SAAB · 'Science as Applied to Building' : Science, Construction, and Architectural Acoustics (1914-1954)

'Science as Applied to Building' : Science, Construction, and Architectural Acoustics (1914-1954)

The opening decades of the twentieth century bore witness to significant developments in building science and applied acoustic research within the field of architecture. Over the course of the succeeding decades, the conceptual basis of the early work, rooted in empirical observation and applied analysis, was consolidated in the standardisation of specific design criteria through large-scale architectural and scientific studies. As the science and its application evolved, an architectural legacy of benchmarks in the 'state of the art' was created. Many of the earlier developments in acoustical science were expressed in the construction of experimental housing and a number of ecclesiastic and civic buildings across Britain and Ireland. This project examines that legacy and focuses on the twentieth-century emergence of architectural acoustics as a branch of modern building science in Britain and its practical application in construction. Studies relating to the history of acoustic design in Britain have largely centred upon post-war auditoria. Little attention has been paid to the progress that preceded this era. The emergence and consolidation of architectural acoustics as a modern building science in early twentieth-century Britain and the underlying research links with the US are significant facets of architectural and construction history that to date, have remained unexplored. This research project addresses gaps in knowledge related to the history, development and application of technology in buildings. Early twentieth-century scientific work in architectural acoustics witnessed rapid development. One complaint of a building scientist in the 1940s was that experimental work in noise reduction for domestic architecture was advancing faster than could be documented. A substantial record of scientific progress remains in archives, unpublished and unrecognised. No complete inventory of scientific developments in twentieth-century building acoustics has ever been made. By addressing this gap in the joint histories of science and construction, a fuller understanding of developmental methods in acoustics and sound insulation will be amassed, contextualised, and disseminated, placing an under-explored aspect of technological and architectural development within the social and cultural context of the early twentieth-century. The overall research objective of this Fellowship is to address a lacuna in the histories of science and architecture by documenting a developmental stage in the history of acoustics that, to date, has been neglected. The coincident training objective is to mature the researcher’s academic development through cross-disciplinary mobility and advanced training, and through the management and implementation of a detailed and interdisciplinary research project. One of the most significant conclusions to have emerged from the research has been the demonstrable origins of scientific procedures in musical experimentation. This has been paralleled by investigation of the translation of scientific developments into architectural form.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз