“I could tell you how many steps make up the streets rising like stairways, and the degree of the arcades’ curves, and what kind of zinc scales cover the roofs; but I already know this would be the same as telling you nothing.”
Italo Calvino – invisible cities pg. 10
The Act as Design
To listen and to make a noise, as sonic acts, formed the premise of the project. Continuing a lineage of inquiry of human conduct that is underpinned by the notion that humans engage in purposeful behaviour; the sonic act in the field of architecture questions how people behave sonically in their environments. The importance of this spatial query is underpinned by a premise positioned in the earlier research of the project, that sound is critical for experiential engagement and a defining feature of phenomenological attributes of spaces.
As with many forms of praxeological inquiries, which have given form to the typologies of buildings we have come to know and love; the project was underpinned by continual introspection as to the sonic inhabitation of spaces. Throughout the iterative design phases of the project, continual cycles of questions were being asked- What is the sonic behaviour and how does this form spatially (Vis-à-vis)? As with any academic research, this form of questioning was underpinned by a continual awareness of ones surroundings and there by informing design decisions - a methodological approach of observation and experimentation.
To account for each and every moment would be abortive. As importantly, the question moved beyond moments of interaction and rather aimed to consider the constant elements associated to particular sonic acts. In doing so the inquiry turned what may be perceived as being an ineffable subject into a defendable understanding of space and sonic action. Herein we understand that a church’s architecture does not enable a single act but rather various acts to occur - often simultaneously as moments of occupation. Yet, the church like the library or ones kitchen enables a space of particular mediation and action. The various acts seen collectively have given form to space. In sacred structures across the world, a commonality exists in the attention to the ceiling, not only as a connection to God/ God’s but to form a resonance and reverberation the immediately draws attention to presence. Equally the intimacy of the kitchen is not only a place of work but is born from the hearth, the central fireplace of pre-industrial home/stead. It inspires and encourages intimacy amongst those that inhabit it. In this sense the inquiry of the sonic act is not defined by acoustic qualities but rather an emphasis in understand the commonalities of sonic action and employing them to determine a site specific design.
The most accessible manner in understanding the project is that of the four-box diagram tool formed during the research phase and employed during the design phase of the project. This offered a means to engage in the Sonic act of presence and its various components of intermission, intervention, intimacy and space of appearance. It enables a sonic interpretation of space and action. It is a tool for analysis and design and proved fundamental in the outcome of the project.
In defining the spatial logic of the project, the space of appearance as the public extension of sound, forms the primary route, spine, through the design. Off of this one finds instance of intimate spaces. Within this spatial logic the actions of presence may occur, be it one of intervention or intermission. The designed spaces offer a frame in which actions may be able to occur.
The outcome of the project presents four primary spatial interventions that each hold diverse qualities for the sonic act of presence to occur. These are the learning centre; collective school environment; market square; and Sonic Vantage point. Each of which serve as precedent for the utilisation of the sonic act as being a core design tool in define the spatial logic through framing elements.
