Au r a l Dim en si on
AURAL DIMESNION ARCHITECTURE & SOUND
AMPARITO MARTINEZ
AURAL D I M EN SI ON
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“We Create Reality As We Go Through Space” - Olafur Eliasson
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CONTENT
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INTRODUCTION
:010
BRIEF
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ANECHOIC CHAMBER
:020 NOISE
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ACOUSTIC MIRROR
:030
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SOUND BOUNCING & PROJECTING
WHISPER GALLERY
:050
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CONCRETE SOUND PROJECTING
ECHO WALL
:040
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CANCELLING
SOUND TRAVELING
AMBISONIC
:060
MEASURING SOUND
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SPATIAL ENVIRONMENTS
:070
LUCIO FONTANA
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EXTRACTIONS
:080
STUDIES & EXPERIMENTS
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ENVIRONMENTS
:090
ROOM DESIGNS 7
Sound is a spatial event, an auditory experience that unfolds over time. Even though sound does not have a physical form, it can be described using vectors of distance, direction and location. Every space can modify, position, reflect or reverberate the sounds that can occur there. The reflection of sound is present in the space and can begin to define space. Sound can be understood as an architectural process that works in the field of acoustics but also transcends it in order to go deep into perceptual, narrative, emotional and aesthetic dimensions. If architects begin to use sound to create space, it will create relationships between resonances, echoes and physical properties of material, space and form. Sonic architecture dives into the world of storytelling, emotional illusionism, metaphoric design and poetic forms, giving content not just acoustic aspects but also designing architecture with sound to tell a story of the space. Understanding the perception of space through sound can begin to create a new design process that influences the way space is designed or laid out. The placement of a wall, a door, or a window changes the way a space is perceived. Looking closely at domestic life we can begin to change the way one lives through adjusting sounds in the space. By allowing the person to decide where to place an architectural element based on sound can begin to change the way in which architecture is perceived.
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INTRODUCTION
[ an-e-koh-ik] [ cheym-ber]
ANECHOIC
An anechoic chamber (an-echoic meaning “non-reflective, non-echoing, echo-free”) is a room designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves. They are also often isolated from waves entering from their surroundings.
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Chamber provide high sound transmission loss (TL) characteristics and have a completely anechoic wedge lined interior to meet these requirements. The inner room is set on a vibration isolation system created for the specific weight and frequency cut-off of the room. These chambers are designed for applications and locations where the noise reduction characteristics for a single wall and ceiling construction provide adequate noise isolation. The single wall construction results in smaller overall outside dimensions and is particularly suited to placement in less noisy areas. In every other respect, they are similar to the Hemi-anechoic chambers with the same standard features. Anechoic Rooms Features Anechoic wedges (foam, fibreglass) with the required low-frequency cut-offs Double or single wall and ceiling acoustic panel construction Lighting (interior) minimally acoustically reflective Interior non-reflective cable floor system above the floor wedges with a nylon catch net below Wedge acoustic door
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[uh-koo-stik] [mir-er]
ACOUSTIC MIRROR
An acoustic mirror is a passive device used to reflect and focus (concentrate) sound waves.Parabolic acoustic mirrors are widely used in parabolic microphones to pick up sound from great distances, employed in surveillance and reporting of outdoor sporting events. Pairs of large parabolic acoustic mirrors which function as “whisper galleries” are displayed in science museums to demonstrate sound focusing.
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Between the World Wars, before the invention of radar, parabolic sound mirrors were used experimentally as earlywarning devices by military air defense forces to detect incoming enemy aircraft by listening for the sound of their engines. During World War II on the coast of southern England, a network of large concrete acoustic mirrors was in the process of being built when the project was cancelled owing to the development of the Chain Home radar system. Some of these mirrors are still standing today. n the coast of southern England, a network of large concrete acoustic mirrors was in the process of being built when the project was cancelled owing to the development of the Chain Home radar system. Some of these mirrors are still standing today.
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[ek-oh] [wawl]
ECHO WALL
The Echo Wall of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. The Imperial Vault of Heaven is better known for the wall that surrounds it. This wall is called “Echo Wall” or “The Whispering Wall”.
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The Echo Wall is 3.72 meters high, 90 centimeters thick and 65.1 meters in diameter. The eaves of the wall and the hermetically laid bricks make wireless communication possible between two people who speak in normal voices.
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[wis-per] [gal-uh-ree]
WHISPER GALLERY
Whisper gallery is usually a circular, hemispherical, elliptical or ellipsoidal enclosure, often beneath a dome or a vault, in which whispers can be heard clearly in other parts of the gallery. Such galleries can also be set up using two parabolic dishes. Sometimes the phenomenon is detected in caves.
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A whispering gallery is most simply constructed in the form of a circular wall, and allows whispered communication from any part of the internal side of the circumference to any other part. The sound is carried by waves, known as whisperinggallery waves, that travel around the circumference clinging to the walls, an effect that was discovered in the whispering gallery of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The extent to which the sound travels at St Paul’s can also be judged by clapping in the gallery, which produces four echoes. The gallery may also be in the form of an ellipse or ellipsoid, with an accessible point at each focus. In this case, when a visitor stands at one focus and whispers, the line of sound emanating from this focus reflects directly to the focus at the other end of the gallery, where the whispers may be heard. In a similar way, two large concave parabolic dishes, serving as acoustic mirrors, may be erected facing each other in a room or outdoors to serve as a whispering gallery, a common feature of science museums. Egg-shaped galleries, such as the Golghar Granary at Bankipore, also exist. A hemispherical enclosure will also guide whispering gallery waves. The waves carry the words so that others will be able to hear them from the opposite side of the gallery.
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[ am-bi-son-iks]
AMBISONICS 18
Ambisonics is a method for recording, mixing and playing back three-dimensional 360-degree audio. It was invented in the 1970s but was never commercially adopted until recently with the development of the VR industry which requires 360° audio solutions.
The basic b approach of Ambisonics is to treat an audio scene as a full 360-degree sphere of sound coming from different directions around a center point. The center point is where the direc microphone is placed while recording, or where the listener’s ‘sweet spot’ is located while playing back. The most popular Ambisonics format today, widely used in VR and 360 video, is a 4-channel format called Ambisonics B-format, which uses as few as four channels (more on which below) to reproduce a complete sphere of sound. If a B-format signal is to be transformed, for example rotated and tilted, then the four channels of the signal must be scaled by the correct coefficients.
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[ spāSHəl] [in vīrənmənt]
SPATIAL ENVIROMENTS
The first series of Ambienti Spaziali ( Spatial Environments), by Lucio Fontana this installations filled the room with lights of different kinds of spectrums. By using new technology, such as neon lights, it placed the viewer in the center of composition.
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Lucio Fontana use of different material types, changed the perspective of the viewer. These ephemeral works reveal the artist’s revolutionary approach to artmaking as a quest to open up space, create a new dimension, tie in the cosmos, as it endlessly expands beyond the conďŹ ning plane of the picture.
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Extraction studies of form types that best amplify sound or change the perception of sound.
anechoic wedge
echo wall
sound mirror
whispering dome gallery 24
https://vimeo.com/402133674
EXTRACTIONS
A COLLECTION OF VIDEO & SOUND SAMPLES
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“Matter, color, and sound are the phenomena whose simultaneous development is an integral part of the new art.� - Lucio Fantana
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ENVIRONMENTS
Room I, plays with the composition of color and light to get an understanding of the perception of space.
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Room II introduces a new material types that will begin to change the sound in space.
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Room III, begins to bring both materials that are used in sounds staging and lights to start to change the users experience. The room introduces a new dialogue between spaces with certain features and qualities, that translate into different realities.
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Kitchen In a kitchen setting we hear the constant movement of pots and pans and the boiling hot water. Each sound of the hardware is shaping the way we perceive the space. But if we were to limit those sounds and introduces a different sound type. This would change the user experience. The use of the kitchen would be utilized differently, since the sound that is projecting no longer correlates with the program. We begin to reexperience that space of a kitchen. 34
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Bedroom The bed is place in the certain of the space, so that the inhabitant is absorbing all the acoustical sounds that are being carried through the space. With the surrounding soft materials to bounce off and come back to the center of the space. Sound creating spaces with qualities that transcend into the notions of realities. 36
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Bathroom What if that bathroom began to incorporate materials that ampliďŹ ed the sounds of the space that, translates the qualities of the space at a more acoustical level? Applying soft materials and forms that create sound barriers, the function of each part of the bathroom changes. Each area translates into an aquatic feel of the space and allows the person to re-experience the space. 38
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