The Sound of Architecture

Acoustic atmospheres can be fleeting, elusive, or short-lived. Sometimes they are constant, but more often they change from one moment to the next, forming distinct impressions each time we visit certain places. Stable or dynamic, acoustic atmospheres have a powerful effect on our spatial experience, sometimes even more so than architecture itself. This book explores the acoustic atmospheres of diverse architectural environments, in terms of scale, function, location, or historic period—providing an overview of how acoustic atmospheres are created, perceived, experienced, and visualized. Contributors explore how sound and its atmospheres transform architecture and space. Their essays demonstrate that sound is a tangible element in the design and staging of atmospheres and that it should become a central part of the spatial explorations of architects, designers, and urban planners. The Sound of Architecture will be of interest to architectural historians, theorists, students, and practicing architects, who will discover how acoustic atmospheres can be created without complex and specialized engineering. It will also be of value to scholars working in the field of history of emotions, as it offers evocative descriptions of acoustic atmospheres from diverse cultures and time periods.

Hospital Greenspaces and the Impacts on Wayfinding and Spatial Experience: An Explorative Experiment Through Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) Techniques

Background: Navigating large hospitals can be very challenging due to the functional complexity as well as the evolving changes and expansions of such facilities. Hospital wayfinding issues could lead to stress, negative mood, and poor healthcare experience among patients, staff, and family members. Objectives: A survey-embedded experiment was conducted using immersive virtual environment (IVE) techniques to explore people’s wayfinding performance and their mood and spatial experience in hospital circulation spaces with or without visible greenspaces. Methods: Seventy-four participants were randomly assigned to either group to complete wayfinding tasks in a timed session. Participants’ wayfinding performances were interpreted using several indicators, including task completion, duration, walking distance, stop, sign-viewing, and route selection. Participants’ mood states and perceived environmental attractiveness and atmosphere were surveyed; their perceived levels of presence in the IVE hospitals were also reported. Results: The results revealed that participants performed better on high complexity wayfinding tasks in the IVE hospital with visible greenspaces, as indicated by less time consumed and shorter walking distance to find the correct destination, less frequent stops and sign viewing, and more efficient route selection. Participants also experienced enhanced mood states and favorable spatial experience and perceived aesthetics in the IVE hospital with visible greenspaces than the same environment without window views. IVE techniques could be an efficient tool to supplement environment-behavior studies with certain conditions noted. Conclusions: Hospital greenspaces located at key decision points could serve as landmarks that positively attract people’s attention, aid wayfinding, and improve their navigational experience.

MONTAGE AS SPATIAL RECONSTRUCTION OPERATION METHOD IN DESIGNING CINEMATIC ARCHITECTURE

This article investigated montage to understand and arrange cinematic architecture through operations of spatial reconstruction to present a sequence of spatial experiences. Montage is a part of discourses related to cinematic, film, and architecture. This article explored the montage approach as the primary basis in the architectural design process through spatial experience. The discussion is based on the idea that montage is emphasized in three things, i.e., sequence, multiple layers of meaning, and movement. These three aspects were further observed through the montage precedent comprising various cinematic precedents based on montage in architecture, i.e., Manhattan Transcripts and Parc de La Villette from Bernard Tschumi, Villa Savoye from Le Corbusier, and Maison Bordeaux from Rem Koolhaas. The finding of this study is a synthesis of some of these precedents that resulted in an understanding of space reconstruction operations, i.e., dismantlement, disappearance, and reassembly, all three of which exist as strategies that will be part of the production process to develop montage-based cinematic architectural design, creating new spatial sequence that provide alternative spatial experience. This article expands the knowledge regarding montages that cinematics and films can be a development in architectural design.

CINEMATIC SPACE STUDIES OF KOMPLEK SUSTER-SUSTER ST. FRANSISKUS IN SEMARANG

- Cinema and Architecture are two art media that dependent on some human senses to give experience and define space compared of other art medium. These two media have been trying to show and convince film viewers or architecture users as a work of art. Both have quality value that will be higher if they can be as close to reality. However, architecture tend to use visual but lack of emotions. As a result, buildings left us as only a viewers without invite us to engaged. Therefore, from cinema to architecture, the thinking of thematic conditions of architecture can be brought together with conceptual, contextual, architectonic, and technical. Ave Maryam (2020) is a film that takes place in Semarang, and Kompleks Susteran St. Fransiskus is the main setting that interesting to studied. From each scene it can clearly describe space with a visual composition to convey a strong spatial experience. Departing from an approach to cinema that is parallel to architecture so that the audience can experience spaces outside the formal architectural experience. The purpose of this study is to identify cinematic themes that can be discussed and reconstruct the cinematic space as a search for understanding the potential and meaning of cinematic in Kompleks Kesusteran St. Fransiskus based on the film Ave Maryam (2020). By using a qualitative descriptive method, from data that achieved by literature studies and film observations. It can be concluded that the existing approaches to architecture and cinema from Ave Maryam (2020) can be interpreted to build a concept that achieves the beauty and experience experienced in architecture such as watching the film. Key Words: cinematic, architecture and film, cinematic approach, Ave Maryam, Komplek Kesusteran St. Fransiskus, Semarang.

A Place in Nowhere: Architectural Placemaking in the Tararua Ranges

<p>The resulting thesis asks, ‘how can architecture curate our experience of site to facilitate placemaking’. It finds that architecture can create distinctive and diverse ‘places’ in large landscapes by enabling new ways for people to engage with the site. These places result in a deeply felt experience and, when positioned in a series, they highlight the significance of the landscape. The thesis examines a significant route within the Tararua Forest Park known as the Southern Crossing. The thesis explores how architecture can curate this experience to better connect us to place. This is facilitated by a series of nine architectural interventions that test and refine methods for situating, orientating, temporalising and contextualising one’s experience of space. Starting with site analysis, the thesis finds that subjectivity can provide deeper insights and more powerful concepts when related to experience. It finds that narrative methodologies enable the study of actuality and this is accompanied with the ability to interpret spatial elements which affect this experience. This is opposed to contemporary approaches which are focused on objectivity and fact. Through evolving narrative techniques, a way for the architecture to curate one’s experience of each site is discovered. The design methodology does away with contemporary abstract views. Instead, the process focuses on understanding how the architectonic elements influence the spatial experience to better connect us to place.</p>

A Place in Nowhere: Architectural Placemaking in the Tararua Ranges

<p>The resulting thesis asks, ‘how can architecture curate our experience of site to facilitate placemaking’. It finds that architecture can create distinctive and diverse ‘places’ in large landscapes by enabling new ways for people to engage with the site. These places result in a deeply felt experience and, when positioned in a series, they highlight the significance of the landscape. The thesis examines a significant route within the Tararua Forest Park known as the Southern Crossing. The thesis explores how architecture can curate this experience to better connect us to place. This is facilitated by a series of nine architectural interventions that test and refine methods for situating, orientating, temporalising and contextualising one’s experience of space. Starting with site analysis, the thesis finds that subjectivity can provide deeper insights and more powerful concepts when related to experience. It finds that narrative methodologies enable the study of actuality and this is accompanied with the ability to interpret spatial elements which affect this experience. This is opposed to contemporary approaches which are focused on objectivity and fact. Through evolving narrative techniques, a way for the architecture to curate one’s experience of each site is discovered. The design methodology does away with contemporary abstract views. Instead, the process focuses on understanding how the architectonic elements influence the spatial experience to better connect us to place.</p>

Visiting Places

In this chapter we look at notions of place, as outlined in work in human geography, tourism studies and other applied social fields. We consider the distinction between spaces and places and on how different experiences of place arise in the traveller. This is important to our understanding of tourist and other travel experiences, and to experiencing a sense of place in digital environments. Despite some commonalities, we find that digital travel is unlike physical travel in many significant respects, but that the experience of a place can, in some circumstances, be similar. For digital travel and digital experiences, place attachment is relevant for places that a person knows well. We conclude that a digital experience can become a spatial experience if our bodily senses are invoked by the virtual place.

Truth in Fiction: Storytelling and Architecture

<p>Current discourse on architectural narrative suggests that a series of events or impressions of space can be ‘read’ through a sequencing of spaces and views within a building. It is presumed that a building is read in the same way as a sequence of shots in a film. In this model, architects set up a narrative which is played out through a careful construction of viewpoints and events. In practice this can lead to the manipulation of spatial experience at the sacrifice of individual interpretation, as maintaining the narrative compromises spatial experience. This stems from the fundamental difference between how we experience architecture as opposed to more traditional narratives in printed or pictorial media. The experience of space is not a linear one, nor is it bound by a strict timeline which follows from cause to effect. Unlike a novel, where the author has complete control over the pacing and focus of each scene, the architect cannot rely on others to interpret his exact intentions, or on his architecture remaining true to a single narrative over time. This research is about storytelling in architecture. Specifically, how we might better use narratives to play to the strengths of our medium. From examining current practices in publicly establishing narratives, to investigating the work of John Hejduk, this work examines how architectural narratives have been constructed in the past, and whether this has been successful. Using an analysis of three works of fiction: The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, The Castle by Franz Kafka and The House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski; I analyse the various uses of the architectural metaphor in fiction and how these fictional spaces have been used as characters within their individual narratives. I use design to develop a process which takes a basic house plan and applies a non-linear narrative to it. This narrative is not concerned with a single interpretation. This process creates spaces imbued with the stories of the novels studied, and of my role as designer. Yet they may also be reinterpreted again by a new viewer to give a kind of immortality to the story. The architecture continually adapts itself to new experiences and understandings. Finally, I argue that we do have the ability to use storytelling within architecture to enrich our spaces without resorting to the manipulation of the user. If we return to the cyclic and layered model of storytelling, as opposed to the linear structure of narrative, then our buildings will not only tell our stories more clearly, but also for longer as they appeal to the changing fashions, experiences and applied narratives of the people who use them, remaining relevant to the world of experience.</p>

Truth in Fiction: Storytelling and Architecture

<p>Current discourse on architectural narrative suggests that a series of events or impressions of space can be ‘read’ through a sequencing of spaces and views within a building. It is presumed that a building is read in the same way as a sequence of shots in a film. In this model, architects set up a narrative which is played out through a careful construction of viewpoints and events. In practice this can lead to the manipulation of spatial experience at the sacrifice of individual interpretation, as maintaining the narrative compromises spatial experience. This stems from the fundamental difference between how we experience architecture as opposed to more traditional narratives in printed or pictorial media. The experience of space is not a linear one, nor is it bound by a strict timeline which follows from cause to effect. Unlike a novel, where the author has complete control over the pacing and focus of each scene, the architect cannot rely on others to interpret his exact intentions, or on his architecture remaining true to a single narrative over time. This research is about storytelling in architecture. Specifically, how we might better use narratives to play to the strengths of our medium. From examining current practices in publicly establishing narratives, to investigating the work of John Hejduk, this work examines how architectural narratives have been constructed in the past, and whether this has been successful. Using an analysis of three works of fiction: The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, The Castle by Franz Kafka and The House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski; I analyse the various uses of the architectural metaphor in fiction and how these fictional spaces have been used as characters within their individual narratives. I use design to develop a process which takes a basic house plan and applies a non-linear narrative to it. This narrative is not concerned with a single interpretation. This process creates spaces imbued with the stories of the novels studied, and of my role as designer. Yet they may also be reinterpreted again by a new viewer to give a kind of immortality to the story. The architecture continually adapts itself to new experiences and understandings. Finally, I argue that we do have the ability to use storytelling within architecture to enrich our spaces without resorting to the manipulation of the user. If we return to the cyclic and layered model of storytelling, as opposed to the linear structure of narrative, then our buildings will not only tell our stories more clearly, but also for longer as they appeal to the changing fashions, experiences and applied narratives of the people who use them, remaining relevant to the world of experience.</p>

Investigating Human Scale Spatial Experience

Spatial experience, or how humans experience a given space, has been a pivotal topic especially in urban-scale environments. On the human scale, HCI researchers have mostly investigated personal meanings or aesthetic and embodied experiences. In this paper, we investigate the human scale as an ensemble of individual spatial features. Through large-scale online questionnaires we first collected a rich set of spatial features that people generally use to characterize their surroundings. Second, we conducted a set of field interviews to develop a more nuanced understanding of the feature identified as most important: perceived safety. Our combined quantitative and qualitative analysis contributes to spatial understanding as a form of context information and presents a timely investigation into the perceived safety of human scale spaces. By connecting our results to the broader scientific literature, we contribute to the field of HCI spatial understanding.