we rarely talk about how architecture sounds, aside from when a building or room is noisy. [...]
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. [...]
Acoustics can act in deep, visceral ways, not unlike music ... And while it’s sometimes hard to pin down exactly how, there is often a correlation between the function of a place or an object and the sound we expect it to make.
— nytimes.com
Architecture critic Michael Kimmelman and producers Alicia DeSantis, Jon Huang and Graham Roberts document the sounds of some archetypal city spaces, conveying the personality and subtle (or sometimes not) musicality of interiors.
2 Comments
Nice to see the media finally recognizing qualities (like sound) architects have been talking about and advocating for since forever. Could do without the typical patronizing straw man thesis summed up in the headline, "Dear Architects." AS IF. If only sound study was applied to a case study instead of Kimmelmans (De Blasio of Critics?) dubious narratives.
Cool interactive media and everything, but the sound quality, research, writing and choices here are surprisingly bad. We have the Library, subway platform, Penn Station, (empty) condo, St Patrick's, Grand Central, and a cafe. None are designed by recent architects, which undercuts the playing dumb thesis (you'd think the critic of the New York Times would know the field?) and most are loud public spaces with ambient noise that muddles up even the best recording equipment. But it's interactive!
Dear Media: Research (and Expertise) Matters.
The sound of the woman eating potato chips... Why didn't you think of that, idiot architects!
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