Class Reflection November 20

Last class' lecture was our second from Dr. Mallory-Hill. The topic of the first portion of this class was sound and architecture. Like Vaike's lecture on colour taught me, everything is relevant in architecture. While I have always been an avid music listener, and general sound enthusiast, and while I was aware that acoustics are an important consideration in design, I was unaware of the major impact of sound in our built environments. Dr. Mallory-Hill's initial description of how sound affects the human brain was so interesting, and I found her presentation of how architecture has been designed to achieve certain sounds to be fascinating. I have visited several of the spaces she presented, and when she described, for example, the way that sound resonates in St. Mark's, I was brought back to that place and realized that sound is part of what makes the space memorable.

During the second portion of the lecture Eduard Epp presented on the topic of flood architecture. This presentation was particularly relevant to me as my studio project focused on redesigning a city after a flood. Like Epp mentioned, our studio group also decided to design structures to work with and on the water, instead of in opposition to it. For these reasons, I appreciated his insights for designing structures on water. As our climate continues to change it is important that we address flooding, and I share Epp's belief that is in our interest to adapt our urban environments to accommodate water. Epp's demonstration of his travels as an attempt to understand flood architecture were very interesting, and he made an important point, stating that depending on our culture water may be seen as a healing and life giving, or as destructive. In the years to come I believe we as North American's should shift our beliefs to the former in order move forward and evolve from future floods.