The sound pavilion

Abstract

The act of dwelling is a sensorial experience that relies on a continuous stream of information from our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin to develop an emotional and intellectual understanding of our environment. Architects, for the most part, have focused on the sense of sight leaving all other sensorial experience as secondary importance limiting our profession’s ability to create rich sensorial experiences. By exploring one of the fundamental aspects of dwelling, in this case sound, I will study how the manipulation of sound in architecture can allow us to further understand our environment. By utilizing Aural Architectural theory as developed by Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter I will be able to study the interactions between our auditory senses in relation to natural and built environments, while also concerning myself with the experience of sound that have been altered by the physical properties of a designed space. In this thesis I propose the creation of an Aural Pavilion in el Yunque Rain Forest in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico as a way of exploring these auditory and aural experiences with relation to our natural environment and the relations these sensorial experiences have with our ability to dwell.