Sound of the city: Creating a balanced sound composition in urban green spaces

Abstract

Sound in the landscape is an important and often-ignored aspect of the human experience. In urban landscapes, seemingly cacophonous sounds can create a symphony, combining the beloved sounds of nature and humans with the often less desirable, but no less important, sounds of traffic and sirens. The work of this thesis puts that symphony, and its relationship to the landscape, under a microscope. Investigations into the theories of composers John Cage and R. Murray Schafer led to the creation of a new design theory and a new methodology for surveying sound. The theory and method were applied to the re-making of an urban soundscape, allowing further exploration into the impact of sound on the perception of place and a close examination of the conscious, subconscious, beautiful, and necessary in the design of landscape.