79
suspended in selected locations—clearly to direct sound reflections
without reducing them significantly.
To the designer, all these issues—geometric configurations, placements of different materials with different properties (which might
indeed have different absorptive qualities appropriate for different
locations), placements of reflectors, and many other factors—are
surely things that someone in this situation (presumably an architect working with an acoustical engineer) has to decide. To the
developer of a new material, including nanomaterials, who is
seeking to develop application domains, the situation would be
viewed as a design case where there is a need to have materials with
different sound absorptive or reflective characteristics. The question
might merely seem to be one of, “What values?”
In developing a design for a concert hall, experienced architects
know that all the issues we’ve noted are interrelated and each affects
the other; they would also know that there are no single solutions,
and many variants might have similar performances. The design
team charged with the task of developing a design would do many
things, but thinking about specific material choices would come
fairly late in the design process. The exact framing of the problem
leading to these choices, however, is done quite early. In terms of
steps, a series of immediately relevant programmatic issues are first
identified (often through interviews and other techniques), and
subsequently a series of stated design requirements are worked out:
what kind of hall, for what type of music, for how many listeners,
what ancillary facilities must be present, and so forth.
Within this context, specific design objectives would be established.
Broad design objectives might be at a seemingly obvious level: to
design a hall that provides a high level of musical experience for
the audience (an objective that could presumably be subsequently
defined more precisely in terms of various descriptors of the acoustical performance of the hall). A more precise objective might be
to say that each listener seated somewhere in the hall must have
the same high level of experience no matter where he or she is
seated (something potentially much harder to accomplish).
These and other factors are usually defined in a design brief or design
program of some sort. The designers would then generate a series
of initial conceptual design proposals that impart an initial physical
design sensibility to the programmatic requirements (e.g., initial
layouts showing locations of the stage, seating arrangements, and
so forth). This would have to be done with conscious consideration
of the actual site involved (not only its area and shape but also its
A Design Vignette
suspended in selected locations—clearly to direct sound reflections
without reducing them significantly.
To the designer, all these issues—geometric configurations, placements of different materials with different properties (which might
indeed have different absorptive qualities appropriate for different
locations), placements of reflectors, and many other factors—are
surely things that someone in this situation (presumably an architect working with an acoustical engineer) has to decide. To the
developer of a new material, including nanomaterials, who is
seeking to develop application domains, the situation would be
viewed as a design case where there is a need to have materials with
different sound absorptive or reflective characteristics. The question
might merely seem to be one of, “What values?”
In developing a design for a concert hall, experienced architects
know that all the issues we’ve noted are interrelated and each affects
the other; they would also know that there are no single solutions,
and many variants might have similar performances. The design
team charged with the task of developing a design would do many
things, but thinking about specific material choices would come
fairly late in the design process. The exact framing of the problem
leading to these choices, however, is done quite early. In terms of
steps, a series of immediately relevant programmatic issues are first
identified (often through interviews and other techniques), and
subsequently a series of stated design requirements are worked out:
what kind of hall, for what type of music, for how many listeners,
what ancillary facilities must be present, and so forth.
Within this context, specific design objectives would be established.
Broad design objectives might be at a seemingly obvious level: to
design a hall that provides a high level of musical experience for
the audience (an objective that could presumably be subsequently
defined more precisely in terms of various descriptors of the acoustical performance of the hall). A more precise objective might be
to say that each listener seated somewhere in the hall must have
the same high level of experience no matter where he or she is
seated (something potentially much harder to accomplish).
These and other factors are usually defined in a design brief or design
program of some sort. The designers would then generate a series
of initial conceptual design proposals that impart an initial physical
design sensibility to the programmatic requirements (e.g., initial
layouts showing locations of the stage, seating arrangements, and
so forth). This would have to be done with conscious consideration
of the actual site involved (not only its area and shape but also its
A Design Vignette