helena slosar
Boston Duplex: section, first floor plan
architecture as a vibrating membrane A common residential building type in Boston is the vertically split duplex house. This side-by-side organisation allows two families to occupy separated spaces within a shared overall structure. The uninterrupted wood frame construction provides a direct vibration channel through which sound travels with little reduction, thus allowing public and private conditions to blur. The acoustically conductive nature of this construction leads to an awareness of other occupants within the private space of the home. The plan on one side is reflected across a single wall creating a central spine of vertical circulation existing simultaneously on each side. Subsequently, from the attic room on the third floor it is impossible to distinguish from which side footsteps on the stairs below originate. A fan in the bathroom or conversation in the kitchen leaks from one side to the other through ventilation grates and plumbing cavities creating an environment in which all activities within the entire structure are shared. The disjunction between the visual and the aural can lead to a sense of uncertainty regarding the presence of others in one’s own surroundings. This auditory intrusion places privacy in doubt resulting in a heightened self-awareness. Despite the accepted notion that this architecture provides two private residences, the occupants understand that their actions are to some extent acoustically exposed thereby influencing future behaviour. While these three cases are disparate in their program, structure, and scale, they are connected in that they describe immersive scenarios where materiality, geometry, and spatial composition shape acoustic experience with such power as to be perceptible by the occupant. These vignettes illustrate how architecture and the acoustical characteristics of the environments we design impact patterns of habitation. The signature of a space’s construction is embedded in the way in which sounds are re-projected and then processed by the listener. We, as inhabitants, activate architecture with temporal events, and architecture, in turn, shapes our behaviour creating a feedback loop between the material and the immaterial. j
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