BLDGBLOG - Amplifier House: Original Domestic Soundscapes

[Arq.to]

Amplifier House: Original Domestic Soundscapes

'>[image: The Mix House, exterior view].

This awesome new project by Joel Sanders Architect (with Karen Van Lengen/KVL and Ben Rubin/Ear Studio) takes a step beyond "the modernist notion of visual transparency" (i.e. large windows and glass houses) by adding "aural transparency" acoustic openness.

'>[image: Mix House, exterior].

It's called the Mix House:

• Situated on a generic suburban plot, the dwelling is composed of two sound-gathering volumes outfitted with three audiovisual windows. The curved profile of each of these sonic windows is composed of two elements: a louvered glass window wall that regulates the sound of the air-borne ambient environment, and a parabolic dish that electronically targets domestic sounds and transmits them to an interior audio system controlled from the kitchen island. From this sound command center of the house, occupants are free to design original domestic soundscapes by mixing media sponsored sounds with the ambient noises of the neighborhood.

These "sonic windows" or "parabolic ornaments" amplify the audio setting of the house, thus making location, I'd think, several orders of magnitude more important than with many others works of architecture.
In fact, should a house like this really be constructed in the suburbs? Instead of deep in the woods somewhere, or even on top of a glacier...? Crystalline pressures of melting ice three thousand feet below you suddenly break, sending cascades of sound shivering upward through the home's foundations. Some days it's impossible to get out of bed, hypnotized by unearthly noises...

Ler artigo...