Esquis’Sons! Sketching architecture by listening

¹ Grenoble School of Architecture Univ. Grenoble Alpes Research unit AAU-CRESSON, France
² Department of Architecture, Univ. of Thessaly, Greece

^* Corresponding author: marchal.t@grenoble.archi.fr

Abstract

The Esquis’Sons! application can be used to envision sound atmospheres and prior to designing spaces. The Esquis’Sons application is a compiled module written in the MAX/MSP musical and visual programming language which generates stereophonic sound tracks in relation to geometric parameters extracted from the CAD software Rhinoceros 3D and its plugin Grasshopper. Rhinoceros and Esquis’Sons communicate and sound is played in real time depending on the listening point chosen by the designer and on the architectural scene created. This paper compiles several training periods during which Esquis’Sons has been used in workshop exercises. It also offers material for an architectural study in the rehabilitation of a district. The paper shows that the Esquis’Sons app is a pedagogical tool for designers of space and brings to light several dimensions that are hidden most of the time in the architectural design process: the distance of creation is discussed through the sound immersion offered by Esquis’Sons app. Scales of the architectural project are jostled by the fuzzy limits of sound phenomena and time brings layers of complexity and sensibility in global design.