Soniferous Architecture: From Archaeo-Acoustics Towards the Soundsculpture Aural Era

Soniferous Architecture: From Archaeo-Acoustics Towards the Soundsculpture Aural Era

Mostafa Refat Ismail
Copyright: © 2014 |Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/ijacdt.2014010104
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Abstract

“I call architecture frozen music” a quote by Johan Wolfgan von Goethe. It seems that his description of architecture will not be this much long lasting. Since many architectural structures now are considered soniferous. In an approach to rational the thinking of positive soundscape and move onwards in terms of systematic decision making, and creating tools for more creative planning techniques, this paper utilizes two methodologies in assessing soundscape impacts. One approach usually implemented in quality of manufacturing and product development, namely the Kano Model. The other approach deals with the case in the form of a wider scope which relates the design of the soundscape, and the effect of sound sculptures in objective terms. Due to the complexity of characterizing the soundscape, and its dependence on several of perceptual aspects and interventions, both models are mapped to form an evaluation tool for a specific sonic environment. It can be considered to be a complement along with previous frameworks that shed light on the emission of sound, and others on factors influencing the soundscape perception, or to be used as a tool for understanding and assessing individual responses and evaluation. In this case the importance of having a framework is to help evaluating the common effect of a successful intervention on the positive attributes of the soundscape.
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Archaeo-Acoustics

There are relics and written descriptions that proof the importance of the acoustic design in ancient buildings, but recently that research shed light on the awareness and the extent that it was implemented. Recent research into Palaeolithic cave-drawings has proved a correlation between places where a resonance occurred and is clearly influential and the place where the drawings occurred. This analysis proofs that the qualities of the acoustic design were being identified, recognized, recorded and appreciated over the last 30,000 years.

Prehistoric Acoustic Phenomena and early integration of aural senses in design reflects that the prehistoric age was not silence. It is to be investigated whether the understanding of acoustics behavior at prehistoric sites could further integrate our understanding of the ways acoustics was used in prehistoric monument.

A lot of these early structures visually dominate their surroundings, and all research work has tended to study their visible characteristics. In this context, the relationships between natural topography and architecture has been studied (Richards, 1996; Bradley, 1998), as well as intervisibility and spatial relationships and (Bergh, 1995; Woodward, 1996), construction materials in terms of aesthetics and meaning (Lynch, 1973; Parker Pearson, 1998) and the relation between orientations and astronomy (Ruggles, 1984). While these theories do not consider other senses such as aural, although they add valuable dimensions to our understanding of ancient buildings, they reveal how spaces added emotional aspects to experiences in the past.

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