THE SOUND OF SPACE

ARC Linkage Grant

THE SOUND OF SPACE: Architecture for improved auditory performance in the age of digital manufacturing

How can the new found sculptural freedom offered by the application of digital manufacturing techniques in architecture impact on the tuning of architectural surface materiality for a more refined auditory landscape in different types of large open plan interior?

Overview

Architectural surface shapes the behaviour of sound in space. It changes the aesthetic and the way the space functions as a place of learning, working, or meeting. Digital manufacturing offers new pathways to realising complex, customised combinations of architectural surface shape and materiality. This research investigates the intersection between surface geometry, materials and acoustics for public and semi-public interiors. Through the design and digital fabrication of prototypes for real case studies it will explore the potential solutions that surface design tuned for differential sound scattering and absorption offers to:
1) the productivity of open workspace in knowledge working
2) the auditory experience of a church interior.

Investigators: Jane Burry, RMIT; Mark Burry, University of Melbourne
RMIT research partners: Xiaojun Qiu Professor of Acoustics; Nicholas Williams
PhD candidates: Pantea Alambeigi
RA: Michael Wilson, University of Melbourne