sounds of the urban park

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"Experience is the crystallization in a field of raw sensations - aromas, colours, textures, fears; which are held together by habit. Habit is a non-linguistic repetition of ideas in everyday life." - Manuel De Landa

The user's meaning of a park includes fixed ideas such as green, open, tweeting, serenity, intimacy,companionship etc; these create a specific definition of a park. Every time the word park arises, these exact memories are recalled; but what is missing in the user's association for the De Vries van Heystplantsoen -an urban site- is the idea of a car,in both vision and sound. Because the noise of traffic is foreign to their basic meaning of park, they are disturbed by the actual reality.

The project's intention is to include the car and external sources into the user's combination of ideas of an urban park. Since the main contradiction is due to sound, the project will revert the negative perception of noise into a positive aspect of an urban park, furthermore add the idea of traffic into the habit of urban park.

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  sound paths with current barriers

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  soundscapes intervention

A field of attractors and repellents is used to find the principle of forming the space. The former attracts the points from the grid to create surfaces, whereas the latter repels them to create open areas. The connections of the neighbouring points are curves to be used for the framework of the acoustic panels, the materials chosen have different acoustic qualities to be adapted to each one of the 8 areas.

A study of a glue model reveals the behaviour of a wrapping on the framework; by fitting panels, the framework allows the geometry to affect the sound conditions - as seen on the extreme condition chambers- and the panels to intensify the effect.

further prototype documentation>>

technical details>>

research

Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of sound perception. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the psychological and physiological responses associated with sound.

experimentation>>

In order to understand the immense potential of psychoacoustics and its effect for The De Vries van Heystplantsoen intervention, project D organized a series of experiments to get a sense of the most extreme spatial sound scenarios-an anechoic chamber(wave reflection free) and an echo room. By identifying their spatial and experiential characteristics, the project can apply sound/space/experience variation to the 8 points developed as atom 3.

conclusions

1. Partial absorption of external sound in comfortable / permanent areas can be applied to create collective spaces and areas for speech purposes.

2. Areas with with higher reflectivity can only be transitional.

3. Ambient noise does not translate directly into annoyance.

4. Similar spaces / experiences should not be adjacent.

further conclusions reading>>

validation

The sound transmission is simulated in Pachyderm to validate the spatial results. The geometry of spaces and their curvature play indeed an important role of reflection and absorption. Specifically, concave surfaces succeed in reflecting more the sound waves in particular areas, whereas convex surfaces diffuse them.

experts and validators

Edwin van der Heide - concept, materialisation

Dieter van Doren - concept, materialisation

Martin Tenpierik - physics, materialisation

Henry den Bok - physics, experiments, acoustics

Erik van Hunnik - chairman TUNoord

user scenarios

experiential purpose of soundspaces- Every entity producing sound is a possible sound source. The receivers while strolling around the park, or sitting at a point, can therefore perceive different sound levels; sound levels constantly changing, but controlled from the surfaces and their material, in order not to conclude with an extreme result. The possible users choose the area they need for the specific purpose (meeting point, relax, read, play, chat) not only by the spatial qualities (shelter, open area, wall, sitting), but also by the sound qualities each time. Thus, the changing of sound attributes makes it attractive to visitors, to explore different aspects of the same space; making it a different experience every time one enters the park.

personal scenarios - During the conceptual stage of soundscapes, atom 3 conducted an interview where members of the community shared their opinion on the park. From all the interviews, the 4 more contrasting cases were documented and now serve as example of the project's response to the initial challenge. Because of the diversity of spatial and acoustical areas, soundscapes adapts to a variety of activities with different levels of permanence, seating and acoustical privacy; this attracts students, staff and neighbours to enjoy different kinds of outdoor activities as a community. The project can be experienced as a link between the school of architecture and the science centre, as a journey troughout the park, or as an area for long-term activity such as reading or simply to contemplate the rare typology in Delft that is the urban park.