Generation of Architectural Designs Using Soundscapes: First Findings Josep Llorca 1 , Ernesto Redondo 1 , Jesús Alba 2 , Héctor Mendoza 1 1 Arquitectura, Representació i Modelatge, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Avinguda Diagonal 649, 08028 Barcelona, Spain, E-Mail: josep.llorca@upc.edu, ernesto.redondo@upc.edu, hector.mendoza@upc.edu 2 Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Centro de Tecnologías Físicas, Escola Politècnica Superior Gandia, Valencia, 46715, Spain, E-Mail: jesalba@fis.upv.es Abstract Architectural design process contains a crucial stage called "insight", in which the vital creative phase of the design process begins. Additionally, “design fixation”, or simply designing from external stimuli, has been one of the most common methods to approach this phase. Sound as external stimuli for designing, has been used in many historical cases. However, it has never been considered as a design engine for inhabited interior environments. For this reason, some experiments were taken in our School of Architecture designing from a soundscape. This paper will present the first findings of this approach as well as defining the following steps towards a comprehensive study of this phenomena. A first exposition of the background idea in the framework of architectural acoustics representation will be presented. Secondly, the demonstration of the wide range of design possibilities of this method will be shown. Finally, it is going to be exposed the description of the future study. Introduction After the description of the problem, and its analysis by means of a detailed programme, the architectural design process enters upon a phase whose evocative technical description is “incubation” o “insight”. As Gilbert Herbert said in 1965, here begins the vital creative phase of the design process, with inspiration, illumination, insight.[1] Many classical authors have written about this process and even today it is one of the main concerns of the architectural design process. In our research we try to present a different approach to this key point. An important debate in the architectural design process is the use of external sources of inspiration to stimulate the generation of ideas, known as "design fixation”.[2] These external stimuli are introduced early in the design process and help designers produce new ideas that would otherwise be unlikely to emerge. Some studies highlight the benefits of using this method: the ideas generated are newer and of better quality.However, the negative effects of this have also been discussed, highlighting the reduction in the variety of ideas generated. In our research we decided to use "design fixation" to obtain better quality results knowing that the variety of these is restricted. Sound can be one of those architectural ideas generator. We can find some examples in the history of architecture where sound was the generator of architectural ideas. Iannis Xenakis designed the main façade of La Tourette monastery using stochastic methods in a similar way that he used them in his orchestra compositions. Renzo Piano designed the architectural scenario of Luigi Nono musical piece with the acoustic and spatial requirements of it. Stockhaussen and Fritz Bornemann designed a place where spatiality of music was the main topic. Furthermore, some researches have been done regarding the close relations between composers and architects. In recent years, the influence of acoustics on architecture students has been studied. Sheridan and Van Lengen [3] studied a educative study in which the students experienced the acoustic properties of different spaces in order to make an architectural design proposal. Michael Fowler teaches architectural students about the importance of sound in cities and encourages them to make urban design proposals to generate particular acoustic conditions. [4] Previous studies have been developed using sound for architectural students: implementation of VR environments for acoustic education [5], acoustic studies of outdoor designs [6] and new Audio Virtual Reality format for immersive experience [7]. Method A design fixation model was used. As we have explained before, this model consists of showing the student several completed works that have similar requirements to those requested to the student in the exercise. It was considered to use a design fixation model to obtain less diverse results but with more quality and novelty. [8] The exercise consisted in four phases. In the first phase, which corresponds to design fixation, the professor explains what the activity will consist of. The professor reproduces a sequence of domestic sounds that were recorded and assembled with the intention of describing a spatial sequence. In the second phase, a pre-test questionnaire is distributed to the students and the results are collected. This questionnaire asks the student about the evaluation of the phenomenological elements of architecture corresponding to the senses most valued in western culture (colour-light, sound and texture). Next, the questionnaire asks about the evaluation of the "drawing the soundscape" method, previously explained by the teacher in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, comfort, imagination and materialization. The results are then collected. In the third phase, the teacher reproduces a second sequence of domestic sounds other than the first. Next, ask students to draw the architectural space they imagine from that sequence. All students must draw by hand with free technique, in military perspective and on an A3 din. At the end of the session, the exercises are collected. DAGA 2018 München 1046