Sound atmospheres in architecture: a case study in the South of Italy

ABSTRACT

This essay explores sound atmospheres on the ground of the city of Matera, Italy, through the authors’ academic practices that work across disciplinary borders, i.e. architectural design and sensory experiences, storytelling/poetry and architecture. In particular, the authors carry out a research project composed of sound recordings, perception workshops and soundscape installations for students of architecture. A designer or architectural student’s curriculum should include the acoustic properties of architectural space that may shape a user’s esthetic judgment. Matera exhibits a long history of contradictions. Seventy years ago the city bore the label, “the shame of Italy” for the precarious living conditions of the inhabitants, but today the city is listed as a World Heritage Site, and European Capital of Culture 2019. The polarities of Matera present a basis to study the characteristic soundscapes of a modern city still engraved by the past. The research represents a first attempt at methodical sonic experiments on the vast scale of the entire city of Matera with the involvement of university students, researchers, teachers, and citizens that culminated in the production of five urban soundscape installations.

KEYWORDS:

• Soundscape
• Matera
• perceptions
• architecture and sound
• didactics

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their careful reading and the insightful comments and suggestions on the first version of this paper.

We wish to thank David Howes for his valuable remarks, encouragement and competence and Nathaniel DuPertuis for the precious help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Silvana Kühtz

Silvana Kühtz from Bari, Italy, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of European and Mediterranean Cultures (DiCEM) at the University of Basilicata in Matera. Pursuing an untraditional route, Dr. Kühtz first earned a PhD in Fluid-dynamics (Engineering) at Imperial College of Science and Technology in London only to change direction several years later and complete a Master’s degree in integrated communication. She teaches an innovative class Languages, future, and possibilities, and leads sensory, creative, and reading laboratories. Her research and teaching blend theater, writing, arts, our senses, and sustainable development. She works across different places, senses and disciplines.

Chiara Rizzi

Chiara Rizzi was born and raised in Basilicata, Italy, ultimately returning there after a journey of personal and professional training that lasted more than twenty years. Dr. Rizzi is an Associate Professor in Architectural and Urban design in Matera in the Department of European and Mediterranean Cultures at the University of Basilicata. She sees architecture as her passion, and teaching and research as vocations that are only worth cultivating in a collective form. For these reasons, she combines teaching and studying with a militancy that translates into collaborations with associations and collectives active in urban, social and cultural regeneration.