#acoustics

#acoustics

Traditional wooden cellos and violins are exquisite but fragile. They crack in dry weather, warp in humidity, and require constant environmental monitoring. A professional instrument can cost tens of thousands of dollars, yet one bad flight or unexpected temperature change can cause irreversible damage. This vulnerability has long kept quality instruments out of reach for traveling musicians, students in varied climates, and performers who need reliability above all else.

As a child, Miquel Lopez Garcia was fascinated by the conch shell, kept in the bathroom, that his father's family in the southern Spanish region of Almeria had blown to warn their fellow villagers of rising rivers and approaching flood waters. The hours he spent getting that characteristically potent sound out of it paid off last year when the archaeologist, musicologist and professional trumpet player pressed his lips to eight conch-shell trumpets.

So in a lot of country music, you might describe the singer's voice as bright or brassy or sharp. But I bet the word you really want to use is twangy. TZU-PEI TSAI: Twangy voice, it refers to a bright timbre that sounds like a children's taunting - nya na nya na nya na nya - or a witch's cackling (cackling).

The design by Heatherwick Studio and MANICA Architecture orients the stadium in Birmingham around twelve chimney-like towers that rise from the ground plane and support the roof. Heatherwick Studio draws from Birmingham's history of brickmaking, using reclaimed bricks where possible to give these structural elements a layered, tactile presence. Their scale defines the outer form while shaping light, airflow, and movement inside the building.

COR Architecture + Design has finalized the Sax Music Hall in Sax, , completing a long-stalled cultural complex. Construction of a cultural complex began in 2008, intended to include a , an auditorium, chamber music rooms, a music school, and a conference hall across more than 3,000 sqm and four levels. Work was halted during the economic crisis, leaving the structure enclosed but unfinished. Limited adaptations allowed occasional use of portions of the building, but the project remained incomplete for nearly two decades.

We obsess over desk ergonomics, monitor arms, and acoustic panels, chasing the elusive ideal of perfect productivity. Yet we routinely install the same hollow-core slab found on a bedroom closet. This is a profound miscalculation. An office door is not a passive barrier; it's a dynamic manager of focus, a guardian of confidentiality, and a silent contributor to your professional presence. Selecting the right one requires moving beyond residential thinking into the realm of intentional, performance-driven design.

Kelso Harper: [Laughs.] Rachel Feltman: [Laughs.] Yeah. Cluett: Pretty loud. Feltman: Yeah, pretty loud [laughs]. Cluett: But in this room there's none of that. So you're gonna hear it as a very sharp sound that just disappears completely. [Pops a balloon inside an anechoic chamber, making a sharp noise that dissipates immediately.] Feltman: Ooh! Cluett: Welcome to the anechoic chamber. Watch your step.

Sound, when emitted by a source - whether a person or a piece of equipment - propagates in all directions through space, being reflected, absorbed, transmitted, or diffracted as it encounters surfaces and objects. As a result, every environment has its own acoustic quality, often difficult to perceive without a trained ear or eyes. But sound shapes architecture in subtle yet profound ways, directly influencing how

"Our mission was aimed at extending the usefulness of the hall without changing it too much. We tried to do as little as we could by fixing as little as we could."

The spaces are an integral part of us," said festival managing director Marsilius von Ingelheim of the setting. "We bring unique concert experiences to historical and modern locations in the region.