ABSTRACT
Worship Sound Spaces unites specialists from architecture, acoustic engineering and the social sciences to encourage closer analysis of the sound environments within places of worship. Gathering a wide range of case studies set in Europe, Asia, North America, the Middle East and Africa, the book presents investigations into Muslim, Christian and Hindu spaces. These diverse cultural contexts demonstrate the composite nature of designing and experiencing places of worship. Beginning with a historical overview of the three primary indicators in acoustic design of religious buildings, reverberation, intelligibility and clarity, the second part of this edited collection offers a series of field studies devoted to perception, before moving onto recent examples of restoration of the sound ambiances of former religious buildings. Written for academics and students interested in architecture, cultural heritage, acoustics, sensory studies and sound.
The multimedia documents of this volume may be consulted at the address: https://frama.link/WSS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|47 pages
Sonic architecture
chapter 1|18 pages
Characterizing the acoustics of places of worship
chapter 2|13 pages
Towards a history of architectural acoustics using archaeological evidence
part II|99 pages
Experiencing the sacred through sound
chapter 4|16 pages
The worldmaking ways of church bells
chapter 5|27 pages
What should the reverberation inside a masjid be?
chapter 7|18 pages
Bells, auspiciousness and the god of music
chapter 8|18 pages
Resonant voices and spatial politics
part III|61 pages
Restoring the sound ambiances of the past