Getting off the train at 72nd St, on the subway platform we heard a funny sound and wondered ‘what is that?’ Well, it turned out to be the sound of fireworks above for the kickoff of the NYC Marathon. You could hear the reflections of sound off of the building facades and the overall reverberation somewhat.
Tour 7 WTC during Archtober
October is Archtober! It’s time for New York City’s architecture and design month, a festival of architecture taking place throughout October and brought to you by the AIA New York Chapter, openhousenewyork, and the Architecture & Design Film Festival.
Archtober’s “Building of the Day” for Monday, October 3rd is 7 WTC, the gateway to the new World Trade Center area and NYC’s first certified “green” office building. On October 3rd at 1:30 p.m., join developer Silverstein Properties and openhousenewyork for a guided tour of the building.
Featured on the tour will be the newly opened WTC Marketing Center on the 10th floor, which includes large-scale models, galleries, and interactive videos about the entire WTC project and neighborhood. As the acoustical consultant on the WTC Marketing Center design team (which included architects TPG Architecture and engineers AKF Group), we are excited that the public will have the chance to see (and hear) this brand new perspective on the future of the World Trade Center!
Putting the rev back in your engine
A great deal of engineering effort has gone into quieting the automobile over the past century. In most major cities, transportation noise is a huge contributor to environmental noise both outdoors and in (who doesn’t live near a road?) Vehicle acoustics is a primary focus of many current applied acoustics research programs, with the enthusiastic support of the auto industry.
Even so, some would argue that these great successes in reducing vehicle noise have come at the expense of exhilaration; gunning your engine at a stop light just doesn’t give the thrill that it did in the days of the big block V8.
For those of us that would occasionally like to hear what we’re driving (which yes, sometimes includes even noise-averse acousticians), a Swedish company has developed the SoundRacer. This gizmo fits into your cigarette lighter socket, and using the socket voltage to sense engine RPM, broadcasts real-time sports car engine sound through your car stereo. Even if your “sports car” happens to be less than sporting!
just in time for Superbowl Sunday…
Squareheard Technology has a new microphone system, AudioScope, that allows broadcasters to zoom in on sounds as well as sights, to pick out a single conversation. The device is made up of around 300 microphones used in conjunction with a wide-angle camera that can zoom in to any position. The AudioScope software then calculates the time it would take for sound emanating from that point to reach each microphone, and digitally corrects each audio feed to synchronize them with that spot.
Fractal Pad
This year we had the pleasure of working with Matthew Bremer from Architecture in Formation on Fractal Pad, which was honored by Interior Design Magazine’s Best of the Year awards. Congratulations Matt!
Clouds, heard and felt
Most people are familiar with the typical fabric-wrapped wall panels and acoustical ceiling tiles that absorb sound and echo in office environments—and may also be familiar with the reverberant, unintelligible character of a room without these absorptive treatments. However, the same absorption can always be provided in less traditional forms, delivering world-class design that just happens to have acoustic benefit as well.
In search of this sort of innovation on a recent visit to Copenhagen, we stopped by the Dansk Design Center, a museum and gallery showcasing the best in Danish industrial, product, and graphic design. On display among the winners of the 2010/11 Danish Design Prize was a product called Clouds, produced by Kvadrat A/S and designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. The product is a modular system of 2-D felt panels that are joined with rubber bands at the edges to form complex, striking 3-D surfaces and volumes. The resulting felt sculptures can be fixed to walls, hung from ceilings, or form room dividers on their own.
Acoustically, felt is an effective absorber of high-frequency sound, and by trapping substantial air spaces within or behind the overall surface, low- and mid-frequency absorption is possible as well. Products like this allow the acoustic treatment to form an attractive centerpiece to a space’s visual aesthetic, rather than blending into the background!