ABSTRACT
Echolocation, also called bio-sonar, is a method of active orientation that uses sound waves to spatially locate matter, and is the innate system used by bats to hunt insects. Discrete sound pulses emitted through the nostrils are controlled in pitch and frequency by the nose-leaf, a muscular flap of skin. A number of moth species have evolved the ability to mimic the bat's sound pulses, producing an aural cloak which confuses their nocturnal predators. The sound waves of the bat and moth are the critical components of a complex and often fatal game. This tension translates architecturally into two distinct surfaces, responsive to the dynamic interplay of chance and predictability. Analytic drawing of a series of overlapping echo chambers dilating instantaneously between sound emissions and environmental echoes become pockets of architectural space. This is the area of the unknown, the anxiety-filled space in which life momentarily hangs in the balance, and the moment at which an emergent architecture is born.
