Successfully persuading architects’ form to follow acoustical function

Architect Louis Sullivan’s mantra, Form follows function, is no better embedded in any subdiscipline of architecture than that of building acoustics, and this is especially true in the realm of performing arts. This paper describes several examples of performing arts spaces in which MCH involved architects, often rather directly, into acoustical design. These studies were characterized, not by computer-centric tools, but rather were often most effectively and intuitively realized through simple light models that informed optimal room shaping real-time, hand-on exercises with our clients. Some solutions, especially appreciated by architects, successfully invoked indigenous or traditional forms that lent themselves beautifully to excellent speech intelligibility, musical clarity, and envelopment. This paper will discuss projects with acoustically-effective forms drawn from Native American kivas and Taoism, to Moorish tessellated patterns, to geographic forms such as southwest canyons and quarries, and more—...