Studio-based courses in architectural acoustics

Abstract

Examples of 4 nontraditional, elective courses offered to students in the Master of Architecture, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degree programs in architecture are presented. Listening to Buildings involves experiential exercises in architectural acoustics for undergraduate students in a required large lecture course to form links between what people hear in a room and the architectural shapes and materials of the room that affects what is heard. The Applied Acoustics Design Lab takes students through each of the major components of an actual consulting project. Student work includes room acoustic design, sound isolation design, sound system design and HVAC noise control design for an actual building project. An Acoustical History of Theaters and Concert Halls teaches fundamentals of computer-based acoustic modeling and has students compare the physical design and aural simulations of a historic and a contemporary performance space. Graduate design studio in acoustics examines sound and silence as potential form-givers in architecture and as generative ideas for the basis of architectural interventions in complex sites and programs. Interior and exterior soundscapes and phenomenological philosophy form the background research for the studio.