Class Refection, November 20th, 2008

Professor Shauna Mallory-Hill joined us once again, this time to speak about sound and its involvement of sound in architecture. I found listening to Daniel Levitin’s insights on music and the human psyche especially valuable. He expressed that humans are innately musical creatures and that so many aspects of our cultural development have been shaped by music. It is evident that not a single culture lacks it; even animals use vocalizations and songs etc… all of which are antecedents of music. We were encouraged to think of the emotional centers triggered when sound enters a space and how it can be used to enhance or influence a structure’s design. The surrounding geometry of a space affects the quality of sound within it, as represented in early religious architecture to modern day concert halls, all spaces built to house and shape voices and instruments.
I thought it would be quite compelling if architecture could create sound, not simply support the sounds created by those who use the space. There are already so many sounds that one associates with their homes, like how it settles at night or the creeks from wooden floor boards. These sounds can also provoke certain feelings of comfort or discomfort. However, I have yet to discover a piece of architecture that demonstrates this in its original design.

The second portion of the class focused on flood architecture, though not entirely relevant to the first presentation, it had much relevance to some people as relating to their studio projects. I found this lecture especially moving, specifically because of Edward Epp’s more humanistic focus concerning water and floods. I appreciated him showing the different ways people identify and deal with the water around them, whether it is in a positive way or not. Different societies and cultures react to water in various ways and this was so apparent in his examples of The Ganges River in India and the towering, water dams and cement walls in China. The way structures are built can reflect so much human emotion, for example, the desperation with which the cement support walls were constructed is blatant. This is so interesting to me and a part of me feels that I cannot blame anyone for bad design or planning or anything. I feel more so a sense of compassion for the people who are experiencing these difficulties in the face of the forces of water.