Henri Brooks

AN ARCHITECTURE OF MUSIC

HENRI TYLER BROOKS THESIS_2020 ADVISOR: KATIE BROH

exploring a compositional dialogue between songs, sound and the built environment

KEY: lo-fi

hi-fi

View from Center City from west edge, across site

North Phila.

Merion

Temple U Overbrook

2 mi.

i.

MFL

mi.

30th Street

2.5

4.5 m

Suburban Station

SITE

BSL

University City

Angora

Jefferson

49th St

SEPTA Transit void map

SITING A SOUNDSCAPE This project seeks to find a blend between music and architecture - both in the sense of designing spaces for music to be performed in, as well as better understanding the relationships between architecture and sound. The site was chosen for it’s relationship to lo-if and hi-if soundscapes: West Parkside, Philadelphia. The selected neighborhood sits in between grumbling train traffic and the serene open land of Centennial Park.

RESEARCH / ANALYSIS

Philadelphia, PA

West Parkside, 1948

Create physical and aural connections

1971

1992

Site rhythm

2004

Forces of music / edge response

2018

Historic datum

UNCOVERING HISTORY What I ended up finding was nearly 70 acres of unplanned, void industrial land, as well as a void in the regional rail SEPTA system. The reason for this void in the city/Fairmount Park fabric is that it is a brownfield site, the former location of a railyard branching off of the SEPTA Main-Line train tracks. It has been consistently covered up over time, leaving it open enough for horse stables to begin squatting on the land. The site was assessed for it’s aural rhythm and dynamics, providing clues as to how to handle the sprawling edges of a vast site.

RESEARCH / ANALYSIS

KEY PROGRAMS: MUSIC HALL, MUSIC SCHOOL, RECORDING STUDIOS, PERFORMANCE STUDIOS Performing Arts Center

64,550 SF

Music Hall Music Hall Lobby Spaces Café / Lounge Back of House / Storage / Maintenance Stage Dressing Rooms Box Office

11200 SF / 375 seats 7400 SF 920 SF 3000 SF 1200 SF 350 SF 640 SF

School Lobby Rehearsal Room Suites (4) Theory Room Practice Rooms (9) Focus Wing Lobby Teaching Studios (4) Balcony Spaces (4) Exterior Lobby Space Offices / Administration Circulation Maintenance Instrument Storage Restrooms

3500 SF 5500 SF / 1225 - 4300 SF ea 770 SF 2300 SF / 200 - 430 SF ea 2800 SF 1200 SF / 190 - 390 SF ea 1500 SF 10000 SF 2500 SF 6800 SF 520 SF 400 SF 1780 SF

Private Recording Studios (3)

1450 SF ea

Shared Recording Studios (2)

1920 SF ea

Recording Room Control Room Breezeway Living Space Threshold Bathroom Maintenance/Storage

190 SF 180 SF 410 SF 150 SF 77 SF 70 SF 60 SF

Recording Rooms (2) Control Rooms (2) Breezeway Maintenance (2) Toilet Rooms (2)

180 SF ea 170 SF ea 585 SF 40 SF ea 40 SF ea

Performance Studios (3)

1450 SF ea

Landscape / Campus

Performance Space Seating / Circulation Storage / Back of House Lighting / Sound Booth Toilet Room Maintenance

425 SF 490 SF 200 SF 180 SF 30 SF 30 SF

Paths/Green Space Ampitheatre Plaza Roundhouse Park Café Parking

170000 SF 8800 SF 9900 SF 63200 SF 2000 SF 36700 SF

SOUND INTERVENTION: A NEW MUSIC CAMPUS With all of my research regarding soundscape, performance architecture, and abstract musical compositions, I was curious of how architecture can manipulate the soundscape, giving us more of the sounds we like and less of the sounds we don’t. I chose to design a music campus that would be occupied by residents of the city from all generations. From learning to performing to recording, there are multiple typologies and scales of music architecture. In doing so, explored the relationship of the built environment to the sounds that inhabit it, and how we can understand those qualities in tandem with the music being performed on-site.

PROGRAM / TYPOLOGY

ARCHITECTURE INSPIRED BY MUSIC

SOUND SCULPTURE

Stretto House, Stephen Holl, Dallas Texas 1992

There are many examples of architecture that derives from, or was inspired by music throughout the design process. This can take many forms - some rather literal, formal interpretations of instruments, while others go beyond image and abstract musical concepts and theories.

The Stretto House is an abstraction of a musical notation, taking the concept of ‘stretto’ and interpreting it spatially by overlapping program and materials between rooms.

RHYTHMIC ARCHITECTURE

Linde Center, William Rawn Associates, Lenox Massachusetts 2019

In connecting many buildings across many acres of land, certain projects like the Linde Center gave me hints as to how to use rhythmic elements and landscape paths to stitch a fluid campus fabric. This project includes rehearsal and performance pavilions similar to those proposed in my own project. The atmosphere that this campus creates and it’s composition was an influential precedent in my process.

JOHN CAGE AND ABSTRACT NOTATION

“Listening Vessels”, Douglas Hollis

To explore ways that I could connect objects in space through sound, I studied sound sculpture and artists who use form and material to manipulate the soundscape and play with aural senses. These ideas took shape in the larger master plan of my project, designing the larger soundscape of the music campus.

CONTEXTUAL LEVITY

Fontana Mix, John Cage 1958

John Cage was a prominent figure in my research. His ideas of all sound being considered music allowed me to break free from more traditional perceptions of how architecture and music could work together. Many of his notations explored spatial relationships rather than tonal ones. These early, abstract sound notations led me to explore my own architectural composition in the form of abstract notation down the line.

R.M. SCHAEFFER AND THE SOUNDSCAPE

Elancourt Music School, Opus 5 architectes, France 2018

I wanted to explore projects that were similar to mine both in the typology of the music school but also in contextual materials. The Elancourt Music School uses mortar-less brick laying techniques to screen light through a mostly heavy facade. This was an idea I carried through in all stages of my project in an effort to design a building that would easily fit into the existing city fabric.

Illustration off a simple R.M. Ill l soundd object, b R M SSchaeffer, h f 1977

The composer and scientist Murray Schaeffer led discussions of the soundscape and how we categorize, notate and talk about the noise that surrounds us all the time. Terms such as “hi-fi” vs. “lo-fi”, “noises” vs. “signals” helps me in my understanding of my site and the qualities I chose to tap-into in the design process.

PRECEDENTS / INSPIRATION

Initial site framework

Site development sketch

Integration of historic datum

Initial master plan axonometric

PROCESS / DEVELOPMENT

Programming study model

Rhythmic massing study model

APPROACH , STRATEGY, LANGUAGE After grounding all of the elements in my West Parkside master plan, I worked in sketch and model form to explore how I can design architecture similarly to how I create music. In early massing phases, this resulted in an architecture of rhythm. Much of the planning of the building/campus was focused on how you move through it, around it, underneath it... It was largely about creating a sense of regular rhythm as you moved along the primary and secondary paths. The architecture accented the rhythm by alternating solids and voids along these paths.

PROCESS / DEVELOPMENT

wind harp field

B

A orchard swell

C G H D

MASTER PLAN ELEMENTS: A- Music campus B - New housing C - Relocated stables D - Productive orchard / community gardens E - New rail station F - Recreation fields G - Hillside harp field H - Rain song canopy

DESIGN REVIEW

F

E

listening field (campus)

rain song

Building massing

Rhythmic path diagram

Longitudinal section compositional reading: Rhythm and melody

UP

UP

UP

UP

DEVELOPMENT / REFLECTIONS The design review left we at a place in which I needed more intention behind the architecture I was designing. The primary question being, “What is the architectural language I would use to define music?�

This began to take shape as I moved away from the master plan and closer up to the architecture itself,

DESIGN REVIEW

SITE STRUCTURE:

Rhythmic structural grid

Structural frame overlay

Materiality overlay

BUILDING STRUCTURAL MODULE:

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: Lifted steel frame structure, Structural bars clad with brick at ends, Wood and glass ceiling system spans in-between masonry bars

PERFORMANCE STUDIO: Pitched steel frame structure, Brick cladding wraps front, roof and rear of frame, Sides are full-height glass with wood batten screen behind

RECORDING STUDIO: Load bearing masonry box structure, Glass breezeway fills space between twin masonry boxes, Wooden ceiling system suspends below/behind glass

TECHNICAL REVIEW

STRUCTURE -> RHYTHM

LIGHT -> MELODY

MATERIAL -> HARMONY

SPACE -> EXPERIENCE

Partial unfolded elevation of Performing Arts Center, Showcasing rhythmic materiality of brick -> glass/wood -> brick

Materiality axon diagram of Performance Studio, Showcasing brick wrapping over pitched frame and glass + wood filling open sides of structure

Elevation and roof plan of Recording Studio, Showcasing masonry box module and materiality module operating at smallest site scale

DEVELOPMENT / REFLECTIONS During the technical review, it was made clear that I needed to get even closer to the architecture and define it’s character. For this review I mainly highlighted large ideas and structures, given the nature of my full campus design.

I had chosen systems and materials that spoke to my musical concepts, but lacked experiential qualities at this stage in the design. Questions such as, what does the brick feel like up-close? How can elements of my campus plan/paths be more fluid? Moving forward, I more closely defined how the pieces of the architecture came together.

TECHNICAL REVIEW

View from inside Performance Studio

View from outside Recording Studio

View from rear Music Hall entrance

View from underneath school arrival canopy

View from inside atrium

View from Music Hall interior lobby space

ROOM KEY: 1 - covered plaza/school entrance 2 - school lobby 3 - interior/exterior theatre lobby 4 - flexible open plaza 5 - theatre 6 - interior/exterior stage 7 - back of house/storage 8 - back of house/workshop 9 - dressing rooms 10 - box office 11 - restrooms 12 - admin offices 13 - canopy passage 14 - ampitheatre 15 - theatre entrance

UP

1

12 2

4

3 11 10 15

9

5 7

11 8 3 6

UP

7 13

UP

14

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GROUND FLOOR PLAN - LOBBY / MUSIC HALL

FINAL REVIEW

14

ROOM KEY: 1 - atrium 2 - large ensemble room 3 - control room/office 4 - teaching studio 5 - shared balcony A 6 - data/IT 7 - elevator lobby 8 - storage 9 - mechanical B 10 - focus wing lobby 11 - large practice room 12 - small practice room 13 - acoustic-sealed corridor 14 - mezzanine level 15 - theatre balcony D 16 - cafe/lounge

2

3

8

2

3

9

Cross section A

4

4

5

C

5 4

2

4

1 6

3

4

Cross section B

7

15

16

Cross section C E

14

2 3

5 F 10

11

12 12

13

Cross section D

12 12 12 12

Cross section E

12 11

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, SECOND FLOOR PLAN - SCHOOL

PRIVATE RECORDING STUDIO

Plan

Longitudinal Section

Illustrative Axon

Plan

Cross Section

Fluid Circulation

Plan

Longitudinal Section

Impromptu Performances

SHARED RECORDING STUDIO

PERFORMANCE STUDIO

FINAL REVIEW

View of campus street presence

View of exterior Music Hall lobby space

View from inside Performance Studio

View from outside Recording Studio

View from inside large rehearsal room

View from inside atrium

SECTION PERSPECTIVE THRU MUSIC HALL AND EXTERIOR AMPITHEATRE This image illustrates the interplay between melodic and rhythmic elements of the building composition.

The Music Hall is the best example of the glass roof in-between masonry bars that suspends the wooden ceiling system, acting as a melody weaving through the musical structure. This not only accomplishes conceptual goals, but actually creates an adaptable and porous performance space that allows for site sounds to intervene or close itself off from the outside.

FINAL REVIEW

UNFOLDED ELEVATION:

ABSTRACTED COMPOSITION:

FINAL COMPOSITIONAL READINGS:

Light / shadow

FINAL REFLECTIONS When I began this project, I had every intention to design a co-housing community. Why? I’m not totally sure. I knew I wanted to integrate music into the project somehow, but didn’t have a clear direction. It wasn’t until I stepped back from assumptions of site, program, and user that I discovered a place that I wanted to explore deeper: The intersection of architecture, sound and music. I feel lucky to have been able to work with my passion of music towards my architectural thesis. While I feel I have uncovered many new ideas of design and music, I know I have only scratched the surface of a concept that I will surely be exploring for the rest of my life. That being, how can I make architecture and music at the same time?

FINAL REVIEW

Rhythm / melody

Movements / pauses

FINAL REFLECTIONS (cont.)

In retrospect, what excites me about this thesis is that it’s almost two projects. One explores how objects can manipulate site sound, and one explores a dialogue between musical and architecture elements. All of which amount to one product, but offer me different routes to investigate throughout my career. Jurors brought up questions regarding the intention and outcome of such a composition as my thesis: Is the purpose of a composition the experience, or the composition itself? This was largely due to my choice to use only the facade of my building to abstract and create music from, rather than any sectional/experiential information. I found that I could never get as close to the building as I wanted to, and believe that I need to spend time in my career working hands-on with materials and construction to gain a better understanding of detailing and assembly. All in all, I feel that I developed a building and idea that speaks to what I believe in as an artist, as an architect and as a human.

I will be abstracting music from architecture for as long as I practice.