SONOROUS CITIES: TOWARDS A SONIC URBANISM (2020-2025)

PROJECT SUMMARY: Architecture and urban design, disciplines heavily rooted in visual epistemologies, have long neglected sound, or else treated it in very limited ways: as a physical quantity that can be modelled and controlled; or else as noise, something to be reduced or eliminated. The neglect of sound on the part of the built environment professions has been damaging for cities, which suffer from poor acoustic design. As cities come under increasing scrutiny in a rapidly urbanising world, it is time to turn attention to one of the most pervasive—yet most neglected—aspects of urban life: how cities sound; how the experience of urban soundscapes is differentiated along social and cultural lines; and how to harness the creative potential of sound to build healthier, more inclusive, more sustainable cities.

SONCITIES will bring together sound theorists, urban sociologists, architects, urban designers and sound artists to develop the conceptual framework of sonic urbanism: a new acoustic paradigm for cities. First, we will conduct ethnographic research with urban residents and communities, aiming to discover how people experience and shape urban soundscapes in their everyday lives, and how their experiences are marked by social and cultural difference. Next, we will develop new modes of sonic urban analysis in dialogue with built environment professionals internationally. This will both challenge and complement the visual approach to urban analysis in the built environment professions; and it will extend methods in the sonic disciplines, which are primarily oriented towards analysing ‘the sounds themselves’. Finally, we will develop new modes of sonic urban design in the context of Design Weeks, public exhibitions, and urban sound art interventions. These creative projects will be rooted in a socially conscious approach to design, with a view to better understanding how designers can create more inclusive acoustic environments.