Shape of Sound

For the past 20 years, Victoria Meyers, a Founding Partner of hanrahanMeyers architects, has crafted an architectural and urban design practice that includes sound as an intimate aspect of the designed environment. Meyers analyses the shape of sound; architecture and sound; form; materiality; windows; the urban soundscape, its politics, aesthetics and social character; reflection; virtuality; sound art; and silence. This sequel to Designing with Light offers new theoretical insights into sound and the spatial experience accompanied by several key case studies. These include Meyers' work with Stephen Vitiello, whose piece A Bell For Every Minute animated the New York High Line project, and her collaborations with composer and sound artist Michael Schumacher. Digital Water i-Pavilion, located opposite Ground Zero in Manhattan, has proved particularly innovative: Schumacher's score, developed especially for the building, has been etched into a glass facade which can be 'played' by the public via an app; onlookers direct their mobile phones at the glass to read and hear the music. Sound is not simply music however, and Meyers reflects upon this in her quest for an understanding of architecture as an auditory environment, through examples of buildings and materials which inspire and possess characteristic sonic properties.