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Medal Winner 2011
SOM Foundation UK Award

An Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism

Part 1 Project 2011
Basmah Kaki
 Architectural Association London | UK
An Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism

This project speculates on sound energy and ambient space within the extreme setting of an active granite quarry. Located on the outskirts of the high-tech city Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, the mine employees a migrating cast – among them women and children – whose hearing is progressively damaged by the noise pollution endemic to their working conditions. An Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism creates a long-term strategy where sound and religious spaces offer relief, treatment and hope for the community of workers.
Inspired by local religious traditions, the design is built around an existing sacred temple located within a thin, excavated area of the quarry. Largely placed inside the rock face, to protect against the mine’s constant hammering sounds and blast vibrations, this temple offers an entry point that then channels into a retreat space situated 30m above the quarry’s floor, high enough to escape the destructive noises and yet embedded enough to listen to the sounds generated by a layered adaptive skin mechanism attached to the cliff rock. This skin responds to a range of complex, and often competing, physical and environmental conditions.
The design was structured, firstly, around several prototypes, built to investigate Aeolian wind-belt harp concepts, and the conversion of kinetic energy into electrical and sound energy. Secondly, topographic models helped to analyse wind and natural updraft on steep surfaces and control the air/sound flow within the building. Following a series of environmental studies, it was decided to position wind catchers in order to amplify the prevailing wind, redirecting the updraft to play the building’s instrumental spaces.
Operating as a sensorial extension of the existing temple, the building engages its users in educational programmes via lyrical mechanisms, tuning tools and sonic workshops. Crafted with the detail typically afforded to the manufacture of musical instruments, its internal spaces sit in contrast to its rough external setting. Like an Aeolian harp, the building is played by the wind, acoustically transforming the abrasive sounds of quarrying.
Part documentary, part speculation, the project reflects on sites and people lost in the rush of technological progress, but at the same time celebrating the cultivation of hope through acoustic lyrical mechanisms.


Basmah Kaki
Tutor(s)
2011
An Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism - Located at the highest point of the quarry (30 meters). High enough to escape the destructive noise, yet able to use the strength of the wind’s updraft.
The Sadahalli Quarry - Site plan showing workers village and pathway leading to the building. Elevation and detail plans of the retreat space.
Site Study – Bangalore lies in the Southeast of the South Indian state of Karnataka. It is in the heart of the Mysore Plateau situated at a height of 949 meters (3113ft).
Axonometric Drawing – Final 3d section showing circulation and public / private zoning.
Final Section – From top to bottom, refuge, communal sacred space, private sacred space, educational tuning spaces. In the middle a night-school for the children working on site, it is a metaphor on the child labour cycle.
Building and Landscape – Building plans showing the different spaces orchestrated by the flow of energy and sound generated by the natural wind updraft.
Acoustic Prototype - A series of prototypes that convert wind energy into electrical and sound energy.
Aeolian Wind Harp - Mechanical studies of the wind belt by Shawn Frayne and how it can generate not only energy but also a byproduct of an acoustic symphony played by the wind.
The String Instrument – A technical innovation, adapting the formations of musical instruments and how these characteristics are applied into the architecture.
Sound across the building – the relationship between programmatic spaces and lyrical mechanisms.
An adaptive skin - This skin responds to a range of complex, and often competing, physical and environmental conditions.
Render Details of technical parts
Render Section sowing the sacred spaces in relation to the retreat
Entrance to the building at a high point looking down at the quarried landscape
Section Updraft – Initial drawing , showing the various façade layers that reject the noise, control the wind flow and generate sounds throughout the building
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