Involuntary Soundings

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BACKGROUND: 'Involuntary Soundings' was an experimental project by Boyarsky Murphy Architects (the studio practice of Nicholas Boyarsky). While renovating a London terrace house, the architects removed much of the floor space of the upper levels, and formed a three storey void space in which a splayed cantilevered staircase in a single flight was created. Each tread was formed from an oak tray that sat on two rectangular steel sections that were welded to a steel plate that was in turn welded to a web of larger steel members that were fixed to the brick party wall. The unintended consequence of this was the creation of an extraordinary instrument that transmitted sounds through the party wall and along the terrace whenever anyone walked up or down the stairs. It became a huge acoustic resonator, or tuning fork, to probe and tune the terrace houses so that conversations could take place at perfect pitch between them. CONTRIBUTION: This project demonstrates Boyarsky's expanded practice of architecture, and the concept of 'fitting' which provides a framework to intervene in an existing building with design methodologies that are flexible and semi-automatic. The project extends Boyarsky's ongoing research and practice into the tactics of play in architecture, including role playing and risk taking, the breaking of the rules and conventions of design, and the value of ambiguity and the uncanny. SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of this work is evidenced by its inclusion in the Sounding Architecture exhibition which featured installations and performances of architecture and music by invited practitioners. Curated by Thomas Tsang, the exhibition was part of the Main Exhibition at the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (UABB), co-organised by the two neighbouring cities of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Over a 3-month period, the Biennale received more than 550,000 visitors, with over 300,000 visitors at the Main Exhibition.