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Here’s a demonstration of structure/surroundings affecting reverberation. Please excuse the poor audio quality – I recorded it onto my computer into garage band, and I haven’t kept up with practicing, either, to make matters worse – however, I think the point is made: if you listen carefully, there is a perceptible difference between the clips. The files are embedded on zshare.net, so these links will lead you there:
The first was recorded in a large, open room, and the second in a very small, closed room. The music is from R. Murray Schafer’s Sonatina for Flute and Harpsichord (mvt 1)… obviously I’m playing the flute part. Interestingly, R. Murray Schafer conducted extensive studies on “Soundscape” out of Simon Fraser University, in the 70′s the “World Soundscape Project” (1973, Sonic Research Studio, Department of Communication Studies, Simon Fraser University). The purpose was to examine the concept of noise pollution in a series of radio programmes “designed to stimulate listeners’ awareness of sound and its perception, in the hope that they might take positive and constructive interest in their own sound environment” – a very interesting concept, particularly relevant to Landscape and Urbanism.
Source: http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/canada.html
Back to Dr. Mallory-Hill’s lecture on sound and architecture… the way music theory and musical styles have developed fascinates me – Gregorian Chant is monophonic because it was begun in churches with large domes that caused lots of reverb, and so to articulate the lyrics clearly, it was necessary to keep it simple. Eventually it evolved into two-parts, with the melody sung by tenor, plus another part one fourth above. This reminds me of French singer Camille Le Fil’s album “Le Fil” which features one note spanning in the background throughout its entirety (a “vocal drone”) – see Camille-lefil.com. I’ve posted a video from one of the songs from that album, and you can hear the constant note particularly at the beginning and end of the piece. It’s very subtle the rest of the time – almost like insects buzzing, when you can barely hear it, but you become aware of it kind of subconsciously first and then realize you’ve been hearing it for awhile already. Our brains are excellent filters.
Different topic: it’s interesting to note that the role of architecture influencing sound in a space has changed from attempts to amplify the sound to sound control, since amplifying technology is available. Particularly in modern architecture, where there are flat surfaces and nothing to really absorb or diffuse the sound, echoing effects are created. It’s astonishing how specific locations can affect the perception of traveling soundwaves so significantly too – in my house (lots of hardwood and wood detailing, so theoretically the acoustics would be decent) my room is located at the top of the staircase on the second floor, and from there I can hear a conversation from the basement, at a quiet-to-normal noise level. It can be very distracting – no wonder office spaces have to consider the quality of the sound environment and how it carries in a workplace!
Sidenote _ I’m still wondering about:
-speech contours?
-parabolas apparently are not a desirable shape in terms of sound and architecutre… so what about the dome?? What is the difference in their geometries/properties?
Prof. Ed Epp spoke about the international centre for flood architecture (ICFA) during the second part of class. It’s fascinating to see how responses and interactions with the environment at this scale are essentially divided by political boundaries, although many of these (hydrologic) systems transcend political boundaries (topography is often irrelevant to country lines, it seems). An interesting collaboration has taken place between North Dakota (U.S.) and Manitoba (Canada), which only makes sense, since both areas are affected by the Red River. Visit ICFA for more extensive information.
Major water events are a major issue worldwide. In Winnipeg, we experienced the Red River Flood of 1997 which was a very significant flood, especially considering the location (central/prairies)… in coastal regions, and particularly those in developing countries, the problems are far more complex and deadly. Consider Bangladesh, and it’s 1991 disaster. Topographically, the land is essentially at sea level, which is a huge issue for flooding. Some flood shelters have been built, but there is always room for improvement, and the architecture is more of a by-product of the landscape, in these cases. Still, “few structures in Bangladesh, or anywhere, are built to completely withstand hurricane-force winds, ad so wind damage is inevitable, as is flooding when rain is falling at rates exceeding 50 cm per day..” (1). How do we deal with this? Policy? “Aid”? NGO-involvement? Improvements in technology? Attempts to alter and “control” the landscape better? Better warning systems (at least)?
Could this be a reality, considering the loss of coast worldwide as sea levels rise, and the consequent influx of environmental refugees?
(2)
Side note: “Refugees of the Blue Planet” (2006 – dir Jean-Philippe Duval) was an eye-opener.
(1) Haque, C. Emdad and Danny Blair. Vulnerability to Tropical Cyclones: Evidence from the April 1991 Cyclone in Coastal Bangladesh”. 1992. 9.
(2) Vincent Callebaut. Vincent Callebaut Architectures. “Lilypad, A Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees, Oceans 2008, World”.
Anna Thurmayr, a landscape architect and professor in the faculty, was our guest lecturer today. She talked about the critical role of social and legal characteristics of successful green initiatives, citing Germany as an example of successful implementation of greenroofing – 1 in 10 roofs were “green” in 2002, due to by-laws (the activity and leadership of the German Green Party – Bündnis 90/Die Grünen – has been a key part of this). Also in germany, beer gardens are a main socializing venue – thus gardens (and the idea of “green”) are an intrinsic part to the majority’s daily life.
Biergarten in Munich, Germany. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/88/238922582_a1a077904d.jpg
Part of the research Anna is currently involved in is an analysis of Winnipeg and the feasibility of greenroofing here – in terms of legalities, the structural capabilities of our buildings as well as our harsh climate. I wonder what kind of engineering technologies could be developed to modify existing buildings to strengthen their roofs in order to support the (significant) weight of a green roof or rooftop garden?
What an idea! Wind is often very strong across open water, so this project by Michael Jantzen makes a lot of sense (and looks super cool). Bridges around our city and the world are often underused – in Italy (Florence, Rome), the Ponte Vecchio has shoppes all along it, but the majority have the potential to be so much more. Multi-tasking is (and will continue to be) key, as development continues in dense urban areas.
michael jantzen's wind turbine bridge. see http://www.humanshelter.org/
Ponte Vecchio, Florence. Author's own. 2007.
Check out this 11-year old article: “Hypersonic Sound: Sound From Thin Air”. The same physics apply today – magnetic fields, soundwave amplitude, moving air, sound directionality. Acoustic heterodyning is the process of “mixing signals together to create new ones” (1), a method used by radio receivers that has potential applicability to the way we use speakers to play/amplify music (‘generat[ing] audio from thin air’ [2]).
Again, this is “old” news, but interesting: excerpt from New Scientist: “A MUSIC system that apparently conjures sound out of thin air could replace conventional sound technology, say its developers. The prototype system has no conventional speakers. Instead it relies on ultrasonic waves to generate a “sonic hologram”, or interference pattern, in midair. As well as improved sound systems, the technology might also be modified for crowd control applications. The system could target particular individuals with powerful, low-frequency sound waves that temporarily disable them.
American Technology Corporation (ATC) of Poway, California, developed the prototype, which is the brainchild of the company’s chief technology officer, Elwood Norris. The company will unveil the prototype in the US this month, and hopes to have the first versions on sale within a year. The system emits two ultrasonic waves at different frequencies. Each set of waves is at a frequency too high to hear, but where they overlap, or interfere, they generate audible sound” (3).
I followed it up, and the technology is out there, manifested in the LRAD (long-range acoustic device), the Soundsaber (specific to the technology described above), and HSS (hyper sonic sound) technology – further info on the American Technology Corporation website (current as of Nov 2008).
(1) Fenton, Brian C. “Hypersonic Sound: Sound From Thin Air”.Popular Mechanics. June 1997.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Gary Eastwood. “Technology: Perfect Sound from Thin Air”. New Scientist: Issue 2046. Published 07 September 1996. <http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15120463.500-technology–perfect-sound-from-thin-air.html. [in part]
We were recently given a reading (concerning site, cities, planning, urbanism, etc) called “Points and Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City”, by Stan Allen. I was intrigued by the concepts behind composer/artist/architect Iannis Xenakis’ work the first time I read it, and was inspired to go back and re-read the article following Dr. Mallory-Hill’s second lecture. Xenakis (1922 – 2001) designs graphic versions of “fixed states” (1) and attempts to create acoustical equivalents of various phenomena (like that of ‘the crowd’) – involving the graphic depiction and descriptive geometry to describe the “desired effect of ‘fields’ or ‘clouds’ of sound…later reduced to conventional musical notation” (2). Exerpts of select works are available on line – some pieces sound a bit cacophonous at times, but they are fascinating throughout. It’s interesting to consider how something so obvious can be so difficult to depict in any way other than by it’s natural form (in this case sound, audibly). His C.V. is remarkable, involving many collaborations with Le Corbusier, first as an engineer, later as an architect and musician (3). I think that an important part of design is to think about the overall impression of things – be they events, images, processes, etc. – and to challenge the conventional approaches to understanding and depicting them in order to find other, perhaps deeper, meanings or ways of understanding the material at hand.
(4)
(1) Allen, Stan. “Points and Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City” New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. 100.
(2) Ibid. 101.
(3) Barthel-Calvet, A.S. “Chronology”. Iannis Xenakis: 1922 – 2001. Paris: Les Amis de Xenakis. http://www.iannis-xenakis.org/
(4) Xenakis, Iannis. “Cite de la Musique a la Villette”, 1984. [from Xenakis as Architect: Architectural Realisations". http://www.iannis-xenakis.org/images/archi/Cite_mus_dess.jpg]
this takes the idea of sound and architecture a step further, into the literal transformation of a structure into an instrument – in this case, a “resonant house”. The Wege House, at Northern Lake Michigan beach, is essentially an experiment designed by David Hanawalt (Architect) and Bill Close (Sonic Installation Artist). They ask and observe: “Could we increase the size of the instrument and walk inside? To walk inside the instrument and play the instrument is to feel the sound in your body, within your bones and within your mind.” Source: http://www.symphonichouse.com/#
Sound and structure are two constants in our daily lives, yet I think it’s safe to say that most people rarely consider the relationship between them. Sound travels in waves, and the frequency of these waves is what changes the sound we hear. These waves need a medium through which to propagate, and (I find it slightly counter-intuitive, maybe because our physical bodies behave in the opposite way, but…) they travel most effectively through solids, as opposed to liquids (like water) or gases (like air). In space (a vacuum) there is no sound. It makes sense, when you think about trying to speak underwater (we’ve all tried it!), and the way sound is so distorted or eerie sounding like in whale music, or the way a boat sounds when it’s traveling nearby and you’re underwater.
I was surprised to learn that a shoebox shaped concert hall is such an effective shape for good sound. I would have thought that the 90-degree angles of the corners would have made the sound reflect in undesirable ways. I was at the opera last night, at the Centennial Concert Hall (which, by the way, is a beautiful example of the Modern movement in Manitoba – I especially love the courtyard off Rory Avenue) and I was particularly aware of the shape of the room and the incredible, tangible changes of pressure against my ears as they sang – I found it more dramatic than even being in a space playing very loud music (either in the background or at a concert), because of the variance in extreme operatic loudness (fortissimo) and softness (pianissimo).
Apparently music – especially harmonies – trigger our neurons to fire in synchrony, which results in a pleasurable experience (hence Daniel Levitin’s book, “This is Your Brain on Music”)… yet another example of everyday processes taking place that often go by unacknowledged!
Airplane travel paths across the globe. Source: http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/images/pb_airfares_f.jpg
Neurons lighting up in a rat brain. Source: http://seedmagazine.com/news/uploads/14BBgreen368.jpg
In many parts of the world, flooding has created and will continue to create environmental refugees, often in developing countries and islands. However, developed nations are at risk too, especially the Netherlands, of which about fifty per cent of the land is already below sea level. Factor Architecten‘s brilliant solution to dealing with fluctuating/rising sea levels involves “an amphibious home that rests on land but is built to rise when the water level rises. Sitting on a hollow concrete foundation it is attached to six iron posts sunk into the bottom. When the river swells the house will float up to as much as five and a half meters, laterally secured by two horizontal mooring posts that connect it to the neighboring house. Simply floating back down as the water subsides. [sic]“. Source: WorldArchitectureNews.Com: The Global Resource for Architecture. “Floating Homes, Maasbommel, Netherlands”. April 12, 2007. Accessed November 12, 2008.
Source: http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.showprojectbigimages&img=5&pro_id=995
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