Composing Atmospheres: the transposition of music to architecture

Abstract

This thesis examines the atmospheric nature of the two disciplines, music and architecture. Atmosphere in the world of arts is used to describe how the created piece can influence the mood and emotion of the person in its presence. One of the key areas of investigation in this thesis is influenced by Pallasmaa’s perception of music as an atmospheric space and a synesthetic bodily experience. This thesis will delve into how music influences moods and emotions, and how music becomes an atmospheric space through visual representations. Architectural experience also has its similarities as Pallasmaa writes, “Every space, place and situation is tuned in a specific way, and it projects atmospheres that promote distinct moods and feelings.” We engage with the architecture and atmosphere with all our human senses and empathise with the composed space. However, Pallasmaa criticises that we cannot empathise with the present, contemporary architecture which is emotionless and lifeless, and has consequently lost the ability to embrace human life. While modern architecture is losing the ability to affect moods and emotions, music is still able to affect our moods and feelings through our emotional sensitivity. Therefore, this thesis will investigate how music’s ability to stimulate different emotions can be transposed into a language of architectural atmosphere. Through this investigation, the aim of the thesis will be to use music as a medium to drive the emotional setting of space and to develop a methodology to bridge the two disciplines. It will focus particularly on transposing music into a synesthetic architectural experience and on setting up atmospheres that complement the sensations received from music. The validity of the method will be examined through applying this to a hypothetical architectural project, The School of Music for the Deaf. The school is a pavilion that will allow children to experience the atmosphere in music through their senses and to hear with the body.