Hearing Architecture: Exploring and Designing the Aural Environment

The potential of sound to inform and broaden architectural design criteria is examined both historically and in the context of current education and practice. Historically, periods of sophisticated aural design have often been coupled with the oral traditions of preliterate societies whereas literate cultures have produced architecture organized primarily according to visual logic. At present, acoustical engineering is typically applied to architecture in remedial fashion: either to completed buildings or to designs already conceived along different sensory lines. A recent experimental studio intended to explore the generative potential of aural design is documented as a possible prototype for soundinclusive curricula in schools of architecture.