Abstract: Spaces are often designed with the purpose of amplifying or diminishing sound. Is there evidence of this kind of architecture in our campus study spaces? Aside from Union, most study spaces place an emphasis on remaining quiet to allow for maximum productivity. It would be useful for the campus to invest in architecture to help achieve these goals. I don\u2019t believe that people who open themselves to auditory distractions are being as productive as they possibly could. In this project I study three popular campus study spaces to discern how their architecture plays in to their effectiveness and popularity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his book, The Soundscape: Tuning of the World<\/em>, Raymond Murray Schafer toys heavily with the term \u201cnoise pollution\u201d. He believes that rather than seeking to just minimize noise pollution, we should study it and learn from it\u2014eventually with the goal of more effectively eradicating it. As college students we often lack the time to study our soundscapes and instead need to minimize noise pollution so we can learn what we need to for classes. Innovative sound experimentalist and member of the Talking Heads, David Byrne, has a TED talk where he explains to viewers how historically people have made music to fit the spaces they\u2019re in. Likewise, spaces are often constructed for certain types of music or with sonic goals in mind. By studying the architecture of a space, one can gain insight into the levels of sound meant to exist there. I wanted to use the ideas generated by Schafer and Byrne to try to identify the best study spaces on campus and to tell if Davidson College designed its buildings with enough attention to magnify student productivity. While making these decisions I\u2019m operating under the assumption that the best study spaces are the least distracting ones. I believe this so strongly that I rarely study without noise canceling headphones. Therefore, the goal should be quietness. I\u2019ll be observing three such spaces: the second floor of the library, the top floor of the student union, and the base Belk study lounge. I\u2019m keeping the list narrowed to only three and leaving out other popular study spaces like Chambers and Wall so that I can dedicate in-depth analysis to the places I\u2019ve chosen. I plan to explore the three spaces in terms of their general conducive-ness to productivity and in terms of the college\u2019s motivation in planning them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The library is the first place that comes to mind for\nmost people thinking about studying. Ours is interesting in that there are\ndifferent expectations of noise levels for each floor. The basement is\ncompletely silent, but also is dark and smells so it\u2019s not very popular. Actual\nstudying rarely happens on the first floor, it\u2019s a more social place than\nanything else. For that reason, I\u2019ve chosen the second floor to analyze for this\nproject. The second floor\u2019s policy is polite, non-distracting whispering. If\nthe first floor of the library\u2019s open floor plan encourages talking, the tall\nbookcases that take up the majority of space on the second floor do the\nopposite. Still sound drifts up from the floor below and is louder the closer\nyou sit to windowed wall of the library. The voices discernable in the\nrecording attached come entirely from the floor below. However, you\u2019ll notice\nthat they are the only thing heard in the recording. The further back one sits\nfrom the balcony, the quieter they get until they can\u2019t be heard at all. The\nbookcases and carrel walls serve to minimize disruption on the floor. I asked\nmy friend Mary Kaufmann why it is that she prefers to study here. She said,\n\u201cIt\u2019s quiet, but if I make a noise I\u2019m not going to get a dirty look.\u201d So, as\nwell as being relatively silent, the atmosphere on the floor makes her\ncomfortable. To use Schafer terms, I would argue that the second floor of the\nlibrary has no signals, or sounds that are listened to consciously and contain\nmessages. The keynote, or sound that almost unnoticeably establishes the\ncharacter of the soundscape could be the hum of the AC or sound of papers\nrustling and computers typing. The biggest soundmark, or sound that calls\nattention to itself, from my perspective is the voices from the first floor.\nFor that reason, I find them distracting and usually need noise canceling\nheadphones to be really productive at the library. I think it\u2019s clear to most\nthat the library was designed with studying in mind. That being said, it was\nbuilt a long time ago and the renovations made between last semester and this\nsemester prove that even the college admits that it probably isn\u2019t the most\nconducive to concentration that it could be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n