Hearing Architecture
Majedeh Modarres Nezhad
Architecture can be heard. The first time I heard
architecture was during a visit to the famous rural town, Masuleh, in northern
part of Iran
when I was a student. Masuleh is a unique town with buildings that have been constructed
into mountain. While I was inside one of its houses, I heard sound of a stream,
which created a calm and peaceful feeling. This impression couldn’t be from the
building per se since it was dim and small. I figured out later on that there
was a river flowing beneath the town as well as under several houses, and that
flow was visible over the surface in some areas of the town. It was really
impressive to see how sound of water can create such a relief and calmness.
There are a few historical
buildings in Iran
that are famous for their acoustic qualities. I’ve had the opportunity to visit
two of them in the city of Isfahan.
One of them is Ali-Qapu, a historical and royal building dating back to 100
years ago. The king (Shah) used to entertain his guests in this building. This edifice
which is an entrance to a great garden has six stories, the highest of which is
called “the music room”. It was in this space that the orchestra used to play
for Shah and his gusts. The ceiling and walls have embellished cutouts in the
shape of ceramics and glassware that create a delicate surface which helps to
lower the sound reverberates in the room. These hollow compartments in the wall
retain the echoes and produce a clear sound for both singer and the musical
instruments. There is a myth about this room that says it was because of Shah’s
love for art and music that he asked his architects to build an extraordinary
music room on the sixth floor of his palace. The room is excessively decorated
with deep circular niches and intricate plaster ceilings to improve the
acoustics of the space. The legends also say that because Shah was a busy
man he was not always able to listen to his beloved court musicians when
he desired. So the architects built the walls of the music room in such a
way that sound could echo around the room for hours until Shah returned from a
busy day to enjoy his music even after the court musicians were long gone.
This building also has another magical acoustical characteristic.
At the entrance of the building, there is a square room with a curve
ceiling. If one whisper in one corner of the room, her voice can be clearly
heard on the opposite corner whereas no voice could be heard on the straight
line connecting the opposite corners of the room, although all the points on
that line are close to the speaker. The first time that I experienced this
phenomenon, I was obsessed with this pure magical characteristic of the space
that later on I found out it to be called creep: reflection of sound along
curved surfaces. In this case, the sound can only be heard along the curved surface
and not on any other point.
In the city of Isfahan, there is also a
grand mosque called Shah (Imam) Mosque. The hall under the main dome is
surrounded by stone walls and the dome itself is covered in colorful tiles.
This space has a special character: while standing at the center of the dome and
speaking, one can hear her sound loud and clear. This effect is mainly due to the
typo of material used as well as the shape of the dome: stone reflects the
sound and the dome amplifies its source which is located at the focal point of
the dome.
These are some of my past experiences in hearing architecture
before studying this course, and I am looking forward to experience and learn more
on how to design spaces while paying special attention to the issue of sound.
References
Binggeli,
Corky. (2003). Building Systems for Interior Designers. New York: J. Wiley &
Sons
Rasmussen,
Steen Eiler. (2000). Experiencing Architecture. 2nd Edition. Chapter
10, Hearing Architecture. Twenty Eight Printing, 224-237
Azad,
Hassan (2008). Ali Qapu: Persian Historical Music Room. Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics Vol 30(3). www.akutek.info
