Sound atmospheres in architecture: a case study in the South of Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay explores sound atmospheres on the ground of the city of Matera, Italy, through the authors’ academic practices that work across disciplinary borders, i.e. architectural design and sensory experiences, storytelling/poetry and architecture. In particular, the authors carry out a research project composed of sound recordings, perception workshops and soundscape installations for students of architecture. A designer or architectural student’s curriculum should include the acoustic properties of architectural space that may shape a user’s esthetic judgment. Matera exhibits a long history of contradictions. Seventy years ago the city bore the label, “the shame of Italy” for the precarious living conditions of the inhabitants, but today the city is listed as a World Heritage Site, and European Capital of Culture 2019. The polarities of Matera present a basis to study the characteristic soundscapes of a modern city still engraved by the past. The research represents a first attempt at methodical sonic experiments on the vast scale of the entire city of Matera with the involvement of university students, researchers, teachers, and citizens that culminated in the production of five urban soundscape installations.