BARBOSA, ELZIE T.

18-52572
ARC-3204
Acoustics in architecture
Taken from the February 2020 issue of Physics World where it appeared under the title "Sound designs". Members of
the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app.
The refurbishment of public buildings is often more complex than meets the eye. Anna
Demming speaks to acousticians and architects about the acoustic considerations behind their designs for public
spaces, and some of the tricks to tackle the conflicting demands on these venues

Complex space The new foyer and café at Bristol Old Vic has been acoustically designed so that small groups
can enjoy intimate conversations (left). At the back of the foyer, the auditorium wall (right) has acoustic
qualities that allow this area to be used as a performance space. (Courtesy: Fred Hawarth)
In the historic city centre of Bristol in the UK, down a cobbled street lined with mismatched buildings, is the
oldest continuously running theatre in the English-speaking world – the Bristol Old Vic.

Built in 1766, and originally called the Theatre Royal, the building underwent a multi-million-pound
refurbishment to mark its 250th anniversary. The work required detailed and careful design to ensure that the
great Georgian auditorium – renovated in the first phase of the project – can serve the acoustic needs of a wide
range of live theatre, music and dance.

Just as complex were the acoustic requirements of the rest of the building, which was renovated in phase
two. This second stage included additional performance spaces and offices, as well as a foyer that
accommodates a café bar and a further potential performance space. All these different functions have specific
and often distinct acoustic requirements, which can be at odds with a host of other technical, cultural and
aesthetic demands.

Someone who helps overcome these kinds of hurdles to achieve the ideal acoustic set-up is Bob Essert.
Having studied both engineering and music, in 2002 he set up Sound Space Vision (SSV) – a London-based
company of acousticians and architectural consultants.
One of SSV’s current projects is a £48.8m renovation of another Bristol auditorium: the city’s Colston Hall,
which lies just down the road from Bristol Old Vic and is due to reopen in 2021. As an 1800-seat concert venue,
the scale of Colston Hall offers plenty of space for the artists who have performed there since it first opened in
1867, from full-scale symphony orchestras to the Beatles. It has what is often described as a “shoebox”
geometry – long with high ceilings that give plenty of space in front of the musicians for a rich sound around
the audience, and less space for the sound to get lost behind the performance area (see Levitt Bernstein
Architects’ rendering below). The shoebox design is a classic format that some say produces the best acoustics,
with nine out of the world’s top 10 concert halls having this shape according to a 2016 survey by Business
Insider.

Shoebox geometry Colston Hall render by Levitt Bernstein Architects.

While Essert says the biggest determinant of acoustics is scale, geometry comes second on his list of
factors, followed by the materials used. “All three play a part,” he says. A vastness of length, height and general
scale in a performance space is not, however, always desirable. Essert points to the hall at the Yehundi Menuhin
School in Surrey, UK, as an example where SSV aimed for more compact dimensions that could seat 300
people in a space crafted specifically for solo and chamber performances. “The further away the boundaries of
the room are from the listener and to a certain extent the performers, the weaker the sound is,” says Essert.

In simple terms you can think of sound waves attenuating and losing intensity as they travel across the
dimensions of the room. As Essert emphasizes, how loud a performance sounds is a key factor for making the
audience feel enveloped and immersed in the experience, and as a result designing specifically for solo
performers means ideally designing a smaller space. So how can a solo be heard in a space designed to
accommodate a full symphony orchestra, and give a feeling of intimacy in a hall that seats 1800?

Reflections on sound design

Ultimately the impact of a production on the audience is dominated by the artistry of the performers on
stage. However, an effect that can help a performance to sound intimate and enveloping, even in a huge hall, is
reflected sound. Because sound moves at a finite speed – 343 m/s in dry air at 20 °C – any reflections from the
boundaries of the room will reach someone in the audience with a delay of several milliseconds compared with
the sound that has travelled directly from the performers. You may not consciously hear the delay, but Essert
points out that as the brain assembles audio input, this delay – and crucially, the amplitude and direction of
arrival – affects the experience.

Soft furnishings as opposed to hard walls will dampen these reflections as demonstrated back in 1895 by
US physicist Wallace Clement Sabine, who is widely acknowledged as the founder of architectural acoustics.
During an assignment to improve the acoustics of the Fogg lecture hall at Harvard University, he armed himself
with an organ pipe and a stopwatch and embarked on a series of experiments, determining by ear how long a
sound took to decay as he, for example, changed the number of cushions in the room. Sabine soon established
that it was the area of cushions (or any absorbing material) that was linearly related to reverberation time.

The advent of the oscilloscope in the 1960s moved acoustics technology up a gear, making it possible to
directly image sound input and analyse the delays from these reflections. Researchers then began to find out
more about the role of the direction of sound. For instance, reflections from the sides can make audiences feel
more immersed in the experience, just by being surrounded by the sound.

An appreciation of the role of reflections drew attention to the way sound is fed from one surface to
another, and affected the design of performance spaces. The basic shoebox geometry is still popular with
architects as it has been since the construction of medieval churches, effectively the concert halls of their day.
But in the early 1980s – following research in the 1960s and 1970s by Michael Barron and Harold Marshall in
the UK and research groups in Göttingen and Berlin – Essert and other acousticians began shaping geometries
to guide sound. By engineering the direction in which they reflected the sound, they could bring more sound in
from the side. Examples of this architecture include Christchurch Town Hall in New Zealand, the Royal
Concert Hall in Nottingham, UK, and the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, US.
 Levels of sound
Colston Hall has already seen several renovations and reconstructions (figure 1), the most recent being
in 1951 led by Philip Hope Bagenal, the UK’s most prolific concert-hall acoustician of that period. The 1936
renovation had been focused towards cinema – which was then the market-leading use for halls of that nature –
resulting in an emphasis on sight lines, audience capacity and cinema sound. But, having survived the Blitz, the
concert hall fell victim to a fire started by a cigarette in 1945, and in the 1951 rebuild, Bagenal and architect J
Nelson Meredith restored the interior to prioritize classical music performances. Most notably, Bagenal and
other acousticians in the UK back then felt that British concert halls lacked definition. The British musical life
and taste had been coloured by the sound of town halls around the country, explains Essert – “tall, flat floor
spaces that produced a muddy sound”.

Many-phase makeover Bristol’s Colston Hall has been refurbished several times, including in 1936 (top left)
and 1951 (top right). For the current project, Sound Space Vision took spatial sound measurements of the space
(bottom left) and created an acoustic computer model of the proposed design (bottom right). (Courtesy: Sound
Space Vision)

Bagenal endorsed a stepped rectangular plan for Colston Hall and introduced materials that would
absorb bass “to avoid boom”. In particular, he added a canopy over the stage to project the clarity of string
instruments. Although the oscilloscope was not yet established in 1951 so not available to aid design, it had
been realized that canopies can reflect sound back to musicians so they can hear themselves.
 One of the issues now being addressed by SSV’s renovations at Colston Hall is a literal shortcoming of
this canopy. Following extensions to the stage to accommodate larger orchestras, the canopy no longer covers
the string section who sit at the front of the stage. In addition, it also turns up at the leading edge, directing the
sound out to the audience and making it even harder for the string musicians to hear themselves. Among the
renovations SSV is helping implement will be an extended and reshaped canopy with more rigging in it to meet
more extensive technical requirements.

Not all reflections are helpful either. The balconies at Colston Hall previously extended over 14 rows of
the auditorium, creating a “dead zone” for hundreds of seats: multiple reflections from the bottom of the
balcony attenuated a lot of the sound, leaving it dry and weak by the time it reached the seats at the back of the
tier under the balcony. The renovation project will include dividing the balcony from one deep structure into
two shallower ones so that there are no seats so deep under one low ceiling.

Symbiotic solutions
Back at the Bristol Old Vic, reflections again came in handy to meet the multipurpose needs of the new
foyer. It has been cleverly designed so that people can enjoy a quiet conversation over a coffee without being
deafened by the sound of everyone else’s chatter. However, with a pressure to maximize revenue from the
building, the same space also needs to provide a more vibrant atmosphere and is even designed to accommodate
gigs, where audiences do want to be immersed in sound. Vangelis Koufoudakis – an acoustician from the
design firm Charcoalblue who worked on the Bristol Old Vic refurbishment – admits that trying to meet
multipurpose requirements like this can be problematic. “You can end up with something like a sofa bed – it’s
not a great sofa and it’s not a great bed.” Fortunately, architects and acousticians on the project were able to
“dig out” a unique solution 250 years in the making.
In the world of acoustics, we love irregular shapes because they stop sound focusing or other
unwanted acoustic artefacts

Vangelis Koufoudakis

In the case of the foyer, the architects were keen to provide an open space that connected the theatre to
the street and city beyond. Most of the walls of the café-bar area are sound-absorbing. Irregular angles as
opposed to parallel walls avoid strange resonances and the room makes liberal use of wood wool – recycled
timber and wood filings that absorb sound and convert it to heat. The ceiling of the foyer is a structural diagonal
grid formed by glued laminated timber – “glulam” beams. The diagonals form irregular angles that trace back to
historical room geometries in the rest of the building. “In the world of acoustics, we love irregular shapes
because they stop sound focusing or other unwanted acoustic artefacts,” says Koufoudakis. As a result of these
and other acoustic tricks of the trade, the vast open-plan foyer – which you might expect to sound clanging and
echoey – provides the perfect acoustics for a quiet tête-à-tête. How then to allow for a more vibrant atmosphere
in the same space at different times?
 By unearthing the building’s original stone wall to the Georgian auditorium at the far end of the café-bar
area, the project team was able to exploit it as an acoustically reflecting backdrop for a performance space
directly in front. The wall itself is broken and pockmarked from the passage of time, which means that it
reflects a diffused sound with no strange high-frequency resonances. “It’s an amazing architectural surface that
reveals the historic scars of the theatre,” says Tom Gibson of Haworth Tompkins and the project architect
for phase two of the refurbishment. The thermal mass of the rugged masonry surface also helps regulate the
temperature in the café bar.

Level-headed design
The foyer benefits too from another architectural quirk that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Various add-ons and renovations over the centuries since the theatre was first constructed have led to different
ground levels. The project team did not want to disturb the 1970s basement slab or foundations as this could
have been expensive and an archaeological risk. “Basically, the old city wall used to run through the foyer and
we were worried we might find some historic skeletons,” says Gibson. One of the design challenges was
therefore to resolve the difference between the historic floor levels, 1970s floor levels and the newly proposed
levels. The solution has been to ramp the new foyer down to street level to provide universal access for the first
time in the theatre’s history, while the upper ground floor level creates a convenient raised stage area in front of
the original auditorium wall.

Centuries in the making These 3D Nolli models show Bristol Old Vic before (a) and after (b) its 2016–2018
redevelopment. The original theatre building was deliberately set back a distance from the street and over its
254-year history there have been many different entrances. In the 1970s an adjacent building called Coopers’
Hall was used for this purpose. The new purpose-built foyer has allowed Coopers’ Hall to be refurbished as an
event space and a small studio theatre. (Courtesy: Haworth Tompkins)

The architects have also been able to exploit the various ground levels throughout the site to ventilate
the venue’s studio theatre. This relatively small room was moved from the basement and ground floor in front
of the auditorium to the basement and ground floor in the Coopers’ Hall section, an adjacent building that
served as the theatre’s entrance in the 1970s design (figure 2). The move led to a non-compliant head height in
the basement directly under the foyer next to the street and created space constraints that made it difficult to
install traditional mechanical ventilators, which need a lot of room. “There was in any case an intent from the
project team to naturally ventilate the new studio theatre to save energy and associated costs,” adds Gibson. The
basement spaces (with non-compliant head height once the new foyer ground floor level was designed)
provided an opportunity to build in a new natural ventilation “labyrinth”. It draws in air from the roof of the
foyer through a masonry maze, which chills and quietens the noisy outside air. The result: cool air enters the
studio theatre with minimal acoustic disturbance.

In fine shape
Not all architectural statements come from a fortunate alignment of pragmatic technical requirements,
however. The Berliner Philharmonie in Germany is widely considered a milestone in the history of concert-hall
design, and made a landmark departure from the basic shoebox geometry that had dominated for so long. It was
constructed between 1960 and 1963 to replace the former home of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, which had
been bombed in the Second World War. “People always gather in circles when listening to music informally,”
said the architect Hans Scharoun, an observation that led him to design the concert hall with the audience seated
around the orchestra on the slopes of a large bowl, like vineyard terraces. This bold design inspired a number of
architects who also wanted to make “a statement building” and the vineyard geometry has been widely adopted
over the past 15 years.

Sounds different The Berliner Philharmonie was built in 1960–1963 with a design that resembles a bowl or a
vineyard. The width is double that of a typical shoebox design. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/posztos)
 However, the vineyard geometry has been less popular with acousticians. When the audience is spread
out so far in such a wide room, the sound intensity and the subjective intensity of the music are reduced for all.
As a result, extending the surround form to a 2000-seat hall with no balconies reduces the intensity and
immersion in sound that was intended by a musical composers. And because the audience encircles the stage,
people sitting behind the orchestra will hear things differently to those in front, and instruments such as the
trombone may sound bright on axis but quieter elsewhere. “You may be effectively getting a French horn
concerto because you’re only two feet away from them,” says Essert.

That’s why Essert feels the shoebox-like geometry is getting a revival. There has also been interest in
the psychoacoustics of tall narrow concert halls to stop audiences from feeling “boxed in”. The new ceiling at
Colston Hall , for example, will have a slight pitch at the sides, mitigating the negative focusing effects of the
previously concave ceiling. Convex curves spread the sound in a helpful way and deviate from a pure cuboid,
feeling less “boxy”.

Multitasking
Another challenge in venues like Colston Hall is to cater for amplified and non-amplified music in the
same space. While acoustics optimized for an orchestra will ideally enrich the sound, designs for amplified
music aim for clarity of sound with little reverberation so that what the audience hears is almost exactly what is
coming from the speakers. Digital engineering can adjust levels for an amplified performance in an idealized
neutral space to a degree, but it cannot fully replace what a room with richer acoustics would do for a live
classical performance. Working with constraints of building budgets, retractable panels made from glass-fibre
board or even just curtains may be incorporated to absorb reverberation for amplified music and introduce some
acoustic versatility.

One of SSV’s projects that took these versatility requirements to a new level was the Xiqu Centre in
Hong Kong, where the space has to cater not only for amplified and non-amplified Western music but various
traditions of Chinese operas from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Hong Kong as well. Optimizing this
concert venue meant providing the means to balance the sound of the singers with respect to the orchestra, and
to emulate the open-air acoustics these traditions were fostered on. The room’s finishes and the audio system in
the Xiqu Centre were developed hand in hand.
Unusual needs The Xiqu Centre
in Hong Kong has unusual acoustic demands. It stages a wide range of musical styles, so the auditorium was
designed with complex shapes, gaps and insulation to absorb or scatter sound, including motorized curtains that
can be adjusted as needed. (Courtesy: Sound Space Vision)

The situation gets further complicated, however, as acousticians are no longer catering for audiences expecting
great live orchestral sound. Today’s concert-goers instead expect to hear something that sounds like what they
hear on their sound systems at home. The problem is that these recordings are generated by engineers who
locate microphones at carefully identified positions around the hall or recording studio and then electronically
mix the levels and add channels so that you can hear the clarity of the solo and have the resonance of the room
at the same time. “You can’t actually get that sound,” says Essert. “But our ears have been attuned to it.” One
approach to deliver simultaneous clarity, resonance and envelopment with architecture is to build a room within
a room.

The idea emerged during Essert’s projects with Russell Johnson from Artec Consultants in New York, where he
found himself repeatedly faced with the problem of devising multipurpose design solutions. In the 1980s Artec
introduced a “reverberation chamber” to certain concert halls, such as the Meyerson Symphony Center in
Dallas, US, and Symphony Hall in Birmingham, UK. Essentially this couples the inner concert hall that the
audience sees to a secondary space, often using concrete doors on heavy pivots. That secondary space will
usually have a volume of another several thousand cubic metres and can be a “hard” or “soft” space depending
on the use of curtains. This allows it to act as a net absorber or net reverberation generator, but the initial time
decay of the room – the first 10–20 dB decay of sound after it arrives – is generated by the geometry of the
inner room. The idea was developed further by Artec in Singapore, Los Angeles, Reykjavik and Budapest, and
also influenced the design team working on the Paris Philharmonie. Essert used the same principles on the Sage
Gateshead in the UK, partially coupling the main space with another above a movable ceiling.

While acoustic design is based on the physics of sound, it hinges on a legion of other structural and technical
considerations that multiply as venues take on additional functions to assist their revenue streams. And when it
comes to renovating historic venues, engineering solutions must not only be sensitive to the building’s history,
but also comply with planning constraints and meet the wide-ranging expectations of audiences. Pulling off that
tricky combination is no mean feat. But by ensuring that all contributing factors come together – room
geometry, sight lines, comfort, architectural features, building materials and so on – architects and acousticians
can provide an experience that, be it rap or rhapsody, coffee or cabaret, leaves every visiting artist, customer
and audience member content.
 The Untold Benefits Of Acoustic
Applications In Architecture
Where silence should be common sense and the proper acoustic applications can make the
difference!

W R IT T E N B Y : J OR D A N C H IA

Can you recover in an environment that doesn’t even allow you to sleep properly? How about
trying to pay attention in a class where you can barely hear half of what the lecturer is saying?

In the first part of this article, we shared with you a story that highlighted the undeniable
benefits of acoustics. In this post, we will discuss tangible benefits when considering acoustic
applications as part of architectural design in some major areas.

In Hospitals

Imagine that you are a doctor, communicating to a nurse the right amount of medicine to be
administered to a patient through injection. The environment is in chaos, with beeping sounds
from heart rate monitors, squeaks from passing carts, and the boomy resonance of endless
chattering. With this amount of distraction in the background, what are the chances of you
making an error? In one instance, an anaesthesiologist misunderstood a surgeon’s instruction
to administer a drug by an error of 8,000 units due to loud musicᵃ. While enforcing regulations
can prevent such devastating mistakes, acoustic applications can go a long way in
addressing unwanted ambient noise. Most hospitals have hard floors and ceilings which
readily reflect sounds, drastically increasing noise levels in an area full of beeping equipment
and alarms. Reducing this problem could be a simple matter of replacing hard tiles with sound
absorbing ones. A studyᵇ in 2004 noted that by replacing just the ceiling tiles, patients could
sleep more easily and reported better nursing care. More effort can be put into hospital
architectural design to reduce noise transmission through room walls or flanking paths. Doing
so can aid patients to rest and recovery, while bringing down the stress levels of the medical
staff.

In Schools

Teachers face relentless amounts of noise throughout their careers, always having to sustain
a volume higher than that of students and ambient noise. In rooms with poor acoustic
applications, reverberation off the walls amplify the the slightest whispers of students,
increasing the noise floor. This leads to an increased frequency of reprimanding which takes
away from the main goals of the institution. Students too are not spared. Excessively long
reverb times in classrooms have led to as much as a 50% loss in intelligibility in one
studyᶜ. This impacts the ability for students to concentrate and make the most out of their time
in school. By installing acoustic absorbers in classrooms, speech intelligibility can be
increased dramatically. One researchᵈ shows that classroom refurbishment improved
reverberation time and speech intelligibility, even meeting standards for integrative schooling
of children with speech impairment. Quality of education can be enhanced simply by taking
acoustics into account.

A ) J OU R N A L O F TH E A S S OC I A T I ON O F O P E R A T I N G R O O M N U R S E S ( N OV E M B E R , 2 0 0 3 )
B ) B L O MK V I S T E T A L . ( I N P R E S S , 2 0 0 4 )
C ) S I E B E IN 1 9 9 8 , A S TU D Y C ON D U C T E D ON 6 0 0 C L A S S R O O M S I N F L O R ID A
D ) H . - G . S C H Ö N WÄ LD E R , 2 0 0 4 , N O IS E I N S C H O O L S – C A U S E S A N D R E D U C T I ON

Health and Well Being

Noise from neighbours can be a source of stress and annoyance. The exposure of excessive
noise to pregnant mothers has been shown to cause high rates of birth defectsᵉ. A studyᶠ in
Germany on acoustics in schools shows that the heart rate of teachers has a near direct co-
relation with noise levels, and suggest that excessive noise levels has negative effects on
cardiovascular health.

E ) N O I S E : A H E A L T H P R OB L E M U N IT E D S TA T E S E N V I R ON M E N TA L P R OT E C T I ON A G E N C Y ,
O F C E O F N O IS E A B A T E M E N T A N D C O N T R O L , WA S H I N G T O N , D . C . 2 0 4 6 0 , A U GU S T , 1 9 7 8
F ) U N I V E R S I T Â T B R E M E N , 2 0 0 5 , A C O U S T I C E R G ON O M I C S O F S C H O O LS

Conclusion

As shown, acoustic applications have significant effects on our health and well-being. These
problems cannot be completely resolved by modifying behaviors. Therefore, acoustic
considerations when designing architecture can serve an important role in increasing not just
our productivity – but also our well-being and quality of life.
 10 buildings with extraordinary acoustics
Where to find a sonic surprise

Tvísöngur sound sculpture in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. Photography: courtesy of Visit Seyðisfjörður

It is all too easy for architecture to be seen and not heard. Instragrammable visuals may
be at our fingertips, but it is impossible to photograph an echo. Sad news, considering the
most memorable of spaces are those that heighten more than just our optical sense.

What’s more, much of new architecture is focused on controlling sound, rather than
celebrating it. We want to block out our neighbours, escape the city noise, or buffer any
possibility of sonic surprise.

Here are 10 spaces to remind us of architecture’s acoustic abilities – from the

unexpected quarry opera venue to the deliberate forest megaphone. If you’re a musician,
imagine playing in these…
1. Tvísöngur, Iceland

Divisions of 12 – Lilja from 12 ensemble on Vimeo.

Nestled on a mountainside overlooking a fjord, the Icelandic ‘Tvísöngur’ is a concrete

sculpture for sound, open for anyone to visit. Five domes combine to form a network of
vaults. Each is designed to amplify a resonance distinct from the other, so the overall
space echoes the Icelandic musical tradition of five-tone harmony.

2. Forest megaphones, Estonia

Photography: Tõnu Tunnel

Architecture can also amplify the natural noises around us. These wooden ‘Ruup’
megaphones in Estonia’s Võru County were constructed in September 2015 to harness
the sounds of the forest. Designed by students and planted amongst the trees, the
‘bandstands’ vary in size and form but, at 3m diameter, they are the perfect size to climb
into.
 Photography: Tõnu
Tunnel

3. Fertőrákos Cave Theatre, Hungary

Photography courtesy of Fertőrákos Cave Theatre

A quarry might seem an unlikely destination for an opera but people across the world are
wising up to the potential of these vast, cavernous spaces. The Hungarian Fertőrákos
Cave Theatre recently reopened following renovation work, while Portugal’s Estremoz
marble quarries host performances on an ad hoc basis. Sound resonates within their
solid walls in an interplay with light and shadow.

Photography courtesy of Fertőrákos Cave Theatre

4. The Music Hall at the Āli Qapu Palace, Iran

Photography: Photography: Mohsen Ghasemee

Further evidence of a nation using architecture to enhance its traditional music takes us to
Iran – amid some 17th-century mud bricks, to be precise. The Āli Qapu Palace Music
Hall’s magnificent vaulted ceilings create an umbrella of niches overhead, which mean a
low reverberation time for sound – ideal for intimate music, and specifically, Iranian
ballads.
5. Denge sound mirrors, UK

Photography: Paul Horsfield

On the UK coast near Dungeness, ‘sound mirrors’ are part of the landscape. These
concrete forms, ranging from 20 to 200 feet wide, were constructed in the 1920s as early
warning devices for approaching enemy planes. When aircraft and radar technology
advanced, they quickly became redundant but the sonic qualities of these enduring
landmarks remain.
Photography: Paul Horsfield

6. The Danish Music Museum, Denmark

Photography: Kåre Viemos

Building materials and

textures can accentuate
very specific sounds. At
The Danish Music
Museum, housed inside
a former broadcasting
house in

Copenhagen, architecture practice Adept has shaped, perforated and padded each
room’s timber-lined walls to enhance the sounds of strings, brass, percussion or a full
orchestra in the space.

7. Brunel Museum, UK

In 1825, a two-decade long project to construct a pedestrian tunnel network beneath

London’s Thames river began. Nearly 200 years on, trains rather than pedestrians speed
through the tunnels, yet Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s grand Rotherhithe entrance shaft
remains open. Keiko Sumida recently directed an opera in the space and speaks of ‘an
adventure-like feeling to the show. The acoustics were challenging and there was an
amusing “whispering gallery” effect.’ See upcoming events.

Photography: Andrew Smith

8. Ekko, Denmark

Photography courtesy of Thilo Frank

What about the building being an instrument itself? Take artist Thilo Frank’s twisting ‘Ekko’
in Denmark. The timber-framed soundwalk is peppered with microphones and speakers,
recording and playing back on loop the sounds you make as you cross the boardwalk,
moving through twisting paths of shadow and light.

9. The Whispering Gallery at St Paul’s Cathedral, UK

The whispering gallery phenomenon – where a noise you make on one side of a space
can be clearly heard on another – is often unintentional. Yet, at London’s St Paul’s
Cathedral, it draws tourists in droves. Mutter a little something into the gallery wall and it
can be heard on the other side of the 33m diameter dome. Just be careful what you say…
Photography: Matthew Biddulp

10. Prenzlauer Berg water tower and tanks, Berlin

View of Manuel Haible, Heiko

Wommelsdorf and Georg Werner’s
2010 installation,
‘Klanglumineszenz’. Photography:
Roman März / Singuhr Hoergalerie

Dark, subterranean spaces,

such as water tanks or
tunnels, can heighten
disorientation and, in doing
so, intensify a sonic
experience. A combination
of light and sound
reflection, both physical
and digital, enhances visitors’ senses in the installations of German artist Robert Henke.
Listen below to his Eternal Darkness installation in a Berlin water reservoir.