Acoustic Co-inhabitation

C O N S O N A N C E A C O U S T I C

C O - I N H A B

I T A T I O N

A B S T R A C T

We share the planet with a farrago of flora and fauna that makes up an intricate inter-connected co-dependent system. The human built environment is unique in this web in that it is a manifestation of the inter-subjective reality, a characteristic unique to the human brain. Homo sapiens have the ability to construct complex imaginary concepts that allow them to work together in big co-operative groups,historically leading to the development of concepts such as nation-states, religion, money etc. These concepts only exist in the mutual imagination of species as a whole learned during their lifetimes.

The built environment humans create is a direct manifestation of this intersubjective reality. This differs in the way, other species construct their built environment, in that their ability to construct is ingrained in their DNA evolved through millions of years. The project explores how the two interact and reexplore that relationship through a more thorough scientific underpinning of the way human perception works and its interaction with the world around it to inform a new understanding of sustainability and ecological strategies in design. The thesis takes birds, having an important role in ecology and its relationship to humans and suggests an approach to enhance architectural space through ‘soundspace’. This approach of sharing the sound sphere with a non-human species provides some of the visual and aural benefits that the modern technology intensive inter-subjective built environment lacks in spaces of therapy for treating mental disorders such as PTSD.

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© Ambikesh Mishra, 2018

C O N T E N T S

1. Introduction

Inter-subjective reality and the built environment

Selection of non-human species- why birds?

2. Ecological Services

Provisioning

Regulating

Cultural

Supporting 3. Avian Migration Routes 4. Synanthropy

Selecting the avian client

Types of Synanthropes 5. Local Movement 5. Therapy and Music

Avian Sphere

Reverberative Chamber

Anechoic Chamber 6. Therapy Sphere

The Journey

The Spiral Ramp

The acoustic shells 7. The Reflectors

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The conventional perceptions

The Mutually beneficial relationships

Avian- human story board

I N T R O D U C T I O N “It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” -Sir David Attenborough

Inter-subjective reality and the built environment Inter-subjectivity is a term used by social scientists, psychologists and anthropologists to describe human interactions and the means by which they develop shared imaginations. Humans possess the unique ability to construct complex shared imaginary concepts that allow them to work effectively in large groups. Examples include religions, corporations, nation-states, companies etc. These entities only exist in an agreed upon constructed mental framework in society as a whole. The built environment and the everyday objects humans create is a direct physical manifestation of these inter-subjective concepts. Contrasting to these are the real physical objects such as air, planets and stars which occur naturally independent of humans.

The current pace of advancement of inter-subjective ideas has far surpasses that of the biological evolution of the human body. This is an important distinction when considering the issues of the built environment and our interaction with non-human species. Human needs from the external environment are both inter-subjective and biological. The inter-subjective needs are those which can be satisfied through objects created by humans whereas biological ones can only be through non-human objects from the natural environment. These are as simple as the clean air, natural daylight and access to greenery. Often ignored in this increased gravitation towards technology and dense living inter-subjective world are needs satisfied through relationship to non-human species. These can be classified into feral, domesticated and mutually beneficial relationships. The built environment created by non-human species is purely guided by their DNA information evolved through millions of years. It’s not a learned ability on the scale of human learnt skills. This fundamental difference is also a commonly ignored aspect of any attempt to include them in a more holistic built environment. The project consonance explores this dance of inter-subjective and biological needs and uses this insight to propose a more holistic built environment for both humans and a carefully selected non-human species.

Selection of non-human species - why birds?

Every year 365 to 986 million birds die from crashing into windows in the United States. With an average population estimated to be at 10 billion, this implies that

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avian species loose a tenth of their total population each year. Statistics further suggest an average of 1 bird death per 10 buildings per year, a catastrophic loss of biodiversity as a direct consequence of human architectural constructions.

These figures hardly come as a surprise with international organizations such as the United Nations describing urbanization as the next biggest challenge to the environment after climate change.1 The field of architecture attempting to tackle these issues is called ‘ecological design’. American architects Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan define this as any form of design approaches that minimize environmentally destructive impacts by integrating design with living processes. It attempts to link various scattered efforts such as green architecture, ecological engineering, sustainable agriculture and other related fields into one umbrella. In its current state, ecological and sustainable design are embedded within this notion of attempting to establish a reconnection with nature. According to Michel Foucault, anthropocentric systems of governing, control individuals and populations through their desires and thoughts at a micro-level. A yearning for nature, in this context, is a desire to be manipulated as a part of a power construct. By nature’s cultural definition as a separate entity, this yearning always ends up in a wild goose chase. The current biopolitical structure is highly anthropocentric treating everything else in the ecological systems as the ‘others’- something to be protected and preserved. The idea of restoration suffers the same problems similar to reconnecting with nature.

While Foucault’s analysis of bio-political power is useful, it does not apply over phenomena which occur independently of human beliefs and existence.

Physicist Neil de Grasse Tyson described these as objective realities (or the most accurate explanations existing at a certain point of time). Two well-known examples are gravity on the cosmic scale and probabilistic mechanics on the quantum one. The following sections seeks to provide a more objective impact analysis and seeks to reconcile and match architectural program and ways in which co-existing with other species can be re-imagined and why birds form a crucial component in this discussion.

Platform Nests

Platform Nests

Ledge Nests

Hole Nests

Avian Constructions

E C O L O G I C A L

In order to understand the importance of the avian fauna to the ecological whole and to human species, it is critical to highlight the roles and niches they occupy.

The scientific literature, relevant peer-reviewed data sets and models about the ecosystem services provided by birds. It recognizes four types of services provided: provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services and supporting services.

A. Provisioning Services Provisioning services are provided by both domesticated and non-domesticated species. Birds have been an integral part of human diets.5 Particular species such as waterfowl (order: antidae) and landfowl(order: galliformes) are still part of the nutritional pyramid for humans. In developed countries, birds are hunted for consumption but also, sadly, as a from of recreation.6 In developing countries they are used for basic sustenance including the incorporation of materials for upholstery, bedding, insulation and ornamentation.7 B. Regulating Services These are services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil by providing flood and disease control. The trophic interaction network is a hierarchical pyramid structure in this service framework, comprising of species that have same function in the food chain. The study of this network reveals a variety of regulating services provided by birds. These include scavenging, pollination, seed dispersal, plant dispersal and ecosystem engineering. Each of these services is critical to the smooth functioning of the ecological system as well as human community. For example, the decline of scavenger birds on the Indian sub-continent shows a strong correlation with hygiene and carcass accumulation problems.

C. Cultural Services Humans and birds share a long history of cultural and symbolic interactions, dating back thousands of years.8 These include the 16,500 old cave paintings in Lascaux, France which depict birds, the 3000 year old murals made by Egyptians with domesticated ducks and cranes. Hence, human- bird interactions were important enough to document for ancient civilizations. This transcends the original use of birds

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S E R V I C E S

as commodities becoming something that acquires a larger cultural significance.

While domestication of birds for food was no doubt important for the Egyptians, the murals depicting those scenes transform a product-driven ecosystem with quantifiable economic value into an intangible social and cultural service.

A modern day equivalent example is the conversion of a cormorant colony husbanded for guano for 100 years into a symbol and source of sentimental attachment by a community in Japan.9 Birds also serve as vehicles to diffuse influential symbolic values in mythology and religion across many cultures throughout history.10 Particular bird species, owing to their majestic appearance, power of flight or sheer beauty, both visual and vocal, were considered symbols of deities such as Horus. They continue to be used as mascots and symbols of imperialism and power, for instance, bald eagle representing the United States of America. In other geography birds are synonymous with natural and economic wealth. In Guatemala, the national currency is called quetzal, after the national bird, the resplendent quetzal.

Birds have variously represented omens of hope, wisdom and fear. In Herbrew scripture, a dove released from Noah’s ark returns with an olive branch to show that the flood was over and has since been used as a symbol of hope. The Birds, a 1963 Alfred Hitchcock horror-thriller exemplifies the relationship of fear of large predator birds that exists even in modern society.

Recreational services provided by birds can be quantified accurately. The most prominent among them is bird watching also known as birding. As of 2008, some 81 million people in the United States enjoy watching birds and this population is projected to increase to 108 million by 2030.11 US birders spent $32 million enjoying their hobby, creating $85 million in indirect economic impact supporting nearly one million jobs.12 The rise in popularity of bird watching, especially in the last 50 years, has spawned field identification guides, an entire genre of books that has expanded to cover other taxa.13 Similarly, the demand for birdwatching trips contributes to the current boom of eco-tourism. An offshoot of the recreational interest in birds is the rise of citizen science programs that use knowledgeable volunteers to help monitor bird populations on a geographic scale(eg. www.ebird.org).14 Birding has grown to be an international industry employing guides in many countries, including developing countries, where

Ecology Matrix

it has been a significant source of income.15 Birding is one of the most commercially viable and important component of any human-avian coprogram.

D. Supporting services These services are the structural backbone of the first three categories. Numerous bird species contribute to supporting services, as their foraging, seed dispersal and pollination activities help maintain ecosystems that humans depend upon for recreation, natural resources and solace throughout the world.16 Ecology Matrix The matrix to the left maps 17 bird orders in the united states with their feeding habits, habitats and ecological services they provide. There is a wide diversity in each individual order with regards to behavior. Almost all of the bird orders provide three of the four possible ecological services.

Except for feral birds, most of orders have a useful role in the urban environment. The matrix provides an overview of the utility of birds both to the ecological system and humans and is a first step in understanding and creating a built environment that is useful for both.

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Anseriformes composite migration hot-spot image overlay

M I G R A T I O N

Geography, climate and magnetics play a crucial role in defining bird movement.

Birds migrate primarily in search of better breeding opportunities, food and materials for nest construction. This results in a perennial north-south movement along four flyways in North America namely- The Atlantic flyway, the Mississippi Flyway, the Central Flyway and the Pacific flyway. The triggers for migration include changes in temperature, indications of scarcity of food and simple geographical evolutionary factors. Typical summer breeding grounds for long-distant migrants are in the lakes of Canada and coastal ares(east and west) of the United States.

The current scientific view explaining the navigational capability of birds during this perilous journey is that of inherent magnetic compasses.

The overlaying process

R O U T E S

Findings Several important characteristics emerged from this map analysis regarding bird concentrations. The first was the general bias of concentration towards the Western coastal areas. Climate, favorable winds and general habitat availability are plausible explanations. The second was the proximity of urban centers mapped to a natural forest or water source- river, lakes or reservoirs.

The species generally considered more annoying, unsurprisingly were more adapted to urban setting with increasing populations.

Site The final composite indicated the greater Los Angeles region as the appropriate site for the intervention. The area has a wide range of habitats It is surrounded by large patches of forested areas and state parks like Los Angeles forest, Los Padres forest, Cleveland Forest, Anzo Borego State Park, Topanga State Park and Point Mugu State Park. It also has significant elevation changes with peaks such as Mt. San Antonio, San Gorgonio, San Jacinto and Palomar Mountain. The Mojave National Preserve beyond the mountains north of Los Angeles is also a major habitat hotspot. The final important geographical feature is the coastal line and the Los Angeles, San Gabriel rivers. These provide habitats for the more water-specific species.

The confluence of a wide geographical ecological diversity culminates in Los Angeles being a major stop-over site for migrating birds and a home for permanent resident species.

The exercise for locating a suitable intervention site begins at a macro-scale mapping the migrations of twenty-two major bird orders listed by the Cornell Institute of Ornithology. Based on image analysis of selecting the darkest pixel of concentrations, a series of overlapping maps for each of the orders is created and studied. The following pages display a selected series of maps generated by overlaying maps of each birds from the listed orders in the ecology matrix.

After each subsequent map overlayed, a key urban center is added. This step is repeated till each individual species belonging to that order is accounted for.

The maps are color coded based on the following legends. Purple and blue represented year-round population presence of the species. Yellow represented transitory migration densities while Orange represented the primary breeding ground for the species. All four are treated with equal interest in the selection of urban hotspots.

The final step involved is the overlapping of these images belonging to the 24 bird orders into a final single concentration composite map to identify the urban location with maximum numbers of specie concentration. The composite was then studied for the darkest pixel concentration through an open source image analysis software to select a suitable intervention site for the project.

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Caprimulgiformes composite migration hot-spot image overlay

Columbiformes composite migration hot-spot image overlay 15

Falconiformes composite migration hot-spot image overlay

Passeriformes composite migration hot-spot image overlay 17

Piciformes composite migration hot-spot image overlay

Final composite avian migration density overlay 19

Synanthropic Birds in North America- Classification

S Y N A N T H R O P Y

Selecting the avian clients In order to narrow down the design experiment and select a limited number of avian clients that are relevant to the idea of therapy and co-inhabiting spaces with humans, the concept of synanthropy is used. Synanthropic biotic communities are those that exhibit these characteristics of mutualism and commensalism with facultative, obligate and inquilistic traits nested within exhibiting them in relationship with human communities. A synanthropic relation can be understood to include from one to all of these nested features. The synanthropic condition occupies an important emerging gradient in ecology that forms the boundary between the feral and urban.19 Synanthropy is a relatively recent phenomenon. North America had no synanthropic interactions prior to 30,000 years ago. The first relationship between humans and animals 50,000 years ago were that of predation. This relationship gradually evolved as humans began to alter the environment through agriculture, storing of food, use of fire and fragmentation of habitats. These changes eventually generated synanthropic responses from other species. Synanthropes in this discussion are to be understood clearly distinguished from invasive species. The latter are non-native to a location having a tendency to spread causing damage to the environment, human economy and human health. Although synathropes share the characteristic of population expansion, they are the antithesis of invasive species when it comes to humans and ecology. The concept of synanthropy is based on symbiotic existence rather than antagonism and competition.

Johnston in Synanthropic birds of North America explores the nature and scale of synanthropic interactions among birds. The European studies according to Johnston usually only consider urban habitats. However, he includes rural, rangeland and other habitats in the discussion. He defines a full synanthrope as a species in which most populations have major dependence on variables influenced by humans. Although Johnston doesn’t clearly defines these parameters- food, habitat and dispersal are implied. A casual synanthrope exploits human ecology without being dependent. The third type is a tangential synanthrope which exploits human ecology ocassionally.

Synanthropic interactions occur despite human induced changes to ecology. This independent character of this relationship is extremely significant to this project.

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Synanthropy is a relatively recent phenomenon. North America had no synanthropic interactions prior to 30,000 years ago. The first relationship between humans and animals 50,000 years ago were that of predation. This relationship gradually evolved as humans began to alter the environment through agriculture, storing of food, use of fire and fragmentation of habitats. These changes eventually generated synanthropic responses from other species.24 Synanthropes in this discussion are to be understood clearly distinguished from invasive species. The latter are non-native to a location having a tendency to spread causing damage to the environment, human economy and human health. Although synathropes share the characteristic of population expansion, they are the antithesis of invasive species when it comes to humans and ecology. The concept of synanthropy is based on symbiotic existence rather than antagonism and competition.

Classification of Synanthropes Johnston in Synanthropic birds of North America explores the nature and scale of synanthropic interactions among birds. The European studies according to Johnston usually only consider urban habitats. However, he includes rural, rangeland and other habitats in the discussion. He defines a full synanthrope as a species in which most populations have major dependence on variables influenced by humans.25 Although Johnston doesn’t clearly defines these parameters- food, habitat and dispersal are implied. A casual synanthrope exploits human ecology without being dependent. The third type is a tangential synanthrope which exploits human ecology occasionally.

Synanthropic interactions occur despite human induced changes to ecology.

This independent character of this relationship is extremely significant to this project and forms an important component in narrowing down the beneficial relationships between humans and birds.

Local Summer to winter movement patterns of Passeriformes

L O C A L

M O V E M E N T

Los Angeles provides 6 of the 7 habitats of birds having a temperate climate that is home to a wide diversity of avian fauna. There are three primary migration patterns of synanthropic birds in the zonal context. First is the migration of woodpeckers to the coastal wetlands in the winter as food resources become scarce during the season in the mountains. Wood peckers(order: Piciformes) are perching birds that mark their territory and search for food with drumming sounds on wood. This is often considered cacophonous in an urban context. These birds migrate back to the mountains in the spring back to trees that are lush again after the winter rains. Species that follow this pattern include the yellow-bellied sapsucker, red-pleated woodpecker, acorn woodpecker and humming bird species indicated in the diagram to the left.

The Pacific Flyway is the primary route taken by Ciconiiformes(water birds) that occupy the coastal and wet marsh habitats on the western half. These are dabbling ducks that feed by to and fro motion in shallow waters. These occupy the holes left behind by the woodpeckers to build their nests and feed from small fishes and insects in shallow water.

The movement of the larger predator birds is transitory through the coastal areas with their nesting primarily limited to the mountainous areas with feeding

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from both urban waste and smaller birds from all over the region.

Intervention Opportunities These problems are concomitant with certain use of species in architectural functions, the use of humming birds and parrots for treating PTSD in the Veterans Medical Center. Bird watching is also one of the most popular activities in the area. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service(USFWS) federal agency for mitigating reports habitat loss and fragmentation in Long Beach.26 The program attempts a major conservation effort in association with various governmental agencies and corporate partners to restore the 18 acre Colorado Lagoon in 500 acre remnant of Los Cerritos wetlands. This is already an ongoing project where more than 300 community events have happened since 2008 with measures such as native vegetation plantings, invasive species removal to build critical support for a large-scale restoration process. An architectural intervention in this ongoing process provides an imperative impetus.

Local Summer to winter movement patterns of Ciconiiformes

Local Summer to winter movement patterns of Accipitriformes 25

Nested acoustic spheres from most introverted to extroverted

T H E R A P Y & M U S I C

The solution presented for co-inhabiting space - human architectural and avian is idea of ‘sound spheres’. Humans and birds are too disparate and antagonistic to share physical space. Wood. Our primary connection to them is visual and aural.

There are various therapeutic benefits to seeing the vibrant colors of birds and the sounds they make often associated with idyllic landscapes. These needs are often ignored in modern design which is typically more focused on the inter-subjective generated objects which don’t have enough attention paid to the mental biological needs.

Woodpeckers though scientifically classified as a mutually beneficial or Synanthropic species are considered annoying due to the drumming sound they produce. This is taken as a dissonant note rather than a menace in the design approach: a problem of acoustic perception and material properties such as density, thickness and length. The projects seeks to convert this into a consonant one by proposing a series of structures for them to be attracted to and peck on, laid out in a double spiral based on the harmonic scale. The collage to the left describes this idea of the nested acoustic spheres imagined for the site. The orange bubbles are conceptual representations of the scale in which sounds are perceived by the human brain. If a room is fully absorptive the acoustic perception of that space makes it feel smaller than the physical volume. This is known as an anechoic chamber. When room surfaces are highly reflective, the acoustic perception of that space is larger than the physical volume. The more the reverberation time of the space, the larger it will feel acoustically, a strategy that has often been employed in cathedrals to create a feeling of transcendence.

The Avian Sphere The site for the project is bowl shaped sloping towards the central lake. It has a natural migration of hummingbirds, sparrows, dabbling ducks, woodpeckers and pigeons as indicated through studies. This forms a natural avian sphere of sounds that reverberate through the natural landscape. The design intent is to utilize it holistically for therapy. Hummingbird sounds are already considered pleasing while the following sections regarding the proposal suggest strategies for converting the woodpecker pecking sounds and dabbling duck feeding movements to create music in the site and add to this idea of the avian sphere.

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The Reverberation Chamber Reverberation chambers are large reflective rooms with a uniform distribution of acoustic energy ideal for music and evenness of acoustic experience for therapy.

Studies indicate diseases such as Parkinson respond best to this low to mid frequency exposure through a procedure know as vibroacoustic therapy. In general, music exposure at the right intensities has shown to improve cognitive functioning, emotional development, sensory and social skills.

The Anechoic Chamber The anechoic chamber forms the most quiet and contemplative acoustic sphere in the project allowing a person to feel their own pulse and breathing. An anechoic chamber can be disorienting to certain people when experienced for longer durations. Designed to absorb frequencies from all ranges, it completes the acoustical scales the project aims to express.

The Harmonic scale generating diagram on site

Site Design Axon Overview 29

Site Exploded Axonometric

T H E R A P Y S P H E R E

The Journey

The acoustic shells

The access to the sphere is through two cylinders which are placed on the vacant spots in the musical spiral. The outer walls in the cylinder columbarium’s for nesting birds while the inner ones are frosted glass which show shadows of extinct birds based on the position of the sun in the day. Hence the experience through the space starts as a melancholy one with a narrative of ephemeral silhouettes which leads to the sphere through a tunnel from underground opening up into the anechoic chamber. The journey up the sphere is through a spiral ramp with landing spots around it where the musical notes hit the sphere vibrating the membranes and creating a rainforest’s of musical sounds. These are essentially directional speakers and a visitor can explore through locations and find notes which are soothing and exciting. The structure is held up by a series of radial piles and beams which split the platforms and sphere into 16 halves.

The therapy program offers different type of contemplative music spaces in the sphere. There are spaces for isolated contemplation in the anechoic chamber, group therapy in the lower level resonators or the reverberative shells of the upper section of the sphere. The shells are an inversion of the paraboloid with the convex side facing the space that diffuses the incoming wavefront into the whole of the interior causing it to reverberate in the space.

This forms the middle acoustic sphere of the conceptual diagram presented earlier.

The Membrane Wall The membrane wall forms the outer layer of receiving the sound wavefronts coming from the directional paraboloid reflectors. The spiraling fenestration across the sphere is lined with Helmholtz resonators that filter out noise and reverberate the diaphragms at the therapy pads. There is a second set of water based resonators with tubes that generate tube resonance based on specific wave patterns generated in the lake. These pick up specific frequencies at which dabbling ducks feed on water. Hence there is a varying acoustic ambiance in the space based on the time of the year.

The spiral ramp Each individual therapy station can be accessed via an elevator or a spiral ramp.

The spiral ramp begins at the bottom near the anechoic chamber and follows the rain-forest of sounds that starts at water-based resonators in levels that are underwater then start with the sharpest note wavefront, gradually descending in frequency moving towards the top. The central atrium around which the ramp circles is lit by a skylight at the top of the sphere. The proposed structure is a radial grid of columns and beams that rest on a mat foundation with set of piles that go deep into the sandy soil. The radial beams start at the columns and terminate at outer poured concrete shell that makes up the outer skin of the sphere. Concrete is chosen because of the higher reverberation requirements of a musical space.

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Site Topography and vegetation The site primarily contains broad leaf trees - Angel’s trumpets, Jacaranda and orange which serves as good absorbers of mid to high frequency sound. The set of studies conducted on the acoustic simulator Odeon suggests a good absorptive response for these trees in these frequency ranges. These along with the bowl shaped topography of the site serve to contain sound within this avian sphere - the zone where birds make the music.

Site slits and resonators While mid to high frequency sounds are easier to absorb, the lower bass frequencies require dampening through obstacles that have a wavelength equivalent to them. The proposed solution for controlling base noise reflectance from the ground is a series of slits having spherical resonators in the ground that filter out undesired frequencies thus retaining only the note generated by the black walnut resonators.

Formal Derivation of the therapy sphere

Site model

Therapy Sphere Sectional Model 33

The Landscape Sound Sphere

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Anechoic Chamber Level Plan 35

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1

The Water Resonators

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The ‘Pecker’ Resonators 37

Entry pathway and circulation thr

rough the anechoic chamber - Section MM 39

Resonator Sound Project

tion pathways - Section AA 41

Section EE

Section FF

Section GG

Sound Focusing

Section BB

Section CC

Section DD

g Pathways 43

The Resonator Catalogue

T H E

R E F L E C T O R S

Each woodpecker paraboloid reflector consists of an outer layer of tuned black walnut keys. Each piece of black walnut has a natural frequency based on density, length and thickness of the wood used. By varying these three parameters, notes on the C harmonic scale are created namely: C (Tonic) D (Super Tonic) Eb(Mediant) F(Subdominant) Each arm of the generating spiral has these four notes that have the paraboloid section facing the sphere. A note received at the sphere is a harmonic minor chord if it has woodpeckers/therapy center visitor playing on the structure.

Each key is backed with a copper tubing with a spring damper to keep the key in tune as the woodpecker chips away at the note. The reflectors farthest from the largest in size with the longest keys with the lowest frequency base tones. Every subsequent goes an octave up as the spiral closes in on the therapy structure.

The intent is for each reflector is to be a mini mono-note xylophone with benches designed in the topography of the site to function as mini-therapy areas for visitors where they are encouraged to create and play these notes even when the woodpeckers are not there in the off-season. Each arm is a different octave on the same key hence reinforcing the contained avian sound sphere created through the bowl shape of the site.

Black walnut wood is chosen based on test studies of wood-pecker attraction to darker wood species. Each layer of walnut keys as shown in the section detail has small crevices with a bronze powder-coated steel channel for storing seeds for the bird visitors.

The outer reflector in each arm is a pure copper paraboloid having a focus directed to the second reflector in the series. The intent is to focus sound into the proposed therapy sphere using wave optics. The first reflector directs a wavefront through the hole of the secondary reflector which then directs it into the Helmholtz resonator cavity in the therapy sphere.

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The Resonator Detail

Site and Reflector Acoustic Studies

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B I B L I O G R A P H Y

1. United Nations Secretariat, 2012

15. Anderson, Patricia K., Human-bird Interactions(Springer Netherlands, 2010), 17-53

2. Van der Ryn, Sim and Stuart Cowan. Ecological Design. 10th anniversary ed.

Washington, DC: Island Press, 2007.

16. Ibid

3. Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Updat and expand ed. Chapel Hill, N.C: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008

17. Ibid

4. Hénaff, Marcel. Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Making of Structural Anthropology.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

19.Johnston Richard. Avian Ecology and Conservation in an Urbanizing World: Chapter 3: Synanthropic Birds of North America. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.

5. Sven-Olov Wallenstein, Biopolitics and the Emergence of Modern Architecture. 1st ed. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) ,15.

6. Benett J. and Whitten S, Duck Hunting and wetland conservation, (Canadian Economics Journal, 2003), 61-73 7.Green, A.J and Elmberg J, Ecosystem services provided by waterbirds, (Biological Reviews, 2014), 89-105 8.Podulka et.al, Birds and Humans: A historical perspective, (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 2004), 1-42 9.Ibid.

10.Groark K.P, The angel in the gourd: ritual, therapeutic uses, (Journal of Ethnobiology, 2010), 30:5-30 11.White S et al., Federal outdoor recreation trends, (NCNRER, 2014), Working paper I 12.Dunlap T., In the field, among the feathered: A history of birders and their guide, (Oxford Press, 2011) 13. Abolofaya, et. Al, Using citizen science date to model distributions, (PLOS1, 2003) 14. Sekercioglu, C.H, Impacts of bird watching on human and avian communities, (Environmental Conservation, 2002), 282-89

18. Ibid.

20. Sciubba, E. and F. Zullo. “An Exergy-Based Model for Population Dynamics: Adaptation, Mutualism, Commensalism and Selective Extinction.” Sustainability 4, no. 10 (2012): 2611-2629.

21. Newton, I. “Obligate and Facultative Migration in Birds: Ecological Aspects.” Journal of Ornithology 153, no. S1 (2012): 171-180.

The blackbird sings at the frontier of his music.

The branch where he sat marks the brink of doubt, is the outpost of his realm, edge from which to rout encroachers with trills and melismatic runs surpassing earthbound skills.

It sounds like ardor, it sounds like joy. We are glad here at the border where he signs the air with his invisible staves, “Trespassers beware”— Song as survival— a kind of pure music which we cannot rival.

-AE Stallings

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