Sonic facade, creating a sounding architecture

While architecture inherently makes sound when people and the environment interact with it, architects seldom orchestrate a building to produce sound. This thesis proposes a sonic facade that turns an existing building into a sound producing instrument. Sonic facade is a wind powered sound producing device that can be integrated into a wall structure. The facade is produced out of a series tubes, or more technically, a series of air column vibrators. While all the tubes may be the same length, the combination of three different types of tubes produces different sounds. This thesis proposes a seven rule shape grammar for users to determine the placement and implementation of the sonic facade on an existing building and site. The shape grammar allows for a range of simple to complex possibilities that could be applied to a variety of buildings. The sonic facade not only has an aural quality, but it is also an indicator and transmitter of the outside world. When the tubes pass from the outside to the inside of a building, the wind, the rain, and passersby bring sound inside the building.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Granville, Alina (Alina T.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Fernandez.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72642

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/72642