Soundscape as a design strategy for landscape architectural praxis (original) (raw)
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Sound in Landscape Architecture : A Soundscape Approach to Noise
Landscape planning and design involve decisions that have far-reaching effects, positive and negative, on the soundscape. However, landscape architecture and related disciplines have not fully recognised the possibilities of considering sound issues in design projects. This is problematic, considering that sound influences health and wellbeing and is an important factor in environmental experience. This thesis examines how soundscape thinking can be facilitated in landscape architecture. The work is based on a mixed-method approach and it is practice-orientated in the sense that it studies how landscape architects currently work with sound and how they could work with sound in the future. The soundscape concept is used to emphasise the experiential characteristics of the sonic environment and to discuss the role of sound in landscape architecture, particularly in noise-exposed situations. Applications of soundscape design are raised in several examples, including construction of a design intervention as a reference project involving noise masking. The understandings obtained are used to formulate a set of strategies and tools for the profession as a soundscape approach to noise, in which problems and possibilities are given consideration to ensure a varied and purposeful environment. A model based on three categories is presented to evaluate and facilitate such a comprehensive approach, where each of the three categories (localisation of functions, reduction of unwanted sounds and introduction of wanted sounds) represents a central consideration that can be taken in landscape architecture. An extended version of the comprehensive model is also presented. It comprises a list of 23 ‘soundscape actions’, each of which represents a concrete, general strategy that can be adopted to improve soundscapes, particularly focusing on noise-exposed situations. To increase applicability, the soundscape actions were developed in collaboration with professional landscape architects, Master’s students, acousticians, artists and other experts. The findings are discussed in relation to contemporary challenges in the profession, particularly focusing on the sustainability discourse and covering issues such as green structures, densification and the notion of ‘quiet areas’.
Site Soundscapes Landscape architecture in the light of sound
2003
Hedfors, Per. 2003. Site Soundscapes – landscape architecture in the light of sound. Doctor’s dissertation. issn 1401-6249, isbn 91-576-6425-0. This research was based on the assumption that landscape architects work on projects in which the acoustic aspects can be taken into consideration. In such projects activities are located within the landscape and specific sounds belong to specific activities. This research raised the orchestration of the soundscape as a new area of concern in the field of landscape architecture; a new method of approaching the problem was suggested. Professionals can learn to recognise the auditory phenomena which are characteristic of a certain type of land use. Acoustic sources are obvious planning elements which can be used as a starting point in the development process. The effects on the soundscape can subsequently be evaluated according to various planning options. The landscape is viewed as a space for sound sources and listeners where the sounds are ...
Urban soundscapes: a quasi-experiment in landscape architecture
Soundscapes are becoming increasingly recognised as significant for sustainable development, since they involve issues of health and quality of life. With this in mind, the present study aims to further our understanding of how urban soundscapes can be altered through design of outdoor space. The study took the form of a quasi-experiment on an urban square, involving sound screens covered with ivy to form a small arbour. Assessment was effected using a mixed-method approach that included measurements of sound pressure levels as well as self-reports from (in total) 205 visitors (198 questionnaires and 9 semi-structured interviews were used for analysis). The findings reveal that the arbour improved the soundscape. This effect was further enhanced when forest sounds were added through loudspeakers, underlining the importance of qualitative considerations. The study additionally highlights potential applications of soundscape design, by examining a number of issues encountered during the project in relation to landscape architecture.
Generation of architectural designs using soundscapes : an educational case study
45. Jahrestagung für Akustik, 2019
Architectural design process contains a crucial stage called “insight”, in which the vital creative phase of the design process begins. Additionally, “design fixation”, or simply designing from external stimuli, has been one of the most common methods to approach this phase. Sound as external stimuli for designing, has been used in many historical cases. However, it has never been considered as a design engine for inhabited interior environments. For this reason, some experiments were conducted, designing from a soundscape. This paper will present an educational experience at Barcelona School of Architecture in UPC and at the Faculty of Architecture in RWTH Aachen University, among others. The main features –such as active learning process, projectbased workshop or decodification of spatial perception- will be highlighted.
Sound as an integral part of the spatial landscape experience and design
2018
The active design of acoustic landscape qualities plays a central role in the creation of high-quality open spaces. In the course of this intervention I will present the approach of my doctoral research, which I am pursuing at the Institute of Landscape Architecture at the ETH Zurich. By relating auditory perceptual models with the tangible experience of concrete places, this research will develop new methods for the inclusion of sound in landscape architectural design.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2012
Calls are increasingly made for an urban land-use policy that takes non-vision sensory modalities into account, like hearing, but agents capable of making such changes often lack the expertise to do so. The best progress in acoustics so far has been through intentional soundscape design, which considers sound during the urban design process rather than after. Indeed, soundscape designers should understand how complicated factors interact out in-situ. Armed with this knowledge, they can take action to prevent further harm to the urban landscape. The paper establishes that soundscape researchers should be working with urban designers rather than urban planners to affect soundscape change on a multitude of urban scales, because of the nature of the task of the urban designer. A mode of interdisciplinary communication is established through three case studies that show the extent to which soundscape designers should be involved in the urban design process, specifically designing rather than advising. The article cautions that soundscape researchers can overly rely on cumulative work to generate knowledge; meanwhile, urban designers, who come from specialized fields, are entrusted to think holistically about urban problems to find a solution that is satisfying to a number of agents and are generally expected to deal with more vague matters of aesthetics.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2012
Calls are increasingly made for an urban land-use policy that takes non-vision sensory modalities into account, like hearing, but agents capable of making such changes often lack the expertise to do so. The best progress in acoustics so far has been through intentional soundscape design, which considers sound during the urban design process rather than after. Indeed, soundscape designers should understand how complicated factors interact out in-situ. Armed with this knowledge, they can take action to prevent further harm to the urban landscape. The paper establishes that soundscape researchers should be working with urban designers rather than urban planners to affect soundscape change on a multitude of urban scales, because of the nature of the task of the urban designer. A mode of interdisciplinary communication is established through three case studies that show the extent to which soundscape designers should be involved in the urban design process, specifically designing rather than advising. The article cautions that soundscape researchers can overly rely on cumulative work to generate knowledge; meanwhile, urban designers, who come from specialized fields, are entrusted to think holistically about urban problems to find a solution that is satisfying to a number of agents and are generally expected to deal with more vague matters of aesthetics.
Soundscape Studies students in the School of Architecture & Design at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia were asked to create a soundscape intervention to transform the acoustic space of a campus site. The site is a social space activated by markets, student activities and conversation; however, a loud exhaust fan outlet creating a lo-fi environment dominates the acoustic space of the site. Students were asked to create a soundscape intervention in the space, in response to an imaginative-artistic approach to acoustic ecology: the exhaust outlet is the voice of the city, speaking; can this voice be deciphered, transformed, augmented? Students responded with live sound-art, musical and electroacoustic performances played through loudspeakers placed adjacently to the exhaust outlet, and transformations of the environment with interactive sound-making artifacts. The intervention project was informed by the acoustic ecology movement's maxim that anyone who cares to listen is a soundscape designer; as such students were encouraged to listen, apropos, creatively respond to the dominant sound of the space. The project aimed to demonstrate that city dwellers given the opportunity to creatively interact with their city soundscape, with the assistance of education and resources, could revitalise their city-relationship through soundscape design.