COMPOSING A SPACE FOR ELECTRONIC MUSIC

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Throughout architectural history, acoustic spaces have been developed and per fected for instrumental music. Contemporary advances in t echnology have produced music of new electronic forms. Distinct from instrumental music both mechanically and ar tistically, electronic music demands the desig n of its own architectural space: one informed acoustically by the physical composition of electronic sounds, and inspired by the genre’s often-multisensory presentation and rising cultural influence.

While ‘electronic music’ is becoming familiarized by a subset of compositional genr es tha t ar e tr ending in cur rent pop cultur e, elec tronically produced and amplified music is not just a trend, but the artful manipulation of technology that can only c ontinue to exist and develop in the futur e of music. This unique f orm of music deser ves to synthesize a home mar ked of its o wn digital oddity. Rather than being mechanically wrestled into the shell of some historical r ehabilitation, this c ontemporary soundar t deser ves ar chitectural spatialization that conforms appropriately to the shape of it w avelengths. This thesis studied and c omposed a moder n spac e f or c ontemporary elec tronic music sited in downtown San Francisco.

1 Courtesy Dias-Adios, Rui. Untitled, from “New World Center / Frank Gehry,” ArchDaily.com. ArchDaily, 27 Jan 2011. Web. 11 Sep 2012. 2 Courtesy Wouter Hagens, Untitled, from “AD Classics: Expo ’58 + Philips Pavilion / Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenaxis,” ArchDaily.com. ArchDaily, 25 Aug 2011. Web. 9 Dec 2012.3 Greenberg, Kate. Untitled. 2012.4 Ibid.

Bandur, Markus, Aesthetics of Total Serialism: Contemporary Research from Music to Architecture. Boston: Birkhauser, 2001.

Charles M. Salter Associates, Acoustics: Architecture, Engineering, The Environment. San Francisco: William Stout Publishers, 1998.

Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. “The World’s Highest-Paid DJs,” Forbes.com, Forbes, 2 Aug 2012. Web. 11 Sept 2012.

Hagens, Wouter. “AD Classics: Expo ’58 + Philips Pavilion / Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenaxis,” ArchDaily.com. ArchDaily, 25 Aug 2011. Web. 9 Dec 2012.

Minner , Kelly. “New World Center / Frank Gehry,” ArchDaily.com. ArchDaily, 27 Jan 2011. Web. 11 Sep 2012.“Ruby Skype,” rubyskye.com, Worldzoo, n.d. Web. 25 Oct 2012.

MARK ANDERSON, GARY BLACK, LISA IWAMOTO

COMPOSING A SPACE FOR ELECTRONIC MUSIC KATHRYN GREENBERG

SELECTED PRECEDENTS

(Top) Gehry Partner’s New World Center1

(Below) Xenakis/Corbusier’s Philips Pavilion2

THE STAGE IN A CAN: SUSTAINABLE DANCECLUB

SPATIAL SUBSTITUTES:LEDS, PROJECTION, FOG, & FABRIC

THE PLINTH STAGE:

DICHOTOMY ENCOURAGESARTIST WORSHIIP & FORTIFIES THE FOURTH WALL

STAGE

AUDIENCE

WATERUC BERKELEY MASTERS OF ARCHTECTURE THESIS 2013

Spatial substitutes: tents, fabric, fog, and LED3

DJ worship and the stage as a plinth4

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To pr oduce an ac oustic definition of electronic music , bey ond simple genre categorization, a comparison study of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Wolfgang Gartner’s electronic remix was performed.

Waveform (top), frequency (second to top), waterfall diagrams (second to bottom), cymatic (bottom).

SAN FRANCISCO VENUE STUDIES Motion and dBApk studies of 1015 Folsom St

Study of a typical electronic music dance floor program (below)

Motion and dBApk studies of Ruby Skye

WATERUC BERKELEY MASTERS OF ARCHTECTURE THESIS 2013

While the basic pr ogram elemen ts list ed ar e der ived from spac es cur rently used f or the pr esentation of popular music , these elemen ts will be en visioned and reorganized as appropriate for the acoustical and cultural characteristics inherent in electronic music.

The M ission Ba y C reek has been selec ted f or the loca tion of this new per formance spac e. The sit e straddles the water border of the San Francisco Bay and the urban arts and music niche recently forming in the northeastern part of the city. This allows the venue to take advantage of water’s natural sound insulation, and to present itself as an integral part of the San Francisco civic gateway.

The water of the site will be drawn into the building to be activated by sound in cymatic visual reactions beneath the main dance space, causing the creek beyond to become a secondary canvas for electronic music performance a t the ur ban scale . The sur face of the sit e will r eflect the visual undula tions of the building ’s glowing facade, and r ipple in r eaction to an under water subwoofer resonance chamber. M ission Creek will be activated by this space for electronic music, and transformed into a visual diffraction of the concert within.

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WATERUC BERKELEY MASTERS OF ARCHTECTURE THESIS 2013

The headphones of elec tronic performers allows for their centralization in a non-reverberant spac e, while a r adial plan provides an all inclusive experience as the traditional stage lightshow expands to the walls surrounding the dance space.

The dist ortion of the r adial surface cr eates ar eas of lo wer sound pressure f or audienc e dec ompression and conversation, while the positioning of auxiliar y pr ogram or bital t o the r adial plan allows for the layering of acoustically absorptive w alls, effectively tur ning the venue in to a bass tr ap lar ge enough t o handle the br oad lo w-end sounds which define electronic music.

PROGRAM ‘REMIX’

This space for electronic music per formance will take a r adial form, with the performer and their music at the focal point. CO

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FLEXURAL ABSORPTION PANEL SYSTEM

WATERUC BERKELEY MASTERS OF ARCHTECTURE THESIS 2013

WATERUC BERKELEY MASTERS OF ARCHTECTURE THESIS 2013