Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

Reverberation, from 'Shape of Sound', published by Victoria Meyers architect, May 2014

Pierre Boulez, in his studio in IRCAM, the International Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music, in Paris.  IRCAM is one of the world's largest public research centers dedicated to musical expression and scientific research.  Ircam opened in 1977.  In the United States, the most comparable center available to sound research is EMPAC, located at Rensellaer Polytechnic, in Troy, New York.  Empac's Director is Johannes Goebel, who previously was the Founding Director of the Institute for Music and Acoustics at the Zentrum fur Kunst und Medietechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany.

IRCAM:  Above:  IRCAM's International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music, 2011.  Pierre Boulez, and Alain Connes, with Gerard Assayaz overviewing the discussion.  The relationship between mathematics, music, sound, architecture, and urban space were part of the Sound Urbanism / Sound Ecology course at the University of Cincinnati, Spring 2013/ 14.  The students looked at the programs and the design of Ircam, as well as EMPAC, as idealized projects for the study of sound, but also as institutions that altered the fabric of the cities and the regions where they were located.




The seminar looked at the writings on sound by Blesser and Salter.  Above:  Spelunkers, or people who explore caves, use aural signals to read the spaces that they investigate.




From Blesser and Salter:  In the contemporary world, our sense of space as related to and read by sound, is disrupted by headphones.



Above:  Professional musicians and acousticians us the 'hand clap' as a rough test for room acoustics.

Below:  Cathedrals are spaces constructed from stone, for experiencing sound, as the hard surfaces, with high ceilings, combine to create enormous reverberation times, and create overtones, also referred to as 'echoes'.  In some cathedrals there is sufficient reverberation from the hard surfaces and the volume of the space, that sounds can continue for ten minutes after an orchestra or choir have stopped performing.

The Seminar's investigation of sound reverberation includes Alvin Lucier's  'I am sitting in a Room' -   a sound piece performed by Lucier at the October 2012 Venice Biennale, the 56th International Festival of Contemporary Music.   Lucier composed the piece in 1969, and it is among his most famous compositions

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Brian Eno// Bells: Sound and Urban Form

Is Brian Eno is famous as a rock musician.  Our interest is Eno's relationship to the Long Now Foundation and how Eno creates a link between bell sounds and Sound Urbanism and Sound Ecology. Eno makes this link through studies and publications tracking the history of bells. Most recently, Eno published CD liner notes for his CD January 07003.  The CD is a collection of Eno's electronic recreations of the sounds of famous bells throughout human history, going back to 850 B.C.E.

Brian Eno: in 1972, with Roxy Music/  and in 2011, from Salon.com.

Brian Eno's research into the history of sound, particularly bells, adds sound to the cultural traditions purviewed by the Long Now Foundation.  Above, Stuart Brand, Neal Stephenson, and Danny Hillis, in discussion, seated in front of a model of the Long Now's 10,000 year clock.  Eno's January 07003 is a collection of electronic recreations of famous bells through history, and also a preview of bells that will be sounded, electronically, by the Long Now Foundation's 10,000-year clock.

Above:  Eno's list of bell studies, from different eras, for the Long Now Foundation clock.

Eno's CD liner notes from January 07003 covers the history of bells, and technologies associated with the fabrication of bells, including metallurgical formulations and alloys used through history to create bells. 

Eno covers the difference between Egyptian bells ('closed bells', or crotals) and dates when small open bells were cast in northern Iran.  By 850 BCE, Eno notes that Assyrian bronze founders experimented with the acoustic properties of different ratios of tin, copper and other metal alloys in bells.

Eno's detailed history of bell foundries moves forward to bells cast in Medieval Monasteries in Europe.  Bell technologies were originally brought to Ireland by St. Patrick, who brought smiths Tasag, Cuana, and Mackecht, to the island in the fifth century CE.  These smiths made forged bells.  Cast bells were developed in Western Europe by the Italian Benedictines beginning in 530 CE.  As the Benedictine Order spread, they established bell foundries throughout Western Europe, and became the main suppliers of bells to that area.

Eno discusses the 'advent of artillery cannon in the fourteenth century, (and how it) provided an unexpected boost to bell manufacture (as) the cannon used almost exactly the same alloy as bells, and was made by similar methods.  In order to have the security of a local arsenal, cities offered foundry sites, and special privileges to bell founders who would settle within their walls.  The same supply of metal used for cannon would go back to bells after hostilities were over.'

It is an amazing history, and I recommend the Eno liner notes to students of my urban design course, Sound Urbanism.  Eno's essay gives perspective to the development of contemporary cities where governments give space and tax privileges to tech companies such as Google and Facebook, for example.  Eno's argument gives a broad outline to the history of how urban spaces are formed, in relationship to contemporary technolgies, through time.

January 07003 is a collection of Eno's recreation of  of famous bell tones, through history.  Eno's CD and its accompanying essay gives a sense of the timbre and 'sound materiality' of bells, and discusses how sound operates as a primary determinant for urban boundaries and city forms.  City limits in the past were established mainly in relationship to residents' ability to hear church bells, factory whistles, and other sound notations, including clock chimes, creating an aural order to urban space.

Brian Eno's album:  music for airports, from 1978 paved the way for a genre of sound explorations.  Above:  Brian Eno with David Byrne, his collaborator in several sound projects.

In addition to sound studies and publications on Bells, and his career as composer, musician, and record producer, Eno spent several years creating color studies based on sound.  In 2012 Eno published Scape, an Apple App, that allows users to develop sound compositions based on color diagrams. 

Ambient sound/  Sound Ecology/  Sound Urbanism. Victoria Meyers architect

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Silence is the base condition for Sound Urbanism and Sound Ecology.  Sound Urbanism // Sound Ecology is the title of a course taught by Victoria Meyers architect in 2012 - 2013 at the University of Cincinnati's Graduate School of Architecture.  Above:  hMa's (Victoria Meyers architect) Won Buddhist Retreat, where the Meditation Hall was developed as an enclave of silence.  This was achieved both through the site planning and landscape design (by hMa), and also by attention placed on sound-proofing in the building, in collaboration with Jaffe Holden Acoustics.



Silence is also featured in the works of John Cage, and Sarah von Sonsbeeck, above.  Silence was a major aspect of the semester's studies, and included reviews of Cage's 4' - 33", Cage's monograph, 'Silence', above; Paley Park in NYC, designed by landscape architects Zion and Breen, which notably is not quiet, but filled with the sound of water, drowning out the sounds of New York City;  and, more recently, the works of Dutch artist, Sarah von Sonsbeeck, including her piece, featured above, 'one square meter of broken silence'. 

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Victoria Meyers and her new book Shape of Sound are featured in a new post on Life.Style.Design. The Art of Living.  Check out the post:  http://www.lifestyledesignexperience.com/shape-of-sound/.

The post includes texts from Meyers's 2014 Shape of Sound, as well as her 2006 book, Designing with Light.

Designing with Light, Victoria Meyers architect

The piece describes Meyers as a visionary exploring sound as a medium to expand contemporary space design.  Meyers has been at the forefront of using sound in hMa projects, since 2006, with the installation of 'Sound and Light Wells' in hMa's Infinity Chapel, located near Washington Square in the Greenwich Village area of New York City.

above:  Infinity Chapel, including detail of hMa's Sound and Light Wells

In addition to applying sound manipulation to public projects, Meyers also applies concepts related to sound design to residential design, including hMa's Downtown NYC loft project, finished in 2012.

Above:  Downtown Loft by hMa:  sound technologies create a sound isolated interior

Meyers' latest foray into complex architectural design incorporating sound includes hMa's DWi-P located at Battery Park City, in NYC.  DWi-P features a 550-foot long glass facade with embedded blue-tooth technology to support visitors reading the facade using cell phones.  The facade is imprinted with a sound-score by NYC Composer Michael J. Schumacher, who is also the Founder and Executive Director of Diapason Gallery in Brooklyn. 

Above:  Digital Water i-Pavilion, hMa:  Architecture of Movement;  Sound Urbanism

DWi-P is a new Community Center at Battery Park City designed to welcome visitors from the World Trade Center Memorial Site to the parks at Battery Park City.  The building, which houses a series of pools to support the swimming programs of Asphalt Green, has a composition embedded in the facade titled:  WaTER. 

Meyers recently presented hMa's works at FIU (Florida International University) in Miami, where she was hosted by Professor David Rifkind.  Meyers's lecture, titled SEMPER (system, energy, materiality, program, education, research) reviewed hMa's works, including the founding principals' (Meyers and Hanrahan) dedication to education as part of their approach to design, architecture, landscapes, and master plans. 

Ryoan-ji Temple + Stasis;  hMa's Pratt Pavilion + Dynamic Space

Above:  hMa projects contrast Dynamic and Static Formal approaches to design

Above:  hMa's Infinity Chapel, designed for Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist, in NYC: 

Using Sound + Light Wells to direct human movement from Street/ to Chapel/ to Garden

above:  hMa's Won Buddhist Retreat:  Spiral forms direct walking meditation through Nature

Robotics applied to sculpture /Applied to building technolgies

hMa:  Architecture is Energy Waves (lecture delivered by Meyers at 2013 sxsw.Eco)

 

hMa spaces use Raw Materials to reconnect to Nature

Program studies in Meyers' studios include Mark Lombardi's works:  Global Networks

Meyers Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology Seminar student projects:  Sound Sections through Cincinnati

Meyers studio at UTA (University of Texas Arlington):  MWEE:  a new subway stop for the #1 train in NYC at 125th Street

Meyers hMa Research includes Bluetooth embedded glass, and an App to give access to sound compositions embedded in a building facade at Battery Park City

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Brooklyn Bridge Walk, Max Neuhaus

To study the ecology of sound, we need to define how we see sound as a formal discipline.   Sound programs include civic programs:  housing, public spaces including concert halls and theaters, work spaces including factories and subway stations, and other spaces that influence our daily experience of sound.  We need to study how environments intimately relate to how we think about place.  A great experiment in sensitizing to sound include spending a day blindfolded, relying  on aural soundmarks as a guide.  This experience isolates our sense of hearing, allowing us to better understand how the aural environment affects how our brains ‘see’ space. 

Walking through a meadow with nature sounds;  through a crowded urban square with traffic noises;   through a train station; or through a carpeted room  – the specificity of space -  the scale of the room;  the materiality of the surroundings, even the temperature of the air  - affect our perception of space.   Our ears act as sensitive instruments that measure the perimeter and the edges of the spaces that we navigate.  More so than we realize, we make calibrated estimates about the shape and the nature of our environment through the sensitive instrumentation of our ears.

We live in an age where space, and the ‘sound arena’ of space is being flattened by digital technologies.  Today we have a relationship to digital output devices (cell-phones, laptop computers, and tablets) that have disrupted the civic fabric of sound communications, and replaced it with a new fabric of digital messaging.   We will also study the emergent digital paths of discourse, and identify their effects on sound ecology.

Jacob Kirkegaard:

Sound Performance in a Fortification

There is a history of sound as an architectural device, with the earliest detailed history from the medieval period, in the writings of Abbot Suger, the architect for the Gothic Cathedral of St. Denis.  As Suger developed the concepts for the Gothic style of architecture, he wrote at length about color, color theory, sound, and music, and saw the development of the Gothic Cathedral as the culmination of his era’s technological abilities to develop an effective vessel for sound.

Harry Partch:  Chromelodeon

Steve Holl:  Building as Colored Pixels

Sound Urbanism / Sound Ecology will include Skyped talks by sound artists, including Stephen Vitiello (whose installation ‘A Bell for Every Minute’ was originally installed at the High-Line in NYC);  Sarah van Sonsbeeck, a Dutch artist whose work is marked by a detailed attention to architectural perception, silence, noise, and human interaction;  David Mather, founder of the Electronic Signal Project, ESP, and Fellow-in-Residence at MIT, who will present his ‘Urban Codes’ project;  and Dr. Mara Helmuth, Professor and Composer in the UC College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), who has agreed to have input into the course.

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Sound Ecology:  a Proposition

Humankind’s ideas about sound have evolved, starting during the era of cave dwellers, who took advantage of the aural environment in caves to enhance the sounds that accompanied cave painting rituals.  Caves are reverberant, and the effect of sounds chanted within such environments have vastly different emotional effects from the same sounds chanted in an open field.   Today, in the twenty-first century, we are beginning to ‘hear’ buildings that incorporate sound as an interactive aspect of the building façade (DWi-P).   We also have buildings that use new technologies for sound isolation and sound projection, and digitally controlled systems that offer built sound environments that exceed the technical possibilities of sound rooms from past eras (EMPAC). 

The making of architecture inherently relates to the creation of different sound environments, even if those aural environments are not an explicit part of the building program, and even if the architects and building clients are not aware that they have created an aural environment every time they build a project.  The Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology course is aimed at making students of architecture, music, and the fine arts sensitive to the affect of built environments, and sound- marks within that environment, on our aural, or sound, ecology. The course will reinforce how architects and artists have control over the sound arena of the environments that they interact with, and will make musicians sensitive to performance environments to allow a better understanding about the aural possibilities of indoor and outdoor spaces.

Architectural design is the creation of an envelope that controls the sound, light, air and other forces of a specific location in space and time.  In this seminar, we focus on the control of sound, and the identification of various factors that affect sound in the built environment.  Buildings and outdoor spaces designed without sensitivity to the aural environment are also, often, not successful.  Often, designers ignore the aural environment.  But if sound is controlled, it makes an enormous difference to the experience of the building or landscape.  When you go to see a movie, for example, sound is tightly controlled by the team who developed the film score.  Rooms can be like film scores -  and emphasize their public or private nature, through sound.

Cities and urban plans are intimately related to sound.  The creation of cities in the past included the idea of an aural border (the edge of town):  it represented the perimeter that a landscape would allow for the propagation of civic communication through the city’s main public buildings, including churches and church bells, fire stations and fire alarms to call out fire locations, factories and whistles to announce the start of the factory work day, as well as other civic institutions that use sound signals for civic communication.  City planning includes the design of appropriate sound environments for residential areas, schools, libraries, or public performance venues. 

Similarly, Victoria Meyers architect's 'LightScore' performed at the Kitchen space for Performance and Art in New York City, also explored the boundaries between form, space, light and sound.

Shown above, the 'Music Box' designed in 2009 for Michael Schumacher;  and, adjacent, Michael Schumacher on piano.  The Music Box is an Anamorph, in reference to Michael's work with Victoria, which involved a set of aesthetic propositions around the concept of sound, as a formal element, within the urban environment.   The class will design their own concept for a Music Box as a class project, for UC Composer Dr. Mara Helmuth.

Formal sound spaces designed by hMa and Meyers include WaveLine, in Queens, New York.  WaveLine is located near the Queens MoMA, and PS 1.

For more information about Sound Urbanism, see earlier posts by this blog.  In 2014 Victoria will be publishing Shape of Sound, with Black Dog Publishers, London. 

 

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