A WALK AROUND MUSIC
PROJECT NARRATIVE

The Sensorium is a translation of The Firebird Suite, by composer Igor Stravinsky, into architectural space.

Through the development of a new architectural notation, which merges technical construction documentation with the expressive language of musical notation, the project reimagines architecture as a score to be read, felt, and inhabited. In this notation, architectural materials extend beyond the physical (texture, scale, light, shadow, and spatial sequencing) to include temporal and expressive devices drawn from music: crescendos and decrescendos as spatial intensities, staccatos as abrupt shifts in rhythm or form, legatos as fluid continuous spatial flows, and fermatas as moments of stillness and pause.

By orchestrating these elements, the work prioritizes meaningful human engagement with the built environment, infusing architecture with the temporal dynamism, emotional resonance, and embodied qualities intrinsic to music.

First Place, Kossman Thesis Competition
Mies Crown Hall Americas Student Finalist
Archiprix Finalist and Participant Favorite
Long Listed for the Tamayouz Excellence Award

1. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2005, p 13. Print.

The Sensorium is an example of the notational coalescence of disciplines.  By unifying our sensory responses with music and time, as well as the participatory haptic qualities of dance and motion, we can enhance sensory density, complexity, and dimensionality of our built world by creating what Edward Tufte, author of Escaping Flatland, refers to as “narratives of space and time.”