City as Seed: The Urban Resonance Field and the Case for Sonic Awareness in Ecological Renewal

Seeds, the “abominable mystery” (Darwin, 1897), hold our past and potential future. They also hold sound. Much like cities, they are sites of growth, transformation, and resilience. This thesis draws parallels between laboratory research on the sensing capacities of seeds and embodied experiences of sensing within urban landscapes, exploring how living systems interact with sound and vibration. Through both scientific and poetic approaches, it examines how seeds respond to sonic environments and how this sensitivity can inform human engagement with acoustics in the urban context. The investigation of intangible forces, vibration, resonance, and sound reveals a shared responsiveness between seeds and cities, documented through graphs, sound spectra, and reflective narratives that bridge science and art. Focusing on sound as a strategic lens, this work brings attention to often-overlooked sensory domains, inspiring a more ecologically and socially responsive urbanism. Ultimately, it advocates for practices of deeper listening as a method to engage openly and imaginatively with human and nonhuman worlds, and to reimagine urban environments as spaces of attunement, dialogue, and co-existence.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Navarro, Cadine

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Knox-Hayes, Janelle
• Makris, Nicholas

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/162306

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/162306