Sonic Empowerment: Reframing "atmosphere" through Sonic Urban Design
(2020)
author(s): Nicola Di Croce
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
“Urban atmosphere,” which concerns the intangible features that give “life” to everyday environments, provides an important means of appreciating the self-image and narratives of marginalized towns and localities. This paper posits listening critically to sonic environments as a means of exploring and reframing urban atmosphere. Listening practices with a sound art-oriented approach can empower local inhabitants and municipalities by inspiring the collaborative governance of immaterial commons. Sonic urban design, which converges sound art and planning, is presented as a tool for developing awareness of the “uniqueness” and fragility of urban atmosphere through listening activities and proposed community-based sonic guidelines. The initial outcomes of my participation as an artist in residence during the sound art festival Liminaria 2018 provides a recent example of sonic urban design in practice.
“You can hear them before you see them” Listening through Belfast segregated neighborhoods
(2017)
author(s): Nicola Di Croce
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
The present research explores urban segregation in Belfast through listening. Specifically, the aim is to investigate how auditory culture subtly and deeply affects everyday lives and how marginal areas can be identified and analyzed from an auditory perspective. Moreover, the paper highlights the strong relationship between everyday sonic environments, certain urban and social issues, and the system of public policies related to the preceding. Therefore, urban planning and public policy design are investigated through a sonic studies approach in order to reveal the political framework of the city.
The sonic environment of Belfast’s most segregated areas is characterized by ice cream van melodies and their propagation within different neighborhoods. Such a street trade, which is also spread over Great Britain and Ireland, represents the perfect opportunity to enter areas that are often difficult to approach.
The case study shows how a study of the production and reception of the moving melodies emanating from ice cream vans is crucial in detecting where and how Belfast's contemporary culture is developing and in what ways sonic studies may influence a new wave of inclusion policies. The sounds of ice cream vans and their dissemination can be investigated to both confirm and challenge Belfast’s segregation trend; understanding them offers practitioners and dwellers an unexplored “sonic tool” to discuss segregation.
Actions of an Architect in Malta
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Mirco Azzopardi
This exposition is in revision and its share status is: visible to all.
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023.
Master Interior Architecture (INSIDE)
This study solely addresses Malta, whereby it was after leaving the island that I felt a growing devotion and sense of patriotism toward what I had left behind.
In its irony, choosing to leave the country to better it, as to broaden perspectives and break from the shackles of the norm, proves challenging. However, in shaping my professional career, how could I surround myself with warranted professionals within the built environment who advocate for better while playing imperative masquerading roles in formulating the worse?
Exposed to a new Dutch environment, I was able to critically reflect on the typical Maltese streetscape, convinced that the architect can play a more significant role in pressing issues the country faces.
Although I do not relate to the systems the Maltese architectural scene operates within, it became apparent that to have a valued perspective and say within the system, one must understand it, or at the least grasp its principal values. To better understand such complexities, I formally reached out to various agencies playing essential roles within this framework today, intrigued by their contradicting principles and perspectives. The insight gained through these interviews
serves as an underpinning for arguments raised throughout the text. Therefore, it must be noted that the arguments raised address the current situation in Malta heading into the 2030s decade.
DESIGNING WITH URBAN SOUND
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Nina Hällgren
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The Licentiate thesis
D E S I G N I N G W I T H U R B A N S O U N D -
Exploring methods for qualitative sound analysis of the built environment, examines the constitution and qualitative characteristics of urban sonic space from a design-oriented and practice-based perspective. The act of lifting forth and illuminating the interaction between architecture, the creation of sound and a sonic experience aims to examine and develop useful tools and methods for the representation, communication and analysis of the exterior sonic environment in complex architectural spaces. The objective is to generate theoretical and practical knowledge within the field of urban sound planning and design by showing examples of different and complementary ways of communicating and analyzing sound than those which are commonly recognized.
Sound in the city is an intricate phenomenon that affects us at several levels, both health-wise and socially. At the same time, sound has cultural and functional implications by mediating important information connected to identity, security and spatial orientation. Unfortunately, current quantitative methods are not sufficient for describing, analyzing and managing urban sounds in regard to this complexity. Complementary methods of representation and analysis need to be developed that will bring out important information - gathering it and making it visual - about the constitution, character and quality of urban sonic space that is possible to utilize alongside today’s calculation and measurement-based methods within such areas as architecture and urban planning practices.
The licentiate thesis has its foundation in the analogue and well-recognized tool-box of the architect, such as various forms of documentation and sketching techniques, mapping, inventory and site-analysis, etc., when exploring tools and strategies for the communication and analysis of the exterior urban sound environment along the long and busy street Hornsgatan in Stockholm.
In addition to exploring various methods for capturing and describing the qualitative constitution of the exterior sonic environment and some of the basic factors affecting it, this thesis sets forth a general model for qualitative sound analysis of a problematic, yet well-utilized, urban sonic space.
The licentiate thesis exists as both a print and a digital version that complement each other and thus should be read, listened to and scrutinized in parallel.