Professor Radhakrishnan’s lecture this week touched on several topics, but her discussion on the physics of music led me to research more about acoustics in buildings. I found a New York Times article, titled “Art + Physics“, which highlights the many factors that are considered when analyzing spaces for sound: reverberation, a space’s volume, and amount of sound-absorbing material. These metrics are key to a formula developed to create more modern, unique, and untraditional concert halls while maintaining optimal acoustics.
As we learned in the lecture, sound waves travel as longitudinal waves, and their respective peaks and troughs determine the speed at which it travels. Interestingly, researchers did a study of many different concert halls and their reverberations to see which were most successful acoustically. Reverberation, which is a collection of reflected sounds, changes depending on the purpose of the concert hall. For instance, the most popular concert halls reverberate in about 2 seconds, while opera halls reverberated in about half a second less, because the opera singer’s voice must retain some clarity.
After completing this study, the researchers translated their data for a famous Japanese architect, Takahigo Yanagisawa, in order to improve the acoustics and create an informed yet creative design for Tokyo’s Opera City concert hall. Thus, the concert hall worked well acoustically and visually, demonstrated in the image below.
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