RAMKVILLA, SMÅLAND, SWEDEN - SPRING 2020
All architecture around us is constantly reverberating. We do not see this happen, but we are able to hear it if we are listening.
From a young age I have been interested in how my own vocal sounds interact with spaces. My great grandmother always reminded me of when I was two years old and visited her in the retirement home, that I went to the corridor to cry out and listen to the response it would give. I think we all can recognize this juvenile urge to make sounds in different spaces. From a simple shower to a great cathedral.
By using the investigating method of Alvin Lucier’s piece I am Sitting in a Room, a higher resolution of built space becomes audible to us as a soundscape of the natural resonant frequencies. How does these soundscapes change in relation to differences in architectural spaces as form, aperture, and sectioning? How can a sound chapel on a field in southern Sweden figure from composition of natural resonant frequencies rather than form? What are the results of an architectural spatial sequence composed of units formed by the tonal qualities of a monologue?
Archeoacoustic investigations of prehistoric, megalithic structures have identified acoustic resonances at frequencies of 95–120 Hz, all representing pitches in the male vocal range. These chambers may have served as centers for social or spiritual events, and the resonances of the chamber cavities might have been intended to support human ritual chanting.
Religious buildings are made up of several different spaces for different rituals, prayer, offering and gathering. The set proportions of these rooms give each room a certain reigned of natural resonant frequencies.
By converting the frequencies of the boxes into their tonal qualities, a scheme for the boxes are organized. This opens the possibility to arrange architectural spatial sequences based on chromatic notes.
The same converting of the monologue’s frequencies to chromatic notes can be made. The same note occurs several times. By filtering out the duplicates after the first time they occur, a tone sequence appears. This melody is compared to the boxes tonal scheme to convert the notes into boxes, which generates an architectural spatial sequence based on the monologue.
The project examines, in an experimental way, how differences in massing, aperture, and sectioning are affecting the natural resonant frequency of an architectural space. An investigation of boxes with these different qualities resulted in more than 200 minutes of sound material. By creating visual representations of the sounds, a catalogue and scheme for amassment of the boxes, could be organized.
With the knowledge of how resonant frequency in prehistoric megalithic structures could have been used to support ritual chanting and the parallel to historic and contemporary religious buildings, a chapel was designed. Each room of the chapel has its own reign of resonant frequencies and allows for a different kind of ritual. Since the sound is a big part of the project, the main representation of the project is a series of soundscapes of each room of the chapel. This illustrates that architecture should not always only be looked at, but also listened to.