One man's noise pollution is another man's symphony.
Citylab profiles the work of composer Tod Machover, who uses the noise of city streets to create fullblown symphonies. He's worked in Toronto, Edinburgh, and Detroit, and will soon complete pieces in Miami and Philadelphia.
In the tradition of musique concrète, each piece is composed of thousands of sounds, often recorded and submitted by residents. Those submissions are then mixed, and sometimes accompanied by a symphony orchestra. The result is an "audio portrait" unique to the city.
Sometimes, it’s about incorporating the sounds that reflect a city’s history. Detroit, for example, was famously dubbed the Motor City for being the heart of America’s auto manufacturing industry. So Machover asked the community to send in recordings of different car engines, which he merged with Motown riffs, in homage to the city’s music scene.
Currently, Machover is partnering with the New World Symphony in Miami. There, he anticipates combining natural sounds from the beach as well as clips of street conversations—"a way of capturing the diasporas within Miami."
Watch a performance of Detroit’s Symphony in D here, or submit your sounds to the Miami project here.
FULL STORY: Turning Street Noise Into a City Symphony
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.