Architectural Expressions of Music: Perceptions of Musically Inspired Architecture

Abstract

We live in a culture that easily privileges the stimulation of the eye more than the ear. When perceiving a matter, it is common to immediately absorb the visual information. However, if the information of the subject approaches with the sense of hearing, the method of how to directly visualize the matter must be examined as much as the sense of sight. Just as many thinkers and architects have noted the relationship between the senses of sight and hearing, music and architecture have an intimate relationship in the same context.

Since music relies on sense of hearing and architecture relies on sense of sight, architecture has the advantage of visualizing music. By applying musical characteristics in architecture, it can produce creative and scientific design method, provide the enjoyable attraction for visitors, and reflect the social and cultural properties of the particular period. The purpose of this research is to examine the experience of musically inspired architecture, and to analyze the correlations between music and architecture with what architectural and musical factors form such experience. In order to achieve this goal, the history and relationship between music and architecture are examined. Then the case studies of musically inspired architecture are analyzed by the use of musical elements. Through the survey questionnaires to the architecture, music, and other majors on experience of music and architectural façades, the keywords on how people perceive music from architecture are extracted and analyzed.

This research will determine the possibility of applying musical properties to architecture and what musical and architectural elements correlate to each other. The results of this study will help providing the ideas of creative design effectively for architects who desire to express the musical qualities through architecture.

Keywords : Music and Architecture, Perception, Architectural Expression