of the sonic environment were supported by a setting’s visible activity and spatial form.” Architecture is lacking an awareness of acoustics because we rely heavily on our sight and are unaware of the potential benefits of sound as we are barely capable of explain the effects of sound in a room. The perception of acoustic architecture, and the resulting emotional impact has yet to be defined. Sound has be understood as a “sphere without fixed boundaries, space made by the thing itself, not space containing the thing” (Schafer) and hearing categorized as casual listening, sematic listening, and reduced listening (Chion) but “we have great difficulties talking about the way we hear a room, the way we come to terms with “audible” space. We simply lack the terminology” (Leitner). The closest to an encompassing explanation of the emotional impact of sound in space is Spatialization which is understood to “as the distribution of sound within a listening environment such as a concert hall, gallery, or home. Spatialization describes “the means by which loudspeakers are used to articulate or create a spatial musical experience for listeners in playback or performance,” including specific technical formats (stereophonic, quadraphonic, etc.), and “the placement and movement of sounds in space in any number of listening situations (Ears: Electro Acoustic Resource Site). What is required in acoustic architecture is an exploration of sound perceptions and emotional responses. There needs to be further researchers like Atsuko Tanaka who in 1955 created an acoustic exhibition of ringing bells. This “sequence of clanging bells mapped the exhibition hall temporally and spatially” and was successful as a three-dimensional practice that engaged the participation and perceptual capacities of its viewer-listener (Kotz). This ground-breaking installation is significant because it engages the participant to understand the architecture acoustically and produces an emotional response. Further research in spatialization as it pertains to emotional response is required to demonstrate the potential uses of acoustics in architecture.
A second limiting factor to acoustic architecture is a lack of conceptualization and design tools. Simulations are an analytical means of extracting design parameters in a finite configuration but are not very useful in the design of a space in which source and receivers may move or for understanding the emotional impacts a sound may have. To enable sound as an enhancement architects, need to be aware of the possibilities and have the tools to explore their imagination. Software like Pachyderm and Odeon exist for simulation, but their technical prowess is also their conceptual limitation. These simulation tools are complicated to use, take a long time to run, and do not recreate the emotional effects of actually hearing the space. Architects need conceptualization and visualization tools that allow them to explore possibilities. The nature of existing simulation tools is to mathematically dissect sound in space which may be important for determining the reverberation time of a room or reducing the noise in an office but is not very useful for exploring sound as an enhancement to architecture. It is anticipated that the video game and movie industry will eventually provide the tools for architects to conceptualize and “hear” prospective designs. In the same way that video game engines can be used for real-time rendering and virtual sets instead of green screens for film, such as the Mandalorian or Gods of Mars, architects need virtual reality tools where they can hear their designed spaces in real-time, from any point and as they move throughout. Tools that enable architects to conceptualize acoustic designs will also enable for a digitally immersive experience to explore and test the design prior to production. In the same way that architectural visualizations can create an emotional response, so too will the future acoustic tools of the architect. This will also allow architects to convey acoustic design through a combination of visual and auditory elements such as a video rendering or a virtual reality as oppose to silent drawings.
The field of acoustic architecture is in its infancy with little knowledge or tools outside of the design of concert halls or sound suppression. A greater awareness of how one perceives acoustic architecture is required which can be achieved through intimate installations and exhibits which use sound as a medium to define a space and evoke an emotional response in the participant. These installations provided a basis for demonstrating to the architectural community the breath of possibilities which exist in acoustics as an enhancing quality to space. To successfully design these spaces architects, require tools which allow for the easy conceptualization of designs in the same way that real-time rendering has done for visualization. The combination of exhibits and tools are the precursors to a world where sound is not suppressed as noise but is used as an enhancing element to our architecture. This will improve the built environment in ways that is not yet realized.
References
Acoustic Space. A conversation between Bernhard Leitner and Ulrich Conrads (DAIDALOS, №17, Berlin, September 1985)
Acoustic Space by Murray Schafer
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