Surprising Ways Sound Shapes our Environment
Summary
TLDRThis video script explores the concept of acoustics in architecture, emphasizing that there's no 'perfect' acoustics, but rather a balance of variables to suit different scenarios. It discusses how buildings act as instruments, with unique acoustical qualities shaping our experience. The script delves into the design of a musical performance space at the University of Illinois at Chicago, highlighting the importance of shape, material, and sound reflection for optimal musical practice. It also touches on the broader impact of sound on our perception of spaces and cities, suggesting that architecture and sound are intrinsically linked.
Takeaways
- 🎼 Acoustics are not about perfection but about balancing variables for a range of scenarios, similar to how there's no perfect song or building design.
- 🏛 Buildings can be thought of as instruments with unique acoustical qualities that contribute to the overall experience of the world.
- 📐 Guidelines for acoustics in spaces are based on trial and error and are meant to be flexible for different scenarios and individuals.
- 🎻 The design of a musical performance space, like the one at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is crucial for the musicians to hear each other and the conductor.
- 🔨 First-order reflections are important in performance spaces as they provide direct sound to performers without causing echoes or distortions.
- 🧱 Architectural features like the shape, volume, and material of a space affect how sound travels and is perceived within it.
- 🎵 Music has always been composed for specific spaces, with compositions tailored to the acoustical properties of the environment.
- 🏙️ The soundscape of a city is shaped by its architecture, influencing how different areas are perceived audibly.
- 🚂 Some architectural designs, like the McCormick Student Center at IIT, intentionally incorporate surrounding sounds into the building's experience.
- 🎼 The idea of architecture as an instrument is not just metaphorical; some buildings are designed to perform and interact with sound in literal ways.
- 👤 Famous figures in music and architecture have often crossed paths, with some musicians being trained as architects and vice versa.
Q & A
What is the main argument against the concept of perfect acoustics in the script?
-The script argues that the idea of perfect acoustics is not only unattainable but also unhelpful. It suggests that acoustics should be about balancing variables for a range of scenarios rather than striving for an ideal that doesn't exist.
Why is the notion of perfection in acoustics considered incompatible with human experience?
-Perfection in acoustics is incompatible with human experience because, like with songs or books, there is no one-size-fits-all ideal. Instead, it's about creating a balance that can cater to a variety of experiences and scenarios that humans can appreciate.
What are some examples of precisely engineered spaces for specific acoustic purposes mentioned in the script?
-The script mentions the theater of Apodaurus, where one can clearly hear someone standing in the middle of the space, and the steps of Chichen Itza, where a clap is reflected as a chirp, as examples of spaces engineered for specific acoustic phenomena.
How does the script redefine the concept of buildings in relation to acoustics?
-The script reimagines buildings as instruments with unique acoustical qualities that contribute to the overall experience of the world, rather than just structures with perfect or ideal acoustics.
What is the significance of the shape of the rehearsal space at the University of Illinois at Chicago mentioned in the script?
-The shape of the rehearsal space is significant because it is sculpted to allow musicians to hear each other and the conductor. The cone shape of the plan and section helps project sound into the room, ensuring that soloists can be heard and that lower-pitched instruments fill the space with bass sounds.
What is the role of first-order reflections in the rehearsal space described in the script?
-First-order reflections are the first sound bounces that reach their target. They are crucial in the rehearsal space because they help musicians hear each other without creating echoes or distorting the sound.
How does the side wall with a checkerboard pattern of blocks contribute to the acoustics of the rehearsal space?
-The side wall with a checkerboard pattern of blocks helps to both diffuse and absorb sound. The sound waves get trapped in the recessed spaces, scattering the sound evenly and absorbing a large portion of it, which helps control the reverberation time.
What is the importance of reverberation time in a musical performance space?
-Reverberation time is crucial as it affects the clarity and liveliness of the sound within the space. If it's too short, the space sounds dead; if too long, sounds become muddled.
How does the script connect the history of music composition to the spaces in which it was performed?
-The script connects music composition to spaces by discussing how music, such as hymnal music for cathedrals or rock music for stadiums, has been written and composed specifically for the acoustics of the spaces where it will be played.
What is the concept of a 'soundscape' as described in the script?
-A 'soundscape' is the idea of a landscape for sound, where the environment shapes the auditory experience. It is influenced by the geometry and materiality of the surroundings, affecting how sound is transmitted, absorbed, and reflected.
How does the script illustrate the idea that architecture can be an instrument?
-The script uses examples such as the Khao Shang Port Terminal, designed to perform like an intersecting funnel, and the McCormick Student Center at IIT, which captures and carries the sounds of the city into its architecture, demonstrating that buildings can be designed to interact with sound like an instrument.
Outlines
🎼 The Myth of Perfect Acoustics in Architecture
This paragraph discusses the misconception of perfect acoustics in architectural spaces. The speaker emphasizes that there is no singular ideal for acoustics, as it varies based on the space's purpose and the experience it aims to create. Rather than seeking perfection, the focus should be on balancing variables to suit different scenarios. The paragraph also touches on the unique acoustical qualities of buildings, comparing them to instruments that shape the overall experience of sound. It introduces the idea of acoustics as an experiential design opportunity rather than just an engineering problem, using guidelines developed through trial and error to create spaces that work well for a range of individuals.
🏛 The Influence of Space on Music and Vice Versa
The second paragraph explores how music has always been composed with the space in which it will be played in mind. It gives examples of how different types of music are adapted to the acoustics of the spaces they are intended for, such as hymnal music in cathedrals with long echoes and resonant frequencies. The speaker also discusses how the architecture of a space can shape the music composed for it, using the example of Saint Mark's Basilica and its use of multiple dispersed choirs to create an immersive sound experience. The paragraph further explains how sound interacts with buildings through transmission, absorption, and reflection, and how these principles guide the sound qualities in our environment, affecting our perception of spaces.
🎻 Architecture as an Instrument for Sound
In this paragraph, the concept of architecture as an instrument for sound is taken literally. It discusses how buildings can be designed to perform like musical instruments, using the example of the Khao Shang Port Terminal, which is likened to an oboe in its structural logic. The speaker also mentions the educational program at Cooper Union, where students were encouraged to draw musical instruments to understand the architectural implications of their design. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the deep connection between architecture, sound, and music, suggesting that the idea of perfect acoustics is a distraction from the fact that buildings inherently shape and are shaped by sound.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Acoustics
💡Perfection
💡Balancing Variables
💡Rehearsal Space
💡First Order Reflections
💡Diffusion
💡Reverberation Time
💡Sound Absorption
💡Soundscape
💡Transmission
💡Architectural Instrument
Highlights
The concept of perfect acoustics is a myth; it's about balancing variables for different scenarios.
Acoustics are not just engineered but experienced, suggesting a shift from solving an engineering problem to exploring experiential design.
Buildings can be thought of as instruments with unique acoustical qualities that shape the overall experience of the world.
Guidelines for acoustics in spaces are determined through trial, error, and testing over time for a range of individuals.
The architectural design of a musical performance space, like a rehearsal room, is crucial for sound projection and hearing clarity among musicians.
First order reflections are vital in performance spaces for quick sound delivery to avoid echoes and sound distortion.
The design of side walls with a checkerboard pattern helps in sound diffusion and absorption, controlling reverberation time.
Music has always been composed for the specific acoustics of the space in which it will be played, such as hymnal music for cathedrals.
Sound shapes architecture, as seen in the Cloud Gate monument in Chicago, where sound reflections create a unique signature.
The soundscape of a place is influenced by its geometry and materiality, affecting how sound is transmitted, absorbed, and reflected.
Architects can use sound principles to create unique acoustic conditions, like the McCormick Student Center at IIT designed to capture city sounds.
Cooper Union's architectural education program emphasizes the active role of drawing in architecture, likened to musical instruments.
The Khao Shang Port Terminal was designed with an oboe's logic, channeling people and air through intersecting structural shells.
Architecture and music share a deep connection, with many musicians also being trained as architects.
The idea of perfect acoustics distracts from the reality that buildings are instruments for sound, contributing to the experience of the environment.
Transcripts
[Music]
acoustics
[Music]
welcome to the school of theatre and
music at the university of illinois at
chicago
there is no such thing as perfect
acoustics and while this is true on a
number of different levels what i really
mean is that this idea that there is
some sort of singular ideal of acoustics
it's just not true and it's not even
helpful
the notion of perfection is simply
incompatible with our experience of
acoustical qualities of spaces in the
same way that there's no perfect song
there's no perfect book or perfect
building design instead it's usually
about balancing a number of different
variables to be well suited for a range
of different scenarios and to be able to
produce a set of experiences that we
humans can appreciate that's not to say
that there aren't situations that are
precisely engineered for a certain
purpose i mean just here on youtube you
can learn all about the theater of
apodaurus and how you can so clearly
hear someone standing in the middle of
that huge space or you can learn about
the strange clap that gets reflected as
a chirp on the steps of chichen itza
these are certainly very curious
phenomena that result from the interplay
of geometry and the physics of waves but
even these aren't really about being
perfect whether i think it's more useful
and even more beautiful to think about
buildings as instruments
all buildings have unique acoustical
qualities that contribute to your
overall experience of the world these
qualities are shaped through the design
of buildings and they can be used to
create compositions of sounds that the
buildings help to shape there are
guidelines for certain types of spaces
that help us to understand when ranges
are preferred for various scenarios and
getting spaces to be within those
guidelines is different for every space
and scenario the guidelines themselves
came about through trial and error and
in testing and over time they've been
determined to work for a certain range
of individuals
so shifting our thinking from acoustics
being purely an engineering problem to
solve and more of an experiential design
opportunity explorer i think is pretty
important well i want to start talking
about the space that i'm in which is a
musical performance space in this video
we'll scale out to discuss how acoustics
are an important architectural
consideration even when you don't expect
it how the way that sound travels in and
through and around a building is an
important aspect of its total designed
experience
but the space that i am in is a
rehearsal space for the school of music
at the university of illinois at chicago
it's where bands and orchestras practice
before performing on another stage in
front of an audience
the building and this space was designed
by the architect harry weiss and
associates in 1969
and you might know the work of that
architect from such buildings as the
triangular metropolitan correctional
facility in downtown chicago and that's
where r kelly and jerry from netflix's
show cheer is being held
this more exuberant but also windowless
space has a few features that make it
appropriate for playing music without an
audience
firstly is its shape the volume of the
space is sculpted in such a way so that
the players can hear the conductor and
that the conductor can hear the players
and players can hear each other
typically orchestras are arranged so
that the quieter and higher pitched
instruments are toward the front and
then the louder and lower toned
instruments are toward the back
higher pitch sounds are more directional
while lower ones aren't as much when
you're toward the front of the space the
cone shape of both the plan and the
section project the sound into the rest
of the room so that soloists or violins
or flutes can be heard but instruments
like the timpani drums or double basses
or tubas they're in the back and fill
the space with low end bassy sounds
the angles of the walls and the ceiling
reflect the sound down and directly to
the other performers these reflections
are called first order reflections
because they are the first bounce that
reaches their target
it's important in this application that
those bounces happen quickly otherwise
it will create an echo or distort the
sound in other ways getting to the
players the front wall is also built
with a slight tilt upward to help those
first order reflections reach their
target
another consideration of these spaces is
the design of this side wall which has a
checkerboard pattern of blocks with soft
material indented in between this helps
both to diffuse the sound and absorb it
as the sound waves get trapped inside of
these recessed spaces so here it's less
about targeting specific reflections
rather it's about scattering the sound
evenly and then absorbing a large chunk
of it
this helps to control the reverberation
time which is the amount of time that it
takes for a sound to dissipate within a
space this time is an important part of
the performance for a space like this if
the reverb time is too short it will
sound dead and if it's too long all of
the sounds will get muddled together
the architecturally trained musician and
talking head david byrne he has a great
talk about how music has always been
written and composed specifically for
the space within which it will be played
hymnal music is made to be heard inside
of a cathedral which has long echoes and
resonant frequencies
burn's own music evolved by playing at
small clubs and loud venues and stadium
rock is loud for a reason
today most of us listen to music with
headphones inside of distracting
environments and only certain kinds of
music can cut through all of that
one of the first architectural examples
of a building shaping a particular kind
of music is saint mark's basilica which
is attached to the doge's palace
this basilica isn't built in the
traditional shape of a latin cross
rather takes the form of a greek cross
with four equal arms
each arm of the cross has an upper
gallery of choir loss
and during the 16th century giovanni
gabrielli he developed a technique of
using multiple dispersed choirs and
musical ensembles in each of the
separate lofts that would perform
simultaneously and create an immersive
wave of sounds coming from all
directions
cathedrals are also like instruments
when they're fitted with organs which
fold the entire building into a building
the sound
the bach church in armstot is named
after the composer bach who famously
wrote specific organ compositions here
the space allowed him to write music
that is slightly more intricate than he
would be writing in say a gothic
cathedral because he could change keys
without creating any dissonances that
would be occurring in the space due to
reflections of sounds and odd ways
but sound shapes architecture in all
sorts of ways even when they're not
making beautiful music together
here in chicago a popular activity is to
stand under the cloud gate monument and
make noise to hear it reflected back in
a particular way the shiny reflective
surface of the beam coupled with the
curved enveloping shape creates a really
unique sound signature
in fact the city is marked by all sorts
of sounds and maybe go in one ear and
out the other but subconsciously is
shaping your understanding of the city
as much as what the city looks like
well this might not seem like the domain
of architecture it is mostly buildings
that figure into how one part of the
city
sounds different from another
it's pretty easy to understand how
acoustics plays a role in performance
spaces even though the physics is
complicated it's obvious to recognize
that acoustics are important
but in everyday contexts it's not quite
as noticeable even though it is an
important component that shapes your
understanding of the space around you
this is called a places soundscape you
can even think of it like a landscape
for sound
the way that an environment shapes sound
is mostly related to geometry and
materiality
sound interacts with buildings and three
primary ways transmission absorption and
reflection
all of these are functions of the
material mass
the surface smoothness
texture
porosity and air tightness and then
stiffness
transmission is the passage of sound
through and between materials including
the air and the walls
attenuation measures its loss as it's
traveled through the material
acoustic absorption refers to the
process by which a material structure or
an object takes in sound energy when
sound waves are encountered as opposed
to reflecting the energy
part of the absorbed energy is
transformed into heat and part is
transmitted through the absorbing body
an acoustic traveling wave can be
reflected by a solid surface as well
while reflections kind of act like a
mirror for sound there is a curious
thing that happens with sound waves as
opposed to light with reflections you
get two waves in the same space
if the waves align you get a type of
sound amplification
and then if the waves misalign they
almost cancel each other out
and this phenomena can lead to strange
or a desirable phenomena depending on
the situation
so these are the three main principles
that are guiding the sound qualities all
around you and some architects use these
to create unique conditions and
experiences very specifically for
example here at the mccormick student
center at iit the architect rem kolhas
placed the building right underneath the
train tracks
and the building is organized around an
intensity of activity by packing in all
sorts of different programs and
circulation paths that slice right
through the middle part of the building
the train above is part of this flurry
of activity
the train is wrapped in a metal sleeve
this helps capture the sound and muffle
it
the tube presses down into the building
below intentionally carrying the sounds
of the train into the rest of the
building
this is a moment where quiet isn't
necessarily the goal rather the building
operates like an instrument capturing
the sounds of the city and altering them
and carrying them through the
architecture so that inside the building
you feel connected to the city around
you
this idea that architecture is an
instrument is also taken quite literally
at moments when sound isn't even a
primary concern
one of the most innovative architectural
educational programs comes from cooper
union where it's then director john
haydick he conceived of a unique
curriculum to train architects in the
design and drawing of buildings
and he believed that the drawing itself
was architecture and could be discussed
as an active architecture one of the
more successful exercises that they
underwent encouraged students to make
technical drawings of musical
instruments
haydock called these drawings pregnant
with architecture
and one of hayduck's students and also
my professor jesse reiser he
internalized these lessons to become
directly part of his firm's thinking
when designing projects like the khao
shang port terminal where they wanted
the building to perform as an instrument
but not necessarily look like one the
building performs like intersecting
funnel that channels people and air
through a taut stretched skin of
structural shells that the architect
likens to the logic of an oboe
the way that site and views work in the
building are also guided by this logic
with channels that crisscross one
another similar to that the way that air
is choreographed within an instrument to
create different experiences by closing
certain paths and then by opening others
there are so many ways that architecture
connects with sound music and acoustics
me and nietzsche called architecture
frozen music and there are a host of
famous musicians who also trained as
architects before getting into music
and there are composer architect
collaborations that create important and
unique buildings and music as well
but either way this idea that acoustics
can be perfect i think is distracting
from the fact that buildings are in fact
instruments for sound
what are some of your favorite
acoustical spaces drop a comment below
and let us know if you enjoyed this
video please consider giving it a like
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to the right of me see you over there
[Music]
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