The Acoustics Approach to New Towns and Buildings Planning

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The Acoustics Approach to New Towns and Buildings Planning

James Wing Ho WongAllied Acoustics, Allied Environmental Consultants Limited, Hong Kong

The CentreStage Limited, Hong KongAmerican Conservatory of Music, Belize

Abstract: Sound have been known to affect the physical, emotional, mental and spiritualstates. Sound affects pulse rate, skin temperature, blood pressure, muscle tension, and brainwave activity. It helps release biochemicals, such as endorphins. It relaxes, excites, releasesemotions, and helps to travel to altered states of consciousness. Sound has been applied in

architectural design in ancient times and recent years, it helps in healing all those disease inwhich stress plays a role. This study develop advanced acoustic design concepts in use ofsound healing in new towns and buildings planning. Harmonic building design and townplanning is an exciting and emerging field that links the ancient sciences and arts with soundand vibration to heal the spirit, mind and body. The goal is to assist the individual andcommunity at large in establishing healthier patterns for living in wholeness. It drawsfundamentally on a unified view of the cosmos in which all things are inextricably bound andin relationship to one another whether it be an organ system, a family or an ecosystem. Whenour bodies experience an illness or disharmony, this will initially develop within theorganizational energy matrices. The energy matrix of the body's cellular makeup is made up ofa highly complex multitude of frequency interactions. When the body is subject to soundstimulation, it sets up a series of harmonic oscillations that influence a change in phase andfrequency in the energy field or matrix on the cellular level. The result will be to reorganizethe energetic matrix back to a more balanced state. This paper investigate how does sound and

harmonic healing work. What is a typical resonance based building look like? What is theunderlying concept about resonance healthy communities and how can Harmonic TownPlanning design techniques be applied to create healthy communities.

Keywords: Acoustics, Town, Planning, Field, Healing, Stress, Harmonic, Architecture,

Design, Body, Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Fibonacci, Lambdoma, Golden Mean, Tonal Line

1. Introduction

Today, high energy density living environment has become a norm for city dwellers.Many of us living in Hong Kong realised that buildings can have a profound influence on ourhealth and our psychic and spiritual state of be-ing. In the ancient Eastern philosophy, webelieve people live in two state of consciousness, irrespective of their conditioning,irrespective of their believe systems. They live either in a Conflict state or a Unity state. Aconflict state is a state of unrest, a state of disquiet, a state where there are so many parts ofoneself that are right, there are so many parts of oneself that are wrong, that one has madewrong, or society has made wrong or schooling has made wrong. These various fragmentedparts of oneself are fighting with each other and result a continuous disturbing internal chatter.The unity state is one of connectedness, is one of love, and is one of relationship. Oneexperience the sense of relationship, with all that is around and in fact a better relationshipwith ones own self. It is to feel one with all life. Most of us have experienced both these statesof consciousness, but it is also possible that we are spending the larger pat of the day in anyone particular state. Harmony and balance, light and colour, relationship to landscape,ecological sympathy, energy efficiency and geometric form are contributing elements of shelter

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which aspires to be nurturing rather than draining. We resonate at both cellular andconsciousness levels with our environment. By creating an environment around us that issupportive to both our inner and our outer senses, we can enhance rather than alienate ourhuman links with nature. Architecture, when employed as a means of embodying principles ofuniversal harmony can sustain us rather than drain us, so that our homes become our havens,and our work places support our creativity. Since the start of millennium Year 2000, AlliedAcoustics has been using advance acoustic design concepts in use of sound healing in our

projects."Much like changing a television channel and tuning to a different broadcast, we can use

frequencies of sound to retune our vibratory state to a new channel of harmony." -- 1 DeborahVan Dyke

2. Architecture as Sound

In the world of natural phenomena, it is the underlying patterns of geometric form,proportion and associated wave frequencies that give rise to all perceptions and identifications.Therein lies our fundamental capacity to relate, to interpret and to know. In the biologicalrealms, replication, continuity and diversity are established through the vehicle of geneticcoding within the substance of the DNA. It is not just the molecules of carbon, oxygen,hydrogen and nitrogen that determine the replicating power of DNA, but its helix form and the

geometric proportions and relationships within it.Our ability to create music and interpret sounds depends on our body's capacity tomechanically interpret wave patterns, not through quantitative differences but proportionaldifferences. All our bodily senses work because our nerve receptors are able to attune tovariations in proportion of input frequencies. Even our sense of smell is reliant on our abilityto interpret the geometric construction rather than the molecular substance of a perfume. Ourvisual sense differs from our sense of touch only because the nerves of the retina are not tunedto the same range of frequencies as the nerves embedded in our skin. Hidden within thearchitecture of material existence are the geometric forms, the building blocks which make lifepossible as we know it.

The architecture of the buildings we inhabit as our dwellings, our work places, ourhealing and education centres, and our churches and temples, has similar impact on our sensesas the architecture of nature. Apart from any psychological influences, it is mainly thegeometric spaces and the materials of the structures that influence our responses. Our sense of

proportion tells us when a space or object is harmonious, and our mood responds accordingly.In much the same way we identify sounds as being pleasing or otherwise according to theirwave frequencies and the proportional relationships between combinations of different notes. Itis our spatial awareness that connects us or repels us with items that we normally perceive tobe remote and external to us. It is a biological relationship that occurs at the cellular levelbetween the myriad components of our physicality.

During many years of designing and building, our project team members observed theresponses of people to different geometric forms that I had incorporated into my structures. Iobserved that certain forms, as a consequence of their proportions or their geometry or both,seemed to evoke favourable responses. I also observed there was a 3-dimensional or non-square element to those spaces. On the other hand I observed little or no response to theconventional square spaces most commonly found in modern architecture.

It appears that ancient Egypt's architects were quite sophisticated astronomers and 'skytravelers'. What is more, the structures also have unique acoustical effects and according to the

dimensions and design of the chambers, powerful effects could be engineered with the use ofcertain sounds and music within the temples. Passing beneath the large figurative zodiacpainted on the ceiling, I was reminded of a statement I heard years ago, that human life willnever reach its full potential until our lives become a mirror of nature. Most cultures previousto the current industrial and technologically based societies, took into account not only theterrestrial but also the celestial cycles in designing their temples.

2"The sky and its stars make music in you." Denderah Temple wall inscription inEgypt showed how the ancient philosophy in relating human to our surroundings. As early asabout 2 4,000 B.C, the Egyptian mystery schools found that sound and geometry wereinextricably linked. Later, the ancient Greeks used the "Pythagorean Table," also known as the



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It has been said that architecture is frozen sound. Seen in this way, the ancient temples,and Gothic cathedrals act as sonic resonators. By consciously introducing sound into thetemples' harmonic construction, they act as sonic resonators attuning and aligning us with theirheavenly vibrations.

At the Cathedral at Chartres in France (Figure 3a.), 14 underground streams convergewhere the choir stands and sings. It would appear that the intention of the design was to use the

sacred geometry of the temple as a sonic resonator. Chartres is designed according toproportions which obey the law of the Golden Mean, 1.618 (phi). In Chartres, distancesbetween pillars and the lengths of the nave, transepts, and the choir are all mult iples of theGolden Mean. The ribs supporting the vaults of the quadrangular units of which the cathedralis composed are the shape of the golden rectangle. The overall ground plan design of Chartresis a Latin Cross, symbolizing Light of the Cross, where Spirit and Matter come together.

Sound has been applied in architectural design in recent years in our projects. Designproperly, it helps in healing all those disease in which stress plays a role. The first project Ihave taken this acoustics design approach to building projects was The Jireh Concert Hall(Figure 3b) and The Chapel (Figure 4) at the International Christian Quality Music School(ICQM) in Hong Kong (completed in 2004). I have subsequently designed many architecturalacoustics projects using the Golden Mean proportions.

Figure 3 - Golden Mean Spaces a). Interior of Chartres Cathedral, France (c.1193-1250);

b)The Jireh Concert Hall, ICQM, Hong Kong (Allied Acoustics, c. 2000-2004).

a) b)

Figure 4 - The Chapel, ICQM, Hong Kong (AlliedAcoustics, c. 2000-2004)

4. Stressors Cause Stress

The concept of stress in biology and medicine wasfirst conceived in the 1930s. Not only does anorganism respond to a stressor or health-challenging stimulus with a specific response that

is appropriate; it also produces a nonspecific response. For example, if the body temperature is toohigh, perspiration is the specific response that serves to cool the body through evaporation, and there



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are also a host of nonspecific responses which is the stress response. For example, in humans, thestress response includes the typical fight-or-flight response in which adrenalin is released and acascade of biochemical and physiological events occur. These lead to an increased heart rate,increased blood pressure, reduced immune function, and many other changes at various systemiclevels.

This nonspecific response to a stressor is the stress response. Stressors may impact one ormore levels of biological organization. There are a host of appropriate biological responses to

stressors that enable organisms to counteract them, adapt, and survive. Humans face innumerablestressors each day. There are mental and emotional as well as physical stressors that provoke thestress response. Physical stressors include all physical challenges to our health and well being, suchas temperature extremes, poor nutrition or hydration, extreme physical exertion, lack of restful sleep,toxic substances, air and water pollution, and other forms of pollution such as electromagnetic fields(EMF). Most of us are exposed to multiple stressors on a daily basis, both transient and constantforms. All of these stressors disturb homeostasis, the tendency of the body to maintain a dynamicequilibrium of functional balance. Researchers in music and body such as 5Beverly Rubik, 6EricClarke, 7James Kennaway, 8Youn Kim, etc. has bring musicology and the psychology together,linked sound to sickness, from the nervous over-stimulation physical damage to the analogy ofconnecting psychology and cultural history.

5. How Does Sound Work in Healing

Living systems are engaged in constant conversation or signaling with theirconstituents and the environment, constantly exchanging information. This can be physicallydemonstrated in Sympathetic Resonance - with two identical tuning forks are mounted onwooden resonance boxes. One of the tuning forks is excited and immediately dampened. Thesecond tuning fork will resonate in sympathy with the first.

Sound, either in direct transmission or reflection, can heal a person by causing changesin brainwave activity and by altering a persons heart and breathing rates. Sound can berecreated to offer relief from a distressing encounter and particular sound frequencies candissolve mental blocks. Sound is vibration and it travels through water 5 times faster thru air,and since humans are almost 80 percent water, we feel vibrations easily. Certain soundvibrations enhance cell function, balance the meridians, and others cause disruption in theharmonic field of the body which can lead to illness.

6. What is a Typical Acoustical Resonance Building Look Like

Embodied and embedded, the acoustical resonance building complex design wouldfollow the natural law of music as a prosthesis of the self. Therefore, the building complexwould follow the flow of the Fibonacci series and the Lambdoma Grid. It is necessary tounderstand that our body as obstacle and as facilitator, that the body/space as conceptualmetaphor or psyche. The design would taken up embodiment, entrainment and socialityseriously. I have identified examples (Figure 5) of this approach in some existing buildingdesigns.

Figure 5 -Resonance BasedBuildingsFar left: a). TokyoMidtown by SOMLeft b). NationalM u s e u m o f African AmericanH i s t o r y a n dCulture by Fosterand Partners



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7. Harmonic Town Planning Design Approach

We have witnessed the results of the mediocre town planners in may cities around theworld, which have adopted the levels of sun light, ventilation, transportation, ridge line andsight lines as key town planning parameters. In our evolution in town planning, like meridiansin our body, Axi-A Tonal Lines (Axiatonal Lines or Axiom Lines) should be the key points to

be identif ied in the design process where rotating single-axis "flash-line sequence"transmission lines form the embodied cross over and through each other to form PrimaryHorizontal and Vertical Flow Lines in the area. The acoustical Tonal Lines create the web-workof energy by which the frequencies of the core geometrical grid. Each Tonal Lines correspondsto a Dimension, local harmonic template, transportation hubs, activity centres and dimensionallevel of zones, and carries the the primary wave-length of the corresponding Dimension.Dimensions are fixed groupings of activity or energy centers (zones) within a specific,geometrically arranged form, build upon existing units, of certain acoustical pattern orManifestation Template. Figure 6 show the photomontage of Mongkok Lambdoma Midtown.

Figure 6 - The Mongkok Lambdoma Midtown

8. Conclusion

In consideration of stress related illnesseswithin our societies, natural continuum ofacoustical design techniques which can beapplied to create healthy communities in newtowns and building planning is presented.Based on ancient and existing knowledge ofsound and human body, the concept isextended to many of our design projects.

AcknowledgmentsInternational Christian Quality Music School - Designed by Hsin Yieh Architects and AlliedAcoustics, Allied Environmental Consultants, Hong Kong

Tokyo Midtown - Designed by SOM, USANational Museum of African American History and Culture - Designed by Foster and Partners,England.

References and links11Traveling the Sacred Sound Current, Deborah Van Dyke (2001, Sound Current Audio CDASIN: B00005NVWC)2 Cymatics Experiment in the Great Pyramid, John Stuart Reid, Vera Gadman (2011); SonicAge Ltd. http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/egyptology.html3"Geomusic The Forbidden Archeology of James Paul Furia" (2005, UFOTV Item #K534 DVDUPC 7 09629 90534 4)4 The Medicine of Ancient Greece. From the notes of Francesca Spina (2011) Universit degliStudi di Cagliari FACOLT DI MEDICINA E CHIRURGIA http://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson1.htm5 Sympathetic Resonance Technology:Scientific Foundation and Summary ofBiologic and Clinical Studies, Beverly Rubik, Journal of Alternative and ComplementaryMedicine Dec 2002, Vol. 8, No. 6: 823-8566 Disentangling Musical Embodiment, Eric Clarke (University of Oxford), Music and the Body2012 Conference, March; Hong Kong.7 Bad Vibrations: Contemporary Disclosures on Music as a Threat to Health. James Kennaway(Durham University), Music and the Body 2012 Conference, March; Hong Kong.8 Force, Afterimages, and the Ears: Changing Notions of Music Listening in Late 19th-centuryThoughts. Youn Kim (University of Hong Kong), Music and the Body 2012 Conference,March; Hong Kong.

http://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson1.htmhttp://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson1.htmmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson1.htmhttp://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson1.htmhttp://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson1.htmhttp://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson1.htm

The Acoustics Approach to New Towns and Buildings Planning

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