Aural Architectures: Taking Away Sound: potential site #1

GUND HALL south entrance / Student Exhibition Wall @ Harvard GSD, Cambridge, MA

Student Wall at Harvard GSD

intention: to create silence in a place of considerable "noise" in order to encourage a heightened physical engagement with a space of transition

Located next to the south entrance into Gund Hall at Harvard Graduate School of Design, this intervention would engage the visible space of the public street and the acoustic space of the building lobby. It would capitalize on the moment of transition between exterior and interior space and the moment of interaction that occurs during this process. By building out from the wall with acoustically absorptive materials, it would be possible to achieve an acoustically insulated space where one becomes abruptly aware of their body within the space.


GSD Student Wall intervention options: acoustic wedges, foam lining, thickened wall structure

GSD Student Wall intervention options: shaping the space with various wall thicknesses

sources of sound:

- street traffic, pedestrian traffic, mechanical equipment noise, proximity to fire station, interior building activity

possible materials:

- rigid insulation, memory foam, stacked corrugated cardboard, mineral fiber panels, batt insulation filled wall structures, fiberglass wedges, carpeting

Disregarding the inherent difference in acoustical properties of absorbing wedges and memory foam due to materiality, what are the spatial implications of these two materials when applied to a space? How do people interact with a structure that projects into their field of movement? Most likely it deters physical contact as compared to the soft and enveloping characteristic of memory foam, which invites physical interaction.