Reflections for November 20 Class

Dr. Mallory Hill was back this week to continue about architecture and our senses. Hearing was the major sense she focused on, giving a very interactive lecture by incorporating music, interviews and other types of sounds. It has been hypothesized that humans are musical creatures. Since the beginning of human culture, we have had some form of music. It is a stimulus which can activate different pleasure centers in our brain and often has an emotional affecst on us. Similar to how we like diversity in our urban landscapes, our brain also seeks for diversity when it comes to sound. We tend to want to dance more to more syncopated beats versus steady beats. Our brains our constantly seeking challenges in the sounds and sights we experience. "Architecture is Frozen Sound" was a quote that really resonated with me. I realized we often use musical terms to speak about architecture. For example, we can say the row of windows creates a sense of rhythm or all the visual elements work to form a composition. All the examples shown of Architecture and Sound were built with not only with aesthetics in mind, but also the function. Music Halls took into account, what type of sound they wanted to achieve, and even factored in the audience as sound absorbers. Architecture also influenced types of music like the Gregorian Chant because the Cathedrals were built so large and reverberant, people had to sing a specific way. 

The second half of the class dealt with Flood Architecture taught by our program head, Ed Epp. Living in Winnipeg makes this lecture one with important context. Flooding is an issue our city desperately struggles with. All the information and examples were provided on the website International Centre for Flood Architecture. Once again Scandinavian Countries such as the Netherlands were far ahead the rest of North America in their innovations in dealing with flooding. Many of the examples shown in the Netherlands had human settlements work with and co exist with nature. They City of Delft brought the water in to became part of the cityscape and the community of Grindgaten X used the floating properties of concrete to keep the community afloat. Although the Centre for Flood Architecture is quite new, I predict this centre and the research it's doing will gain momentum in the years to come, where flooding will be a problem many cities will need to face with climate change.