FEATURE ARTICLE
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...there is little awareness of the fact that the dwindling natural environment in the urban setup has a deep impact on our physical and mental wellbeing.
GOOD SOUND BAD SOUND The creation of sound is a collective activity, a sum of isolated or interconnected events under the humdrum of nature, man and machine that makes each city peculiar. It is a characteristic feature of the function of the city. What would be the city of Varanasi without the chanting of the priest, the activity at the ghats, and the sound of bells that makes the temple centre an auditory landmark?4 Nevertheless, our sense of place, as the term indicates, has to do with sensing and our perception. Every listener will describe sound in the city in a different way as our individual stream of consciousness defines how we perceive and experience the urban soundscape. Sound is always an integral part of cities, in fact often, the sound is the city. For example: the sound from the bells of clock towers played an important role in industrial cities, in facilitating people by telling the hour of the day, and also by organizing the urban space around it. The element of water in religious places is integral for the sound of flowing water as it has a tranquillizing effect, necessary for meditation to achieve spiritual elevation. The knowledge cities recognized the need for the universities, learning centres and libraries built for scholarship to have specific sound requirements or the lack thereof. The choice of their location is always idyllic, retiring into the heart of nature. At the same time there are commercial centres and markets thriving on cacophony making them attractive businesses. It is almost impossible to imagine trains and bus stations with constant movement and activity to be quiet or silent. We associate places with their characteristic sound, without which these places do not remain the same. This association value helps us to differentiate the function and form of places we inhabit. Sound then becomes a necessary stimulant for activity and 4 Dr. Wissmann Torsten, 1988, Geographies of Urban Sound, Surrey, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., pg.299
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CITY OBSERVER | June 2016
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signifies vibrancy of places which in turn attracts people to cities. There is no absolute silence in human or natural habitation. The sense of sound is an involuntary action - unlike the other senses of sight, smell or touch we cannot withdraw from the auditory experience. It is because of this that we hear all ambient sounds, but perceive only the sounds through which we process information. Soundscapes consist of a combination of materials and activities and, of course, these materials and activities vary from culture to culture.5 Today we can safely add technology to the list which has vastly altered the way we create sound. The architecture critic Michael Kimmelman in his recent article addresses architects on the important character of sound in buildings. He writes - “sound may be invisible or only unconsciously perceived, but that doesn’t make it any less an architectural material than wood, glass, concrete, stone or light. It is shaped by design, albeit most architects rarely think much about it, except when their task is to come up with a pleasing concert hall or a raucous restaurant — and then acousticians are called in. 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.” 6 In the book Atmospheres, the architect, who evokes the immediacy of emotional response through building design, Peter Zumthor, writes on The Sound of a Space7: 5 David Howes, Sensing the City, accessed 3rd June 2016, http://www.david-howes.com/senses/sensing-the-city-lectureRMurraySchafer.htm 6 Micheal Kimmelman, 2015, NYTimes Arts, http://www.nytimes. com/interactive/2015/12/29/arts/design/sound-architecture. html?_r=1 7 Zumthor, Peter 2006, Atmospheres, Birkhauser, Basel, pg-29,30