A commonly touted comparison of architectural acoustic design is of that to dark arts or arcane sciences (see: the foreword of every textbook on architectural acoustics sympathising with architects). The invisible nature of acoustics and lack of immediate visual feedback is an obvious impairment to the traditional architectural design process. To add to the difficulties, two visually polarised material textures such as rough brick and smooth concrete perform very similarly to acoustic reflectors. Similarly, lightweight building materials which are efficient to transport and install, are problematic for their noise-transmitting characteristics. Therefore, in understanding the invisible problems of acoustics, architects must also redefine their understanding of materials and building elements to include acoustics, on top of their visual, thermal, and structural properties.

While textbooks and guidelines attempt to graphically represent acoustic effects, plans and sections overly abstract the complexity of acoustical physical interactions. “What about 3D models?” you ask, “surely there is some shiny software that allows you to predict acoustic effects?”. There are certainly high-end (and expensive) software packages that allow designers to predict acoustic qualities. However, using and interpreting these results requires specialised knowledge and skills to not only build the 3D models but also interpret the numerous graphs and numeric results, making them largely inaccessible to architects. There are some visualisation options available, but three-dimensional sound propagation drawings similarly convolute an understanding of what architects can actually do to affect the abstractly represented quality of sound. So, back to the consultants.

“What if we just taught architects to listen?”. Great question - the soundscape approach essentially poses this. Acoustic ecologist Murray Schafer in his pioneering book The Soundscape, explains ear-cleaning exercises, the practice of removing distractions, respecting silence, and attentively listening and documenting the sounds in the world. This preliminary exercise, paired with going on soundwalks, has the goal of holistically understanding the entirety of the aural landscape unveiling new novelties, from the different engine noises made by various cars to the sound of a finger turning a page. While this certainly presents a new perspective on how architects interact with sound at an experiential level, there are obviously limitations on the technical applicability when it comes to the architectural design part.

“Ok so, what if we aim for something in-between? Combine the listening skills and holistic understanding from those soundscape approaches, with some more accessible tools or methods that architects currently use. As you mentioned with re-framing an architect’s mindset around incorporating acoustic considerations, you would also need to find ways to integrate acoustics into how architects are taught to design.”

That’s a great idea.

Someone should do a PhD about that.