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"While the acoustic environment and urban soundscapes shape our everyday life, architecture practice usually neglects the experience of acoustic space in its design process. My research addressed the challenge of integrating spatial acoustics and the experience of environmental sound in architecture practice. Drawing from acoustic ecology, creative approaches embody the aural experience of the environment into the design process of architecture. "

Tuned City is a platform which proposes an examination of the relations between architecture and sound. This ongoing project draws the traditions of critical discussion about urban space within architecture and urban planning discourse - as well as its strategies and working methods - into the context of sound art. This expanded discussion reinforces the potential of the spatial and communicative properties of sound as a tool and means of urban practice. Tuned City continues as a platform, exploring other cities and locations with their own cultural and social settings, working theoretically and practically on the question how sound and architecture are related.

"Since 2006, the Art of Failure collective has been sending bass frequencies into remarkable architectural structures. These experiences establish a dialog between architecture, the structures' spatial components, and their geographic context - revealing building's specific acoustic and vibrating qualities."

"Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, founding partner and architect at Snøhetta, talks sound and space with reSITE at RESONATE. He emphasizes the importance of "transpositioning" in an increasingly specialized world to ensure architecture remains collaborative and interdisciplinary. Kjetil also encourages the use of all senses, especially sound, in his work."

"Hear from Meyer Sound and Foster + Partners on how they manipulate and shape spaces through invisible architecture. The creation of spaces that take people into environments that they've never experienced comes with the technological advancements in sound engineering."

"The acoustics of a building are a big concern for architects. But for designers at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, it's the absence of sound that defines the approach to architecture. Gallaudet is a university dedicated to educating the deaf and hard of hearing, and for the last 3 years, they've re-thought principles of architecture with one question at the forefront: how do deaf people communicate in space? "

""we tend to be indifferent to acoustics" in contemporary residences, and think only of "competing with traffic outside". Normally, he continues, "architecture is about being quiet", whereas there's a rich history of sound and architecture - especially in pre-literate societies. He talks of the clarity of sound in the Greek amphitheatre, of the intentional use of sound spaces in Medieval and Gothic cathedrals, which were "designed by acoustics as much as visual principles - they were considered 'sacred resonators'"."

""I can hear with my knee better than with my calves." This statement made by Bernhard Leitner, which initially seems absurd, can be explained in light of an interest that he still pursues today with unbroken passion and meticulousness: the study of the relationship between sound, space, and body. Since the late 1960s, Bernhard Leitner has been working in the realm between architecture, sculpture, and music, conceiving of sounds as constructive material, as architectural elements that allow a space to emerge."

It is all too easy for architecture to be seen and not heard. Instragrammable visuals may be at our fingertips, but it is impossible to photograph an echo. Sad news, considering the most memorable of spaces are those that heighten more than just our optical sense. What's more, much of new architecture is focused on controlling sound, rather than celebrating it. We want to block out our neighbours, escape the city noise, or buffer any possibility of sonic surprise. Here are 10 spaces to remind us of architecture's acoustic abilities - from the unexpected quarry opera venue to the deliberate forest megaphone. If you're a musician, imagine playing in these…

"The format of 'Path of Awareness_Elephant and Castle' explores an individual's personal experience of space through walking, particularly the interplay between sound event (footsteps) and surrounding architecture, influenced by the constantly changing interactions in the environment. A route created around the college of communication offers numerous opportunities to engage with the city's dynamics. Walking itself, the sonic character of footwear, the walkability of this urban habitat, as well as its architectural and atmospheric qualities are all major features of this soundwalk. My soundful shoes become instruments, soloists in the space, creating a dialogue with the surroundings and situating us sonically in the places we walk."

"Trained as a musical composer, Beer (who created a 'Vessel Orchestra' for his 2019 solo show at the Met Breuer) works with the acoustic fingerprints of architecture, asking vocalists to stimulate their natural harmonics. 'Since I was a kid, I could hear the notes of buildings,' he says, explaining that a room is like a seashell, constantly making its own sounds.  When he found himself on the wrong side of the Sydney Opera House, he led his four local singers to an external nook of the building, then asked them to lock lips and treat each other's bodies as architecture. 'The acoustic space that they're working with is the empty mouth of the other person that they're singing through.'"

"Here's an excerpt from a recent talk by sound artist Olivia Block in which she exposes her approach to sound in relation to architecture, specifically in her recent Sonambient Pavilion, where she explored some interesting topics around sounds, materials, shapes, textures, layers, spaces, etc."

Field Studies is a four-day summer-school led by three acclaimed sound artists and composers. It explores the possibilities of engaging with places through listening, and working with recorded sound as a creative and practical tool in the context of architecture, the city and art practice.

"The International Ambiances Network aims at structuring and developing the research field of architectural and urban ambiances. It wishes to promote the sensory domain in the questioning and design of lived space. This sensitive approach of the built environment involves all the senses (sound, light, odors, touch, heat,…). Such a network favors multisensoriality and pluridisciplinarity (human and social sciences ; architecture and urban planning ; engineering and applied physics). It is open to a wide variety of profiles and includes research activities as well as design, teaching or artistic ones."

As there are no images of Saydnaya, we were dependent on the memories of survivors to recreate what happened inside. Using architectural and acoustic modelling, we helped witnesses reconstruct the architecture of the prison and their experiences of detention.

"Elizabeth Diller, founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, speaks on the importance of sound in architecture and the evolving role of the architect in an increasingly multidisciplinary world. She contemplates how to design buildings that transcend time and withstand the continuous evolution of the activities and art forms that will exist within them."

sound and architecture. concrete sound mirrors, Cobusier & Vaerese and the Philips pavilion, Cornelius Cardew and his Scratch cottage

What does sound look like? It's a question we have seen answered by quite some artists, creating sculptures of sounds, frozen at one moment in time. Like Yes/No by Carsten Nicolai or the Rolex Tower soundwave sculpture. Never have I seen something like this Orproject design though.

"The Cathedral of Noyon houses the most unusual-and largely unknown-installation of acoustic vases in Western Europe, the caveau phonocamptique, a chamber installed beneath the pavement of the crossing. Acoustic vases are simple earthenware pots placed in the walls and vaults of postclassical churches, their installation inspired by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio's De architectura libri decem. "

""Toward the Circle" is silent short film created during a research residency at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY. It presents a sequence of enclosures, each with a simulated burst of sound energy, that hints at an important relationship between sound and architecture. Zackery Belanger can be reached at zb@arcgeometer.com"