What kind of architecture does sound tell about? The Sound Map of Bialystok, a project being developed at the Bialystok University of Technology, allows you to hear the city and rediscover it. The result of an interdisciplinary, long-term project is now available on the website https://dzwiekowamapabialegostoku.pb.edu.pl/
The portal makes it possible to get acquainted with the sounds of the city - from the sounds of everyday life to archival recordings related to important places in Bialystok.
Hear the city and get to know its history better
The idea to develop a map containing acoustic information related to Bialystok's audiosphere was born during the preparation of the engineering thesis ofKlaudiaBagińska, currently employed at Wydział Architektury Politechniki Białostockiej. The thesis, titled "Zone of Silence" and carried out under the supervision of Professor Agnieszka Duniewicz, was devoted to the topic of sound and silence in architecture.
In 2021, the promoter and a master's student jointly began efforts to create a Sound Map of Bialystok, completing a team consisting of architects, computer scientists and a graphic designer.From the beginning, the goal of the project was to create a sound-sensitive multimedia map to present and record the phonic identity of selected spaces of Bialystok, both past and present.
Currently, 90 markers have already been created, which are graphic representations of architectural objects, city squares or cultural events. Their author is graphic designer Kamila Borys. The descriptions for each point, consulted with specialists related to the city's history, were created by Klaudia Baginska. The points on the Map are supplemented with archival photos - thanks to the cooperation with the Historical Museum Branch of the Podlaskie Museum.
The content of the Map was further enriched when, during the course of the research, the team began cooperating with Polish Radio Białystok. This provided access to rich audio archives - including reports and historical broadcasts. It is from there that the sounds possible to listen to on the site, such as the sound of a tsarist train entering the railway station, originated.
how does architecture affect sound and sound affect architecture?
As the co-author of the concept points out, sounds play an important but underestimated role in architecture and urban planning. When designing urban spaces, an analysis of the sound situation can make it possible to create a quality space - one that promotes the comfort of residents' lives, instead of negatively affecting their health.
Above all, sounds are also a carrier of memories - they are able to remind residents of more than just images. This is evidenced by user comments, which can be left and read in the "Leave a message" tab.
Everyone puts sounds through the lens of their own experiences - differently a resident who surrounds himself with the sounds of Bialystok on a daily basis, someone who has emigrated, and a tourist
- says Baginska.
acoustic ecology in the city
Projects such as the Sound Map of Bialystok draw attention to the problem of noise pollution in urban spaces. The Map is also part of scholarly work devoted to the subject of acoustic ecology - a stream of research initiated by Murray Schafer, a Canadian musicologist and composer, in the 1970s, who pointed out that the sounds of technology were encroaching so heavily on primary soundscapes that they should also be archived - which is what the Map does.
Listening to recordings from different areas of the city, one can see how in some locations car traffic dominates other sounds, creating a lo-fi landscape (one in which background noise is audible and individual sound signals are difficult to pinpoint). One such place on the map of Bialystok is Central Park, located next to the Roundabout of the Independent Students' Union, where the noise, caused by passing cars, is constantly accompanied by the sound of footsteps on the path or the rustle of tree leaves.
Qualitative sound influences us to live better
- notes Baginskaya.
The co-author of the project also points out how many people now cut themselves off from the sounds of the city with their own headphones. However, this is due not to indifference, but to the poor quality of the sound environment. The architect then correlates this phenomenon with users' stress levels.
listen with an open head
The team of Slawomir Zielinski, Ph.D., along with doctoral student Pawel Antoniuk and student Karol Wojcik, is specialized in acquiring new sounds, which are posted on the Map website . They use equipment in the shape of a human head, which is capable of recording sounds in a manner similar to how the human hearing system perceives them. The collected sounds are then subjected to analysis, performed using artificial intelligence algorithms, which is part of machine learning research.
The map operates in the form of a website thanks to cooperation with the Bialystok University of Technology's Department of Computer Science, whose students Szymon Borys, Juliusz Zagdanski and Michal Płatosz, under the supervision of Prof. Ireneusz Mrozek, are responsible for developing the portal's interface. The backend application, which allows data entry and embedding of multimedia and graphics, is the result of the thesis of computer science student Mateusz Bialowąs.
Although sounds surround us like air, they still remain overlooked in urban design. Initiatives such as the Sound Map of Bialystok allow us to cast new eyes - and literally: hear anew - on the architecture that surrounds us.
