Acoustically Arched

Interdisciplinary Music School

A rendering of the designed building and bridge over a river in Salzburg, Austria.

Interdisciplinary Music School

Overview

Music and Architecture are two disciplines with many parallels that have been studied for centuries. There are a lot of overlapping connections between the two going beyond just over lap in terminology. Patterns are similar in their art forms over history, as well as similarities to their education processes.

Site Plan

Site plan of Salzburg, Austria with roof plan of designed building.
Salzburg, Austria – Site Plan
A site section cutting through the cliff, river, surrounding buildings, and the added building and bridge.
Site Section w/ Cross Section D

I wanted to find a site with music history, and looked to Salzburg, Austria because it’s the birthplace of Mozart.

A diagram of Salzburg, Austria showing the location of the proposed building, Mozart's birthplace, performance spaces, and music schools.

Once I found my site, I looked at the various music schools and performance venues near the area. There are also many bridges that cross the river, but if you look at the rhythm of them, it’s almost like one is missing to my site. I discovered there is a Mozart based university right on the other side of the river, so I started researching the school.

They used to have a program called “Spot on MozART.” It focused on incorporating interdisciplinary ways to look at music through art. So my building is a part of this campus, and includes both music and art program becoming an interdisciplinary music school.

Diagrams of music schools, performance spaces, and bridges in relation to the site.

Research

Roman Numeral Analysis

I wanted to study and analyze music from a graphic and compositional standpoint to help create architectural spaces. Looking at designing spaces through both a technical and experiential lens and using music to guide these architectural forces. I chose ten pieces from different genres, time periods, and moods to look at through a music theory lens. I then established a set process that gets repeated for analyzing these pieces.

In music theory, Roman Numeral Analysis can be used to help understand chord relations if a song was to be transposed into another key. The harmonic functions of the chords themselves stay the same while the individual notes making up each chord is what changes.

I then analyzed these chords and expressed them visually in plan and axon forms to help observe the connections between the various chords.

Piano score of The Beatles "Let it Be" with roman numeral chord analysis written above the notes.
Let It Be Score
Process of creating the axon diagrams with letter and roman numeral chord names.
Let It Be Technical Axons

I started by using the introduction to Let It Be by The Beatles. First, I analyzed the different chords from the score and translated that into a plan view looking at the relationships between them. I then extruded this plan form and created these spiraling axons based on the chord relations.

This idea of creating architecture from music came from Iannis Xenakis who was an engineer and composer that worked with Le Corbusier on the Philips Pavilion for the 1958 World Expo. He then wrote his piece Metastasis inspired by the structure’s form. He took architecture and transformed it into music, and now I want to do the reverse.

Diagrams in elevation and plan views of the nine analyzed compositions.

Diagrams for the nine other compositions

Elevations

It was important to me given the site’s location to differentiate the facade from the river side versus the city side. I wanted to take advantage of the view of the river, and have that side be all glass focusing on the circulation. The city side is then concrete with modular windows cut out of it. For the curtain wall system, I had a series of regular wooden mullions spaced evenly, and then had a second layer of columns in front. This layer was spaced based on the chord analysis of the Mozart Sonata so the facade can be “played” musically from left to right.

Rendered Northeast elevation of designed building with surrounding context.
Northeast Elevation
Rendered Northwest elevation of designed building with surrounding context.
Northwest Elevation
Rendered Southeast elevation of designed building with surrounding context.
Southeast Elevation
Rendered Southwest elevation of designed building with surrounding context.
Southwest Elevation

Sections

Given the nature of my program, I wanted to balance the double height spaces in section. These are three of the most important spaces, consisting of the Classical Concert Hall, the Baroque Recital Hall, and the Romantic Ensemble Hall. Ceiling heights and shapes in general were also played with in the cross sections. The variations can help differentiate between the circulation spaces and the programmatic ones.

Cross section of designed music school.
B Cross Section
Cross section of designed music school.
C Cross Section
Cross section of designed music school.
E Cross Section
Longitudinal section of designed school showing the double height music spaces with acoustic panels.
Longitudinal Section A

Floor Plans

I really wanted my building to take advantage of the river and wanted to organize the plan around the circulation that was placed along this axis. I started with a basic rectangle, but then bent the form at angle. To place this form on the site, I lined up the original rectangle so it was parallel with the surrounding buildings. Then lined up the angled part so it was perpendicular to the added bridge. The bridge also splits, so you can join with the path in front of the site. You can enter the building at the ground floor, or take the bridge up to the second floor which leads you right to the main performance hall.

Basement Floor Plan showing furniture.
Basement Level Floor Plan
Ground Floor Plan showing furniture and surrounding context and the bridge.
Ground Level Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan showing furniture and bridge.
Second Level Floor Plan
Third Floor Plan showing furniture.
Third Level Floor Plan
Fourth Floor Plan showing furniture.
Fourth Level Floor Plan

Performance Spaces

Another application of my initial research was in the main performance spaces. Again, using music theory and the chord relations from the Roman Numeral Analysis created interesting shapes with the spiraling axons. So, I took those shapes in different forms to design the acoustic panels for the spaces.

Classical Concert Hall

In the Classical Concert Hall, I use the Mozart Sonata axon in the plan view. I used that shape to form the acoustic panels. It rotates and tessellates nicely to repeat along the walls.

Diagram of Plan view axon from the Mozart Sonata.
Mozart Sonata Axon in Plan View
Diagram of the shape derived from the Mozart Plan View axon rotated and tessellated.
Classical Acoustic Panels Tessellation from Mozart Sonata
A rendered interior view of the main Classical Concert Hall showing seats, acoustic panels, and an orchestra on the stage.
Classical Concert Hall

Baroque Recital Hall

In the Baroque Recital Hall, I use the Rameau Le Tambourin axon from an elevation view and tessellate it similarly to how I did with the previous acoustic panels. This space is smaller than the Classical Hall, but larger than the Romantic Hall.

Diagram of the elevation view of the Rameau Axon.
Rameau Axon
Diagram of the Rameau axon being extruded and tessellated to fit into itself and be repeated.
Acoustic Panels from Tessellated Rameau Axon
A rendered interior view of the Baroque Recital Hall from the stage looking into the audience and showcasing the designed Rameau acoustic panels.
Baroque Recital Hall

Romantic Ensemble Hall

Lastly, the Romantic Ensemble Hall is the smallest and most intimate space. For this one, I used two different axons for this space, from both a Brahms and Tchaikovsky pieces. Then, I took the profile of these axons and extrude them having one be on each side of the space.

A diagram of the elevation view of the Brahms axon.
Brahms Waltz Technical Axon
A diagram of the elevation view of the Tchaikovsky axon.
Tchaikovsky Miniature Overture Technical Axon
Diagrams of the profiles of the Brahms and Tchaikovsky axons extruded to create acoustic panels.
Extruded Brahms & Tchaikovsky Acoustic Panels
An interior render of the Romantic Ensemble hall showing the acoustic panels and the large garage door opening up to the exterior with trees and outdoor seating.
Romantic Ensemble Hall

Exploded Axon

An exploded axon drawing of the building by floor showing the structural system, the layering of the facade columns, and the three main performance spaces.
Structural Axon w/ Performance Spaces Highlighted

Final Design

To conclude, music and architecture have a lot of overlapping qualities. I started my research with Iannis Xenakis, a structural engineer and modernist composer who transformed architecture into music. Throughout the thesis process, this led me to creating a modern building in a baroque city using elements of classical music throughout the architectural details.

A rendering of the designed building and bridge over a river in Salzburg, Austria.
A street level exterior rendering of the building showing the bridge.
A rendering of the street level view of the building and bridge from one of the existing bridges across the water.
A rendering from an aerial view of the building and bridge.

A different composer, a different city, a different graphic analysis of the music theory all could have led to different projects. The focus of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music while creating a “modern” building continues to redefine and emphasize these terms that are present in both disciplines.

A physical model of the front view of the building made of chipboard and wood.
River Side Elevation Model
A physical model of the back view of the building made of chipboard and wood.
City Side Elevation Model
A physical sectional model of the building made of chipboard and wood cutting through the Classical Concert Hall.
Final Sectional Model

This project is just a glimpse into the architectural ideas that are possible when combing visual and auditory disciplines. From more tangible projects regarding acoustics to those regarding the more ephemeral properties of sound and space, music has captivated many architects before. Many people like Xenakis have studied the two, and many more like me will continue to do so. This is just the beginning.