White/acoustic infrastructure: a crucial tool for the transition to an environmentally sustainable future in urban areas: The case of Paris La Defense, a modern district in dissonance

Sara El Samman

About this exposition

The national lockdown due to COVID-19 abruptly cut down on human activity in cities, and enabled urban dwellers to notice nature’s comeback through birdsong: It has shown that today’s urban environment is in acoustic imbalance. My research aims to provide an overview on how soundscapes fit into the landscape design process, and to explore the notion of white/sonic infrastructure in order to give a tangible tool for landscape architects to read landscapes with their ears and design acoustically sensible places for all living beings. Sound informs the design process not simply by reducing unwanted noise but by encouraging a sound-considered city design approach. This adopted strategy would entail the extraction and reinterpretation of sonic cues as blueprints for the reshaping of the space and the transformation of the soundscape experience for users and nature alike. The paper applies all of its findings on Paris La Defense, the biggest business district in Europe, who’s current morphology, within the ring of noise that is the “Boulevard circulaire”, dissociates it from its territory creating acoustic and physical discontinuities. A study of the flows that animate the site along with its morphology helped me extract the multiple sonotopes (sonic biotopes) that shape the acoustic space of the district. Sound maps were created and a white infrastructure strategy was furthermore developed. The article develops an elaborate method that could help translate a soundscape vision into concrete landscape design actions and proposes an approach to sonic continuities on large and local scales. White infrastructure affords the additional dimension necessary to conceive the landscape and to create space for the non-human, for the human, and for the dialogue between them. The notion of eco-acoustic design contributes to shaping a non-anthropocentric city that is considerate of all living things and therefore is crucial to designing ecological urban ecosystems.

type	research exposition
keywords	Urban soundscapes; Acoustic ecology; Sonic urbanism; Acoustic design; Sonotopes.
date	16/10/2022
published	17/10/2022
last modified	17/10/2022
status	published
affiliation	ESAJ - Ecole supérieur de la transition écologique
copyright	Sara El Samman, the author
license	All rights reserved
language	English
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1766693/1766700
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/rc.1766693
published in	Research Catalogue

name	The Acoustic Space of La Defense
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, background

name	sound analysis on la defense
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	The projected flows map
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Sonotopes identification map
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Collage des sonotopes
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	acousric analysis - the sound sources
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	acousric analysis - the white infrastructure strategy
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	acoustic actions project map and landscapes actions
copyright	The author - Sara El Samman
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

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White/acoustic infrastructure: a crucial tool for the transition to an environmentally sustainable future in urban areas: The case of Paris La Defense, a modern district in dissonance (2022)

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