SOUND EXPERIENCE

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. 2^nd 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