Visual sonata in spaces OP.00 : Architecture as instrument

Yixuan Zhang

Nicholas Hoban, Advisor

This thesis explores the process of transferring essential architectural components in a space into auditory elements. Through metaphorizing humans in spaces as performers playing the architecture as an instrument, these uniform into architecture’s musical harmony. Music, a sound but more than sound, it is a fusion of form, space, medium, rhythm and emotion. Architecture, meaning more than the assembly of materials, embodies a synthesis of scientific and artistic considerations that contain rhythms uniform into harmony. It is a result and ongoing process of being a merged carrier of science, function, social, emotions, memories, feelings, and personal stories. These features parallel to the characteristics of music. This thesis experiments with observing the 1 Spadina crescent (the Daniels Building) visually then aurally. Transforming the building into an experimental music piece. 

The project’s Early stage translates different genres of music into geometries that form potential architectural spaces from physical movements of instrument performers. The current stage of this project focuses on observing permanent structures along with human interactions within selected spaces, translating these observations into auditory components. The future potential includes translating certain music pieces into architectures containing scientific design, enjoyable living experiences and beauty; an auxiliary during the design process; and interdisciplinary experimentations between architecture and other areas. 

This thesis focuses on observing and analyzing the relationship between scientifically designed facilities and human movements in architectural spaces. Architecture in this project is more than an static artistic entity. It attains completion through ongoing interactions, with each engagement continuously reshaping and redefining the original design. It is an music being continuous composed with individuals performing their own unique interpretations.