A study on audio-visual representation and thinking for designing acoustic environments

Abstract

Sound conveys information about spatial characteristics, supports development of a multi-sensory cognitive model, enforces the identity, and steers users' actions and emotions. Although building acoustics courses provide the basic knowledge of acoustics, students encounter difficulties on identifying the design potentials of the acoustic environment and transferring the obtained knowledge into architectural design. This points to the necessity of embracing novel aural techniques in design studies and acoustic education. This study aims to reinterpret conventional design steps from soundscape perspective and apply representation techniques to deal with sound's intangibility. A 10-days workshop was conducted in Istanbul Bilgi University with 25 students, where majority were in the 1st year of architectural education and had little/no knowledge on acoustics. The theoretical background was initially introduced to the students during a training soundwalk, followed by seminars and discussions. In the second phase, a selected route was visited and analysed with soundscape assessment forms, recordings and through developed representation techniques: 'soundscape infographic', 'sound collage (sound-editing)', and 'abstract (physical) sound model'. Based on the analysis, students proposed design interventions for the selected locations. The results showed that students not only developed an environmental control attitude but also acknowledged sounds' potentials in design. © ICA 2022.All rights reserved