Abstract:
The exploration of music, architecture and their relationship to one another is primarily based on the fundamental components of each discipline, that make the composition of both. The components of these disciplines are closely related and somewhat interchangeable. But all are needed to make a whole relating to itself and to one another. The vehicle for the exploration of these ideas will be an Arts Center. The goal will be to take an innovative approach to access the relationship of architecture and music, by being sympathetic to the site, the environment, and culture, trying to create new forms of expression. The stress will be on defining the relationship between architecture and music. This will result in a new approach to design working with a creative language built from the exploration of the fundamentals that make up architecture and music, both graphically and verbally. Spaces to help achieve this will be along the lines of performance, teaching and study. The design should be functional, yet maximize potential richness for education and creativity with a cross fertilization of both disciplines. A tool to help achieve this goal will be a musical composition. This will be used to make the interpretation from music to architecture experiencing their relationship and having a piece of architecture evolve from the musical composition.The creative language, which was developed through research of the components of music and architecture, evolved to a graphic language defining these elements. They were broken down into categories of rhythm, sequence, order, hierarchy, form, proportion, and scale, which are components of music and architecture. They were then compared to one another and combined to come up with a graphic design language which would be used as building blocks and a basic understanding of both disciplines to make a design from a concept piece of music. They were further defined by taking these divisions into space and object form by a means of modeling. After creating a meaningful definition to these topics, a piece of music was choosen and analysized to be used to create a Music Arts Center, utilizing this design approach.After the analysis of the music, a building was designed by using these building blocks as a foundation to work from. Through the use of these components, meaning was developed and derived from every component defined as it related to the music. These were applied to the main structure of the building, the layout, circulation, elevations, form of the building, arrangement of the spaces, selection of the materials and the site design. Every aspect of the building relates to the concept music through the use of the graphic language developed from earlier research.The final product is intended to give the user the feeling that it was designed with thought and meaning from the music. One should feel the elements of the music coming through as the user progresses through the building and perceives it. The user should feel it was designed through the use of the graphic language and music piece. Like a musical composition being created around an idea, then developed through orchestration, and performed by the orchestra. The architecture designed for this thesis should be developed in the same manner. There should be conception of an idea, designed through architectural details, and then the performance which is the construction and perception of the building. The perception of the building could also be the test of whether this approach was successful or not. This was the approach used to arrive at the final product of this thesis.