Serial and persistent prototyping addressing architectural acoustics

Many contemporary architectural contexts require acoustic clarity or acoustic attenuation to support different social and private activities within the same open interior space. Can architectural surface geometry and materiality be tuned creatively to exploit sound scattering as the principal instrument to achieve this? We use digital modelling and simulation combined with full-scale architectural prototyping to explore this question. This has led to a novel form of meeting enclosure as the first prototype, now in-use and undergoing evaluation. Observations from the design and analysis process, fabrication and construction experience, and the on-going performance evaluation have led to conclusions about the role of proto typing and how it can provide feedback to address both the acoustic performance issues and the real-world demand for the production of similar but unique architectural solutions. With an emphasis on the relationship between material, form, and fabrication, this research tests the theoretical concept of persistent modelling to suggest design work:flows that incorporate modelling, simulation, and prototyping that can potentially lead to a higher degree of acoustic performance.