Precedents + Case Studies

PRECEDENT 1. THE WAVE ORGAN

Peter Richards and George Gonzalez San Francisco Bay, USA | 1986

In 1980, artist Peter Richards used a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to investigate the Wave Organ phenomenon. Inspired by Bill Fontana’s recordings of a vent pipe in a floating concrete dock in Sydney, Australia, Richards worked with stone mason George Gonzalez to build on the existing granite and marble on a jetty, with 25 PVC organ pipes inserted at various elevations. When the waves hit the pipe ends, especially during high tide, subtle music emerges. Thus, visitors become more sensitized to the sounds of their environment.

"The Wave Organ." Atlas Obscura. November 21, 2008. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wave-organ.

"The Wave Organ." Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception. February 14, 2018.. https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/wave-organ.

PRECEDENT 2. THE SINGING RINGING TREE

Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu Crown Point, Lancashire, England | 2006

Architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu worked with the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network to build several “panopticons” across the countryside. This tree-shaped sculpture of galvanized steel pipes arranged in a swirl creates various tones controlled by the pipes’ lengths and slits carved into their undersides. The music resulting from wind passing through the pipes spans several octaves, and sounds gently discordant. Jeremy Bentham coined “panopticon” as meaning “a space or device providing a panoramic view.” It stands out against the hilly landscape, but also creates uncanny music befitting of a BBC TV series likewise called Panopticon. An East German children’s fantasy film known for its creepiness inspires the sculpture’s name, The Singing Ringing Tree .

"The Singing Ringing Tree." Atlas Obscura. January 09, 2010. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/singing-ringingtree

PRECEDENT 3. MUSIC BOX VILLAGE

New Orleans Airlift New Orleans, USA | 2016

In 2011, an artist-led initiative called the New Orleans Airlift invited artists to construct a “musical city” in the Bywater that became the Shantytown Sound Laboratory, an experimental concert venue and new-sound playground. With a second iteration in City Park and outposts in Shreveport and Tampa Bay, Music Box Village eventually settled back in its original location in 2016. A maintenance warehouse adjoins a spacious lot for the Village, which Airlift director Delaney Martin calls “an interactive art installation by day, and a music venue by night.” Of its inclusion of Swoon’s Dithyrambalina, Martin says, “The collaborative tool […] allowing so many voices, is really a beautiful thing."

"The Music Box Village." The Music Box Village. Accessed September 26, 2018. https://musicboxvillage.com/.

Woodward, Alex. "The Music Box Village to Open Permanent Space in Bywater." The Advocate. June 09, 2016. https://www.theadvocate.com/gambit/new_orleans/news/the_latest/article_1c8e62f5-61fa-5544-a6a5b52dfee5486c.html.

PRECEDENT 4. BAPTISTERY OF ST. JOHN

Diotisalvi Pisa, Italy | 1152-1363

The materiality and form of the Romanesque and Gothic baptistery opposite the Pisa Cathedral contribute to its hyper-reverberant interior. Whereas most concert venues produce reverberation times of about 2 seconds, the Pisa Baptistery, with its sound-reflecting stone interior and hollow roof structure, keeps sound waves alive for much longer. A vocalist inside the Baptistery can harmonize with herself in up to three voices: she sings one tone, then a second and third in sequence, with all three ringing simultaneously to produce a triad chord. Likewise, many gothic churches, such as the Florence Cathedral—inaugurated to the performance of a Guillaume du Fay motet—can cause a single tone to last 12 seconds.

"Baptistery." Opera Della Primaziale Pisana: Sito Ufficiale. Accessed October 04, 2018. https://www.opapisa.it/en/square-of-miracles/baptistery/.

Trahan, Shea. "Resonant Form: The Convergence of Sound and Space." Shea Trahan. Accessed September 26, 2018. https://www.sheatrahan.com/project-1.

PRECEDENT 5. BOSTON SYMPHONY HALL

McKim, Mead, and White; Wallace Clement Sabine Boston, USA | 1900

The distinguished architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White invited Wallace Clement Sabine, a Harvard physics professor, to advise them on the shoebox-shaped Boston Symphony Hall’s acoustics. Sabine’s scientific approach, now seen as “the birth of architectural acoustics,” used a formula similar to Robert Berens’ later “magic formula” for baby-bear absorption and reverberation of sound: RT = .16 V/SA. Ceiling coffers, faux columns, and wooden floors help absorb sound waves so that sounds directly from the stage prevail. Brick and masonry fireproofing reflect an otherwise muted bass register. Every detail of the hall’s architecture strengthens the orchestra’s acoustical power and clarity, making it one of the world’s best.

Schwarz, Lloyd. "Seen and Heard: Boston Symphony Hall." ArchitectureBoston. Summer 2012. https://www.architects.org/architectureboston/articles/seen-and-heard-boston-symphony-hall.

PRECEDENT 6. LE CYLINDRE SONORE

Bernhard Leitner Paris, France | 1987

Of Bernard Leitner’s work with sound as building material, architect Fosco Lucarelli writes, “Unlike architectural walls, sound is not an elementary medium for the definition of limits, and the separation of the interior from the exterior, yet is not a blurred, totally undefined entity, insofar it is able to create unseeable walls and define invisible spaces.” Le Cylindre Sonore lies, partially obscured by bamboo, in a small depression of Parc de la Villette. Its perforated concrete double walls with water rivets enclose a resonant chamber. Three loudspeakers behind the walls play an evolving mixture of sounds, helping to constantly redefine the space.

Lopez, Oscar. "AD Classics: Le Cylindre Sonore / Bernhard Leitner." ArchDaily. September 13, 2011. https://www.archdaily.com/168152/ad-classics-le-cylindre-sonore-bernhard-leitner.

Lucarelli, Fosco. "Bernhard Leitner's Le Cylindre Sonore, 1987." SOCKS. February 09, 2018. Accessed September 26, 2018. http://socks-studio.com/2012/01/21/bernhard-leitners-le-cylindre-sonore-1987/.

PRECEDENT 7. EXPO 2000: SWISS PAVILION

Peter Zumthor Hanover, Germany | 2000

Unlike the technologically robust audio-visual presentations of other exhibits at Expo 2000, Peter Zumthor’s Swiss Pavilion sought to calm all of the user’s senses in an environment isolated from the sensory overload outside. Stacked local pine lumber, mooring rods, and steel springs held the pavilion together. This simple materiality, devoid of fasteners like nails or glue, maintained the wood for reuse after dismantling. Fifteen doorless entries welcomed the user into a warm labyrinthine space penetrated at various points by sunlight, rain, food aromas, and Swiss folk music. To represent Swiss open-mindedness, these sensations trickled out of the pavilion’s many openings.

Sufrin, Paul. "Swiss Pavilion at Expo 2000 Offers Respite from Assault on Senses." Swissinfo. June 01, 2000. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-pavilion-at-expo-2000-offers-respite-from-assault-on-senses/1507598.

Gwizda, Marta. "Exemplary Project - Swiss Pavilion 'Sound Box' Designed by Peter Zumthor." University of Brighton Student Folio. May 13, 2014. https://folio.brighton.ac.uk/user/mg237/exemplary-project-swiss-pavilion-sound-boxdesigned-by-peter-zumthor.

CASE STUDY 1. MUSIKVEREIN

Theophil Hansen Vienna, Austria | 1870

The Society of Friends of Music in Vienna built the Musikverein, now home to performances by the Vienna Philharmonic, after Danish architect Theophil Hansen designed it based on a Greek temple layout. Unlike the Boston Symphony Hall, whose acoustics relied on scientific research, Musikverein’s shoebox-shaped and relatively intimate Golden Hall’s world-renowned acoustics were a product of intuition. Heavy ornamentation, characteristic of 1870s Viennese architecture, enrichens sound by giving it a plethora of irregular surfaces to instantly bounce on. Despite the illusion of marble or gold generated by the painted surfaces, almost the entire hall consists of plaster and wood, which—as porous materials— increase acoustical clarity by absorbing sound.

The Golden Hall’s wooden floor is hollow, as are its statues; its ceiling is high relative to its length and width. These factors raise the Golden Hall’s reverberation time to 2.04 seconds, very close to the ideal for concert halls. The sound of an orchestra extends fully like a sheet over the audience, replicating the resonant chamber of a musical instrument. Lights kept on during the performance cause the hall’s warm and opulent interior to visually imprint on the audience.

Other rehearsal and recital spaces, added to the Musikverein’s basement as part of a recent and ongoing renovation, improve sound quality through modern decorations, such as the varying roughness of the Stone Hall’s walls and the moveable reflective panels on the Glass Hall’s walls and ceiling.

CASE STUDY 2. EXPO 58: PHILIPS PAVILION

Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis Brussels, Belgium | 1958

The 1958 World’s Fair sought to celebrate the rejuvenation of civilization after World War II’s devastation. The Philips Electronics Company, to avoid displaying commercial goods inferior to the American color TV, focused instead on creating a novel architectural experience. In response to Philips’ request for a multidisciplinary team to showcase electronic technology’s many forms in service of the arts, culture, and society, Le Corbusier responded, “I will not make a pavilion for you but an Electronic Poem and a vessel containing the poem; light, color image, rhythm and sound joined together in an organic synthesis. ” Philips selected Le Corbusier to develop the vessel’s interior, and Iannis Xenakis— Le Corbusier’s protégé and an experimental composer—to design the exterior and compose its music. Le Corbusier asked the lesser-known Edgard Varese to compose Poem Electronique .

Under Philips’ guideline that the pavilion should take the shape of a cow’s stomach, Xenakis made most of the exhibit’s design decisions. Thin precast concrete panels, hung in tension from steel cables strung to posts, formed a hyperbolic parabolic tent. A group of 500 people would enter the space as Xenakis’ music played, and then the interior would go dark and enter into an 8minute presentation of light and Varese’s piece, with accompanying images projected onto the walls. The result was a synchronous experience of sound and space.

Lopez, Oscar. "AD Classics: Expo '58 Philips Pavilion / Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis." ArchDaily. August 25, 2011. https://www.archdaily.com/157658/ad-classics-expo-58-philips-pavilion-le-corbusier-and-iannis-xenakis.

CASE STUDY 3. RESONANCE CENTER

Shea Trahan | Current

On music and architecture, New Orleans architect Shea Trahan writes, “this relationship generally relies upon proportion or poetics as the translation between artforms, but contemporary design tools may enable a more direct relationship between sound and architecture.” Trahan cites cymatics, the branch of physics that explores the relationships between sound waves and physical reality, as the next step for architects negotiating acoustics. On his Website, Trahan shows examples of how combining digital 3D models of sound waves with reiterative mathematical formulae can yield a huge variety of cymatic formations, which he considers to be “the fingerprint of sound.” The bi-axial symmetry of these 2-dimensional formations make them easily convertible to 3-dimensional objects—called Nodal Structures—producing a new world of spatial possibilities for architects.

Additionally, the study of these Nodal Structures across a multitude of frequencies, including those associated with tonal harmony, yield fascinating results on the development of a space across, for example, a musical interval or triad. The structures’ related but widely varying levels of spatial layering have the potential for powerful manipulations of the reverberation time within.

Of their translation to a set of spaces Trahan is currently designing—The Resonance Center—he writes, “They are considered exploratoriums of sonic phenomenon, meditation chambers, and laboratories of consciousness…above all though, the Nodal Structures are a temple of sound.”

Trahan, Shea. "Resonant Form: The Convergence of Sound and Space." Shea Trahan. Accessed September 26, 2018. https://www.sheatrahan.com/project-1.