Slide 1
An early experiment using electronics and custom-built software to listen in on and interact with new designs for common domestic objects. Video of this experiment at http://vimeo.com/56221860
Slide 2
Collages illustrating how the energy of the city is transferred through the building's skin into the top-floor apartment.
Slide 3
A series of collages that use common objects to rethink materiality and space-shape through strange arrangements and changes in scale.
Slide 4
The design proposal includes a fully-tiled entry hall with a low, vaulted ceiling, which emphasizes and shapes the incoming sounds of the city.
Slide 5
A rotated, exploded drawing allows views to the many new elements in the apartment.
Slide 6
Appliances, while visible, are aurally separated from zones of conversation and dining.
Slide 7
A glass canopy, mid-way between the two floors, captures sounds from below while affording views to above.

Sounding Domestic

What might be possible if sound were brought central—along with light, material, and space—to the practice of interior design? In the built environment, sound has physical, social, navigational, aesthetic, communicative, associative, and phenomenological dimensions. These are also the qualities that constitute the substance of interior design. The profession, however, instead of engaging with sound, has largely concerned itself with suppressing or ignoring it.

With the belief that there is much to gain from reconsidering this condition, this thesis explores how the interior designer might shape the way we live with sound. The inquiry is carried out through the redesign of a two-story, live-work loft at Broadway and 71st Street in New York City.

Thesis Advisor: Peter Wheelwright