Architecture has always molded how cites and buildings look. We often refer to places as landmarks, only rarely taking in to consideration the acoustics of a particular building. Spaces that we design and inhabit all have characteristics in how it sounds.
An office that may be sealed off from the outside may not be as quiet as you think it is, or how a big room in a glass building with rows of cubicles can easily communicate from a distance without the aid of conventional communication devices.
Regularly the sound of a place is so general that we stop noticing what we hear. For instance, if you compare the noisy subway platform in New York City with a relatively quiet satiation in Paris, where the trains slide into platforms on wheels.
Sound may be unconsciously perceived but that doesn't make it any less an architectural material than concrete, glass, wood, stone or light. Sound is shaped by design and most of the architects rarely even think about this factor. Maybe if the task is to make a concert hall or something that involves acoustics to be amplified.
Smell was once the unspoken outbreak of cities, during the Middle Ages. Today, we can say it is sound. Streets, bars, offices and private houses can be irritatingly noisy and draining at times. We should take into consideration how our environment sounds with despite the architectural beauty of the design.
Reyner Banham wrote a book "Architecture of the well-Tempered Environment," nearly half a century ago. In which he meditated on how heat, light, air and materials create habitats that variously influence our experience in structures and building. He pushed the fact that such environmental considerations should be "naturally subsumed into the normal working methods of the Architect.
To Banham's list can be added sound. We talk admiringly about green or energy-efficient buildings, with roof gardens, cross-ventilation and stairways that encourage residents to walk, because good design can aspire to improve public health. But we don't talk nearly enough about how sound in these buildings, and in all the other spaces we design, make us feel.
Banham's list can also include sound. Most of Architects are pushing toward a green energy efficient building with cross-ventilation systems, roof gardens and stairways to encourage walking, because a good design improves public health. But we don't take in consideration aspects of sound that also share a chunk or promoting a well desired environment.
Acoustics can act in deep, visceral ways, not unlike music (think of the sound of an empty house). And while it's sometimes hard to pin down exactly how, there is often a correlation between the function of a place or an object and the sound we expect it to make.
There is always a correlation between the function of a place or an object and the sound we expect it to make, although it sometimes hard to pin down how exactly this happens. A solid wood door sounds better than a low cost hollow one; partly because its heavy clunk secures us that the door is a true barrier conforming to the task it serves.
The room can sound muffled and even seem a little claustrophobic without the windows open. Windows are not just about light and views but also about letting in air and, by implication, the rest of the world. They are transparent membranes and portals.
At times if noticed, rooms can sound muffled and even seem a claustrophobic without the windows opened. It just goes to show that windows are not just about light and views but also about letting air in and, by implication, the environment outside. The room with windows open will feel different. Sound animated, defines and enlarges the architecture.
