Are you a Bathroom Singer\Rockstar ? Do you wonder why your voice sounds great in the Bathroom?

Are you a Bathroom Singer\Rockstar  ? Do you wonder why your voice sounds great in the Bathroom?
Secret Revealed 
Three Basic Concepts 
1. Volume 
               Hard ,smooth surfaces -like bathroom tile -absorb very little sound.Sounds reflect back and forth between the walls of the a shower before dying away .By containing the reflected sound energy in a a small  space ,your shower boosts the sound intensity ,which seems to give your voice more power .
2. Reverb 
               with many reflected sound waves wind up travelling farther than others before finally arriving at your ear .This strecthes out out of the sound you rhear ,an effect called Reverberation,or reverb :your voice seems to hang in the air long ,which makes you feel like a Rockstar Ranbir Kapoor on stage.
3.Bass Boost 
                Your shower especially if its a boxlike cabin-functions as a Resonant cavity ,so naturally it gets amplified and gives you bass tones because of the resonance effect .


Next time when you sing in the bathroom ,thank  the interior designer and the architect making you sound like  a Performer. 

Site map

Why chennai ? why not mumbai \kolkata ?

Why was Kathipara site In Chennai Selected ?why not  mumbai and kolkata ?

The chosen site has one of the highest noise levels in the city and  is not a defined patch of land. Hence it would be a restriction while designing to go with the existing flow of land.

               

A combination of both vertical and horizontal noise makes it difficult to linger here for long periods of time and makes this space unique as this combination is hard to come by.

The zones surrounding the Site  either industrial or commerical in nature. As the design will not cater to the existing context, contrast will be created between context and design which provides an interesting challenge to the design process.              

The Kathipara junction has developed into a landmark to people both from Chennai as well as outsiders. This potential can be developed and manipulated to make it a tourist attraction.

The increasing residential character of the area brings up the need to introduce a public space which is further amplified by its unparalleled accessibility from other parts of Chennai.            

                Due to the presence of a wide variety of sounds it will serve as a source for the variety of research based programs that might be housed in the complex .

The presence of 3 dimensional aural environment in Kathipara _Chennai _India helps us to experiment Architecture with Sound           

               

               

3 Basic Principles of Sound

Principles Of Sound:

When sound waves strikes an object, it encounters one of three possible outcomes:

Reflection- Where sound waves bounce back.

Absorption- When the waves pass through the obstacle itself.

Diffusion- The scattering of sound waves due to impact is referred to as diffusion.

Aural Architecture : how is it a sustainable design ?

Aural Architecture : how is it a sustainable design ?: grey water from the neighborhood is pumped into the site and treated through landscape plants to get fresh water which is again given bac...

how is it a sustainable design ?

grey water from the neighborhood is pumped into the site and treated through landscape plants to get fresh water which is again given back the community for domestic purposes .

3 things not to do while processing Urban noise

three  things should not be done while processing the noise
:concave surfaces
Usage of materials :no reflective
source of the noise in line with the space designed 

experience inside the aural installation

Components of Aural Architecture

Regenerating The dead space under Kathipara Connector

Aural experiments

Post by Aural Architecture.

How do we process Urban noise ? Secret revealed !!!

Standing wave 

How do we process Urban Noise ?Secret revealed !!!
water flowing at a certain velocity from  a specific height and even birds chirp  has the same frequency  as Urban noise in this case Car honking Aeroplane noise ,etc  so when two sound of the same frequency are merged IN THE opposite direction  STANDING WAVES ARE CREATED.
WHAT ARE STANDING WAVES ?A standing wave – also known as a stationary wave – is a wave that remains in a constant position.This phenomenon can occur because the medium is moving in the opposite direction to the wave, or it can arise in a stationary medium as a result of interference between two wa  ves traveling in opposite directions.  

Aural Installation :how to process urban noise with Nature

Aural Installation :How to mask Urban Noise with Flow of water and Birds Chirp

6 reasons why we should process urban noise ?why is it so important ?

Significance:Urban Noise as a Threat: Negative Impacts 

Noise is an underestimated threat that can cause a number of short- and long-term health problems, such as for example sleep disturbance, 
cardiovascular effects, 
poorer work and 
school performance,
 hearing impairment,
 aggression,
restlenesness,
unrest,
violence
etc.

Identifying the Issues due to the alarming increase of Urban Noise:

Coronary heart disease caused 101,000 deaths in the UK in 2006, and the study suggests that 3,030 of these are caused by chronic noise exposure, including to daytime traffic.  Extinction of bird community in the urban scenario due the rising threat of urban noise .
How many people are affected?
1.about 40% of the population in EU countries is exposed to road traffic noise at levels exceeding 55 db(A)
2. 20% is exposed to levels exceeding 65 dB(A) during the daytime; and
more than 30% is exposed to levels exceeding 55 dB(A) at night.

3. At least 15% of adults have permanent hearing damage due to noise exposure in US
4.In 2005-2006, 20% of US adolescents 12 to 19 years old had some degree of hearing loss. This is up from 15% as measured in 1988-1994.

 5.2% of all deaths from heart attacks in western Europe are caused by exposure to environmental noise. Source: WHO

6'.Areas near Heathrow with the highest levels of aircraft noise, for example, have a 24% increased incidence of hospital admissions due to stroke, a 21% increase for coronary heart disease and a 14% increase for cardiovascular disease compared with areas exposed to the lowest levels.

why ?need ?
In architecture attention is usually focused towards the visual awareness of space. Without listening, perception remains limited in individual experience; we are less connected to "here and now"; to our world; to a specific space. 

How sound defines space ?

how Aural architecture looks at sound as design?

: how sound defines space, creates realms of privacy or society, and produces a sense of place.

With environmental sound, LOUDNESS and the quality of REVERBERATION mainly determine the kind of space that is perceived, enclosed or open, large or small (see DIFFUSE SOUND FIELD,FREE FIELD). The sense of speeding motion is usually perceived by the presence of a DOPPLER EFFECT.

Buildings come to exist as sites of memory and imagination. Any built space, whether constructed for habitation or utility, resonates with the human activity that has occurred within it. Our experience of a space is influenced by many things; by knowledge of the functions of the space, by cultural associations, by memory and imagination. The way we experience a space is determined largely by our aural perception of that space. One can be in a room in complete darkness and yet still have a powerful sense of our own physical presence within it, through the sound of footfall, of the voice and even the sound of our our breath.

what is silence ?

The term 'silence' is not referring mere absence of sound, but the spatial atmosphere related to our independent sensory and mental state, which could be listened, observed, known and even touched.

how to mask urban noise ?Teaser

What is aural architecture ?

What is aural architecture ?
In our techno-visual culture, the ascendancy of vision as the primary means for sensing the physical
world has undermined the importance of hearing. Yet the aural experience of an environment is
critically important to the social and emotional well-being of the inhabitants.Listening has been proved as the highest order among all other senses .You know Why ?
We dont listen only through our ears ,we listen through our whole body _by the vibrations .So a user can perceive a space through listening .
An aural space is thus an area where inhabitants can hear sonic events, and this definition of space is often unrelated to the visual experience.
However, we tend to only
recognize the aural architecture of a space when its hostile and corrosive acoustics transform
background sounds into a deafening roar.
Aural architecture2 refers to the human experience of sound-in-space; the aural architecture of a space modifies the experience of sound sources as well as providing a means for experiencing passive objects and geometries directly.
Aural architecture contains at least five types of spatiality:
 navigational,
social,
musical,
aesthetic,
and symbolic. 

Classification of sound

Post by Chenthur Raaghav.

How to process Urban noise

How to process ?

Flow of  Water and birds chirp  has the capacity to curb Urban noise around us in the metropolitan cities . Flow of water and noise has the same frequency so when overlapped it  has the power to nullify the effect through the concept of Standing wave .As architects we do not consider the Aural experience of a space ,by increasing the greenery and flow of water as urban elements ,the experience is enhanced.

Render

Digital sketch of contrast sound scape

Sound healing

"Sound is the medicine of the future." Edgar Cayce
Most ancient cultures used the seemingly magical power of sound to heal.
The Aboriginal people of Australia are the first known culture to heal with sound. 
The Egyptian and Babylonian cultures used drums and rattles, two of the earliest known musical instruments. The low frequency sounds from drums and the ultra sound created by rattles are both now known to accelerate healing. 


In the Greco-Roman period healing temples were used for "incubation", a process in which patients underwent "dream sleep", among other known modalities. It seems likely that music was used therapeutically during their stay and the reverberant spaces of the temples enhanced the efficiency of acoustic instruments, a function of the solid stonewalls of temples and sanatoria. 

Resonance may be the most important principle of sound healing and has various definitions.

The resonance principle relates to the cellular absorption of the healing sounds and/or their harmonics. 

noise measure at kathipara site

Technique behind epidaurus

Acoustic traps

The corrugations on the surface of the seats act as natural acoustic traps. Though this effect would seem to also remove the low frequencies from the actors' voices, listeners actually fill in the missing portion of the audio spectrum through a phenomenon known as virtual pitch. The human brain reconstructs the missing frequencies, producing the virtual pitch phenomenon, as in listening to someone speaking on a telephone with no low end.

The findings are detailed in the April issue of the Journal of the Acoustics Society of America.

Amazingly, the Greek builders of the theater did not themselves understand the principles that led to the exceptional audibility of sound from the stage.

Attempts to recreate the Epidaurus design never quite matched the original. Later seating arrangements featured other materials, such as wood for the benches, an approach which may have ultimately derailed the design duplication effort.

Ancient temples Secret revealed !!

Why 110 Hz?

Many archaeo-acoustic investigations of prehistoric, megalithic structures have identified acoustic resonances at frequencies of 95-120 Hz, particularly near 110-12 Hz, all representing pitches in the human vocal range. These chambers may have served as centers for social or spiritual events, and the resonances of the chamber cavities might have been intended to support human ritual chanting.

Findings are compatible with relative deactivation of language centers and a shift in prefrontal activity that may be related to emotional processing. These intriguing pilot findings suggest that the acoustic properties of ancient structures may influence human brain function, and suggest that chanting might have been used to enhance right brain activities.

Early morning sunshine :sound of sunshine

Sound and light

Aural Architecture.... have u heard the space around you ?Hear it now?

Birds habitat

Digital sketch of the Sound gallery

design a space based on sound

Aural Architecture Remains Unrecognized and Unappreciated

Why has the concept of aural architecture not yet become a major component of those professions that Aural Architecture????

concern themselves with designing space? Even if we accept the importance of the aural architect, we

are still faced with the observation that across cultures and throughout history, there is no evidence that

this function was ever recognized. There may not be a single explanation, but the following suggestions

contribute to the answer. 

Firstly, the aural architecture of a space cannot be experienced without also

having dynamic events that produce sounds and inhabitants who complete the aural architecture. The

designers are only part of the committee of architects who determine the aural experience. 

Second,

sound is ethereal, instantly disappearing and even now there is essentially no good means to record the

aural experience of a space. In contrast, the visual representations can be captured with graphic sketches

and photographs. Cultural racketing (the building on the works of previous generations) is not possible

with aural architecture. 

Thirdly, for most people, the aural memory of a space and the vocabulary to

describe that memory are weakly developed. This may in fact be an evolutionary artifact. As with many

abilities, we evolved an ability to use a skill, but without necessarily being able to consciously describe

how we use it. 

And fourthly, as a profession, prominent architects are rewarded with prizes based on

their visual portfolio, and they in turn train the next generation of architects to focus on the visual

experience of a space. The judges of such prizes would have to travel to a space and would therefore

have to select sonic activities in order to experience aural architecture.

Sound and architecture

Of all of our sensory systems, hearing is simply the best means for connecting and recognizing dynamic

events. When deaf, we have more difficulty experiencing those events because vision has limitations.

Vision requires us to first voluntarily focus on the target; vision is easily obscured by intervening

objects; vision requires a light source; and vision is not particularly good for sensing fast movements or

rapid change. In contrast, sound flows through space, around obstacles and into crevices. Our hearing is

always on, even when we sleep – mammals do not have earlids to selectively block sonic broadcasts.

From an evolutionary perspective, hearing made a critical important contribution to survival.

Communicating information and enjoying entertainment are not necessarily the most relevant aspects of

hearing.

 Aural Architecture

Listeners and Sounds Exist in a Space

Everyone must be somewhere, and every location has acoustic attributes that both change the properties

of sound and influence the region in which sonic broadcasts are receivable. Pure sound does not exist

apart from spatial acoustics because every event and every listener must be located in some

environment. Aural architecture then becomes those acoustic attributes of the environment that influence

our social and emotional experience of sonic broadcasts. Imagine a friend clapping his hands, and

consider how the spatial acoustics changes that experience in a marble bathroom, a well-upholstered

plush living room, a majestic 17th century cathedral, a beach on a quiet Sunday morning, a street of a

metropolitan city at rush hour, an isolated underground cave, or a dense forest at dusk. Each of these

spaces has an aural architecture, and we can sense that architecture in addition to the sound of clapping

hands. An aural architect then becomes someone who chooses the attributes of a space based on the

needs of the inhabitants.

  

form from sound

Sound can create form
the way sound is articulated around us helps our aural sense to perceive it in such a way that it tends to visualize the pattern in which it moves

here we have tried to create a helical form through the buzzers arrrnged and programmed to be articulated inside a glass box .so when a user is made to listen ,he percieves the sphere around him not the cuboid .

Listen to the environment for a second

listen to the environment voice for a second !

Seeking a harmony in the age of noise
do you listen to the birds chirp 

sound of water fall 

trees sway in the wind 

honey bees buzzzzzzz...in this urban scenario 

Aural Architecture : Sound and silence

Aural Architecture : Sound and silence: Relation Between Sound and Silence We usually think of sound and silence as two opposite concepts. In fact, they are not really opposi...

Aural Architecture : Sound and silence

Aural Architecture : Sound and silence: Relation Between Sound and Silence We usually think of sound and silence as two opposite concepts. In fact, they are not really opposi...

Power of sound

Buildings come to exist as sites of memory and imagination. Any built space, whether constructed for habitation or utility, resonates with the human activity that has occurred within it. Our experience of a space is influenced by many things; by knowledge of the functions of the space, by cultural associations, by memory and imagination. The way we experience a space is determined largely by our aural perception of that space. One can be in a room in complete darkness and yet still have a powerful sense of our own physical presence within it, through the sound of footfall, of the voice and even the sound of our our breath.

Sound and silence

Relation Between Sound and Silence

We usually think of sound and silence as two opposite concepts. In fact, they are not

really opposites of each others. Both sound and silence represent two forms of sounds:

sound as we know it represents audible sound. It is the sound of the Known. On the

other hand, silence represents non-audible sound. It is the sound of the Unknown.

Therefore, the real meaning of Silence, which is perfect absence of sound, does not exist

in the universe. In this world, when we seek to immerse ourselves in Silence, we are not

trying to shut our ability to hear sounds. On the contrary, we are trying to increase our

ability to hear a very specific sound: the vibrating sound of the Universe, which is the

sound of our inner Soul.

Power Of Silence

The vibrating sound of the universe, the so called silence , has the ability to please as well as badly disturb the equillibrium of human body.  In a way that silence pleases one can be experienced by the vibrating sound created by the waves in the sea, the ideal freaquency of pleasing silence.

The 5 human senses are directly related to the 5 spiritual stations of the Heart. Each

sense is a manifestation of a spiritual station of the heart at the level of cognitive

perception.

o The first station is related to hearing

o The second station is related to sight

o The third station is related to touch

o The fourth station is related to smell

o The fifth station is related taste

Chichen Itza _Secret \Mystery Revealed

What is architecture ?
in the past
The Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza is recognized around the world as an icon of Mexico. As such, even small details around it merit scholarly interest. One small detail ignored by archaeologists until now is the odd chirped echo that resounds from the pyramid's staircases in response to hand claps of people standing near its base.

A physical explanation for the chirped echo is proposed: The staircase constitutes an acoustical diffraction grating. Two forms of analytical data are offered in support of this explanation. First, a mathematical simulation of the chirp fundamental frequency vs time is calculated. Then a sonogram of the recorded echo is shown to be in reasonable agreement with these calculations .

Moving to archaeological issues, it is considered whether the echo was intended by its Mayan builders; is merely an artifact of reconstruction; or simply an ancient acoustical design defect. We speculate that the echo is intentional. That the steps were designed and constructed to echo the voice of the Mayan sacred bird, the resplendent quetzal (pharomachrus mocinno), viewed by ancient Maya as the "messenger of the gods.

The echo is not believed to be an artifact of reconstruction. Other Mayan pyramids also chirp, as do other Mayan staircases, though their acoustic parameters are different.

The echo is not believed to be an original design defect. Sound is very important to forest peoples whose livelihood or very lives may depend on accurate listening. In the cloud forest where their Mayan cultures were formed, one may hear over a much greater distance than one can see.

The Maya would have noticed such a profound acoustical anomaly (chirped echo) at their sacred site just as modern people react to alleged defects around their "holy" sites. (Think about the fuss over alleged acoustical defects at Lincoln Center in 1962. Eventually, the hall was gutted and rebuilt at great expense.)

case studies

Positive Impacts Of Sound?

• It Changes Your Ability to Perceive Time

• Aurally designed spaces  favours Interaction

• sound can heal people _Sound healing

• sound plays a major role in controlling the human tendencies 

1. aggression(crime)

2. happiness

3. grief

4. helping behaviour

which in turn controls users action, activities, path, movement pattern,directionality   .  .

  .

ARe you listening ?

Do you think architecture can be heard ?

Yes!!!

In our techno-visual culture, the ascendancy of vision as the primary means for sensing the physical world has undermined the importance of hearing. Yet the aural experience of an environment is critically important to the social and emotional well-being of the inhabitants. However, we tend to only recognize the aural architecture of a space when its hostile and corrosive acoustics transform background sounds into a deafening roar. We then become functionally deaf to local sounds, as if actually deaf.

  A s a profession, prominent architects are rewarded with prizes based on their visual portfolio, and they in turn train the next generation of architects to focus on the visual experience of a space. Have you ever experienced space solely through sound? 

"We never see the same thing, when we also hear it.

We never hear the same thing, when we also see it".

In architecture attention is usually focused towards the visual awareness of space. Without listening, perception remains limited in individual experience; we are less connected to "here and now"; to our world; to a specific space.