Program

THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF RESONANT ARCHITECTURE

All current architecture shares the following basic elements: floor, column, door, window, stair, and roof. Hundreds of widely differing styles of each element exist, but categorizing each based on its function is simple. However, none of these six basic elements are de facto musical instruments. A floor resonates, but that is not its function. Contemporary architecture lacks the elements that, at their very core, serve musical purposes.

With music’s proven indispensability to human health and wellbeing, architecture devoid of musical elements fails at its job. Even the most canonical works of architecture, without integral parts dedicated to serving the user’s sonic experience, fail to carry out their purported goal of elevating the human experience.

The word “elevate” is important. Architecture should never simply try to mitigate an impoverished or polluted site. Architects should view even their most beloved spatial experiences as needing improvement. Without the urge to make a good experience better, one does not design architecture, but just buildings.

Therefore, the following project relies on the rule that, in symbiosis with the constraints of site and program, every complete work of architecture must employ resonant elements, just as it employs the basic elements users expect.

DEFINITIONS

To add to the existing basic elements of architecture—floor, column, door, window, stair, roof, and so forth—the author proposes another three families of resonant elements to balance and enrich architecture just as their downscaled relatives balance purely musical ensembles: wind, string, and percussion. Merriam-Webster defines each as follows:

Wind: (wood) any of a group of wind instruments that are characterized by a cylindrical or conical tube of wood or metal usually ending in a slightly flared bell, that produce tones by the vibration of one or two reeds or by the passing of air over a mouth hole; (brass) any of a group of wind instruments that is usually characterized by a long cylindrical or conical metal tube commonly curved two or more times and ending in a flared bell, that produces tones by the vibrations against a mouthpiece

String: a musical instrument that has strings and that produces sound when the strings are touched or struck

Percussion: a musical instrument sounded by striking, shaking, or scraping

“Imaginary Instruments,” sketches by author.

The diagrams on the next two pages give more detailed information about how the different categories of musical instruments work.

One might look at photos taken inside musical instruments (see pages 23-24) and propose that architectural spaces be engineered into resonators such as the inside of a violin. But this thinking neglects the fact that listeners experience musical instruments from their exterior. In fact, resonant architecture should address two separate but interdependent conditions: making music (the architectural instruments) and encompassing music (the space that the user occupies, and into which the music emerges; see page 68).

Making music: to reinvent musical instruments at the architectural scale, one must simplify existing musical instruments to their basic properties. What characteristics set winds, strings, and percussion apart? How does form influence resonance? Why are instruments tuned to certain frequencies? How do sound waves behave within musical instruments’ resonators?

ACTION WINDS = PRESSURE WAVES IN 1D

RESONANCE ANATOMY MATERIALS WAVEFORM*

*WAVEFORM, WHICH DETERMINES TIMBRE, DEPENDS ON THE RELATIVE INCIDENCES OF OVERTONES-WHICH DEPEND ON THE RESONATOR’S FORM (E.G. FULLY OPEN CYLINDER, HALF-OPEN CYLINDER, AND CONE) AND MATERIALITY.

PRESSURE WAVE: A WAVE (SUCH AS A SOUND WAVE) IN WHICH THE PROPAGATED DISTURBANCE IS A VARIATION OF PRESSURE IN A MATERIAL MEDIUM. (HTTPS://WWW.MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM/DICTIONARY/PRESSURE%20WAVE) VIBRATIONAL MODE: A CHARACTERISTIC MANNER IN WHICH VIBRATION OCCURS. IN A FREELY VIBRATING SYSTEM, OSCILLATION IS RESTRICTED TO CERTAIN CHARACTERISTIC FREQUENCIES; THESE MOTIONS ARE CALLED NORMAL MODES OF VIBRATION. (HTTPS://ENCYCLOPEDIA2.THEFREEDICTIONARY.COM/MODE+OF+VIBRATION)

C3 STRINGS = VIBRATIONAL MODES IN 1D (STRING) AND 2D (RESONATOR)

VIOLIN ACTION = HUNDREDS OF HORSE HAIRS (VIA A BOW) RUBBING ON A STRING GUITAR ACTION = PLUCKED STRING PIANO ACTION = STRUCK STRING

NORMAL VIBRATIONAL MODES (AKA THE OVERTONE SERIES) OF THE VIOLA C STRING

1/8 = C6 1/7 =Bb5 1/6 =G5

1/5 = E5 1/4 = C5 1/3 = G4 1/2 = C4

CHLADNI PATTERNS

A NODE IS A POINT ALONG A STANDING WAVE WHERE THE WAVE HAS MINIMUM AMPLITUDE. (HTTPS://SOCRATIC.ORG/QUESTIONS/WHAT-IS-A-NODEWHAT-IS-AN-ANTINODE) THE NODES IN THE ABOVE DIAGRAM OCCUR WHERE THE WAVES CROSS STRING. ALONG 1D WAVES, NODES ARE POINTS. BUT ALONG 2D WAVES (E.G. VIOLIN/GUITAR BACK PLATE, PIANO SOUNDBOARD, AND DRUM HEAD), NODES ARE CURVES. THESE ARE CHLADNI PATTERNS.

CHLADNI PATTERNS VARY BASED ON WHICH PITCH (AKA VIBRATIONAL MODE) ONE PLAYS ON A STRING INSTRUMENT, OR WHICH POINT ON A DRUM HEAD ONE STRIKES. THEREFORE, THE TIMBRE OF A SINGLE-RESONATOR VIBRATIONAL-MODE INSTRUMENT CHANGES BASED ON THE NOTE PLAYED. THIS ENRICHENING RESONANT QUALITY IS CALLED TIMBRE VIBRATO.

CHLADNI PATTERNS ON A VIOLIN FACE PLATE. HTTPS://BLOG.OUP.COM/2016/11/VERMEER-AND-VIOLINS/

XYLOPHONE ACTION =

STRUCK WOODEN BARS PERCUSSION = VIBRATIONAL MODES IN 2D

*THE XYLOPHONE, VIOLIN, GUITAR, PIANO, AND DRUM RELY ON A SINGLE RESONATOR (E.G. THE VIOLIN’S HOLLOW BODY OR THE PIANO CASE) TO AMPLIFY ALL VIBRATIONAL MODES. THIS RESULTS IN DIFFERENT CHLADNI PATTENRNS FOR DIFFERENT PITCHES, AKA TIMBRE VIBRATO.

THE VIBRAPHONE IS A KEYED INSTRUMENT LIKE THE XYLOPHONE, BUT CONTAINS A SEPARATE RESONATOR FOR EACH KEY. THE RESONATORS ARE ENGINEERED TO PRODUCE A CONSISTENT TIMBRE FOR EACH PITCH.

SOME MATH:

v1 = FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY T = STRING/SURFACE TENSION m = STRING/SURFACE MASS L = STRING/SURFACE LENGTH

THE SCREWS THAT CONNECT THE WOODEN BARS TO THE SINGLE RESONATOR* UNDERNEATH ARE PLACED AT THE BARS’ FUNDAMENTAL NODES. HIGHER TENSION FOR HIGHER PITCH LOWER MASS FOR HIGHER PITCH LESS LENGTH FOR HIGHER PITCH CHLADNI PATTERNS ON A DRUMHEAD. HTTPS://WWW.RESEARCHGATE. NET/PUBLICATION/325986834_BANJO_DRUM_PHYSICS BONGOS ACTION = STRUCK MEMBRANE

All diagrams and graphics by author, except for: 1. photographs of wind mouthpieces; 2. orthographic drawings of musical instruments before compiling and color-coding, from various sources; and 3. photographs of chladni patterns.

At the architectural scale, each instrument family becomes a basic resonant element whose form and timbre depends on its architectural context. Just as the musical instruments that humans play have evolved significantly over the centuries and according to genre, architecture’s resonant elements will depend greatly on the music that their site and users call for. Just as a wall, column, or stair takes on hundreds of different forms in what contemporary architects call variations in “style,” so do resonant elements such as wind, string, and percussion.

Musical instrument families exist based on their contrasting engineering in search of a variety of timbres. Merriam-Webster defines timbre as “the quality given to a sound by its overtones;” timbre describes why a tone played on the violin sounds different from that exact same tone played on the trumpet or the piano. The variations in overtone patterns that produce these differences depend on materiality—such as brass versus wood—and form—such as a saxophone’s cone shape versus a clarinet’s cylinder shape. Friction also plays a role, as a bow rubbed against a string sounds less pure than air moving across a flute’s mouthpiece. The vibration of lips against a brass instrument’s mouthpiece has a different sound envelope from the tapping of a hammer on a piano’s steel string.

Toggling resonant elements’ materiality, form, and physics in these crucial ways engenders the three categories defined above, just as an orchestra meticulously divides itself into instrument families that serve distinct purposes. It is important to design where resonant elements work in harmony and where they work solo or in counterpoint. Basic musical compositional devices thus become architectural design decisions.

The following programmatic case studies share in common the integration—whether from first conception or through later intervention—of architectural-scale musical instruments, or resonant architectural elements.

A common full-orchestra layout (diagram by author): strings, winds, percussion

PROGRAM CASE STUDY 1. THE LULLABY FACTORY

Studio Weave Bloomsbury, London, England | 2010

On the context of this project, Studio Weave’s website states: “The multi-phased redevelopment of Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London’s Bloomsbury area, means that the recently completed Morgan Stanley Clinical Building and the 1930s Southwood Building currently sit uncomfortably close together. […] Large windows in the west elevation of the MSCB look directly onto a pipe-ridden brickwork façade.” Studio Weave sought not to mitigate the tight space by removing elements, but to instead improve them: the firm designed the existing pipes into a garden of wind instruments.

The once drab and uncertain outdoor space retains all of its existing parts, but with the addition and enhancement of musical elements, now playfully invites habitation.

PROGRAM CASE STUDY 2. SYMPHONIC HOUSE

David Hanawalt and Bill Close Northport, Michigan, USA | 2005

Architect David Hanawalt and sonic installation artist Bill Close designed this single-family home to act as a string instrument. The house’s location on an isolated northern Lake Michigan beach provides natural music with which to harmonize: waves from the lake, rustling leaves, rain, and birds. The house in its entirety is an instrument, with large-scale strings installed throughout. The strings vibrate sympathetically with their environment, although one can also “play” them by rubbing them.

This case study affirms that musical strings can fit into any architectural space and produce the intended music when their surrounding elements—in this case, all hard wood—are thoughtfully engineered.

Christensen, Bill. "Drive to Musical Wege House on Musical Road." Technovelgy. February 7, 2005. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=328.

"The Symphonic House." Oddmusic. Accessed November 25, 2018. http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om26775.html.

PROGRAM CASE STUDY 3. PLAYING THE BUILDING

David Byrne Stockholm, Sweden | 2005

In 2005, David Byrne, former lead singer of Talking Heads, transformed a warehouse space in Stockholm into a large musical instrument. The art installation, first set up at Färgfabriken, moved to New York, then London, then Minneapolis. In each location, Byrne repurposed a disused organ’s keys into triggers that sent air along pipes and vibrated the structural members of a large, warehouse-sized space. Byrne designed the instrument to operate without electric power.

Visitors to the installation could sit at the organ and find out which component each key set off, its sound playing right nearby or across the large space. They could then become composers for the architectural musical instrument.

“Playing the Building” by David Byrne. Accessed March 29, 2019. https://www.designboom.com/art/playing-thebuilding-by-david-byrne/.