ScottWhitbyStudio began the exercise by consulting with musicians and others with a particular interest in the sound quality of spaces, explaining presented Alex Scott-Whitby and Cherng-Min Teong. The team went on to look again at some of the practice’s own projects, considering the ways in which approaches to sound differed.

Ensuring that the sound of waves and seagulls aren’t precluded from the Jubilee Pool in Penzance, currently under refurbishment, was paramount, they suggested. The project, which incorporates a new geothermally-powered spa with 410-metre-deep boreholes, is due to open in the coming year. In contrast, sound was to be fully excluded from a ‘caution cinema’ set within a shipping container and intended for safety briefings in the docks. Lined fully in acoustic absorption comprising 1200 sound-deadening cones, the container evokes anechoic chambers and early BBC recording studios. The material acts also as insulation, keeping the cinema warm in winter and cool in summer and, according to Scott-Whitby, creates a silent environment that has proven very effective at aiding concentration. In opening up Westminster Chapel for more than just Sundays, the studio’s main concern is to avoid disrupting the existing, well-regarded acoustics, so new interventions are being designed accordingly.

The team produced a section drawing of the Penzance pool with embedded sound clips, illustrating the range of noises that the designers wished either to exclude or to amplify to enhance the ambience.

A project to reorder the public spaces around St Paul’s cathedral in London, where the intention is to reduce trafficked streets by 80 per cent, suggested an approach to visualising acoustics shown in the last part of the presentation. The team documented the unfolding sounds experienced during two urban walks – onw from its Soho office, and the other along Oxford Street – simultaneously recording the experience at adult- and child-height.

The two perspectives were shown in split screen, with stereo sound showing subtle differences between the auditory experience at different heights. At the child’s height, for example, the rustle of shoppers’ plastic bags was evident, while at adult head height the sound of conversation was more apparent. The contrast was a striking reminder that differences in the acoustic environment exist even where we think they may not.

Panellist Robin Snell picked up on Scott-Whitby’s observation that intrusive or unexpected sounds are not always negative, suggesting that, within auditoria, the sound of your own footsteps, opening a sound-proof door or even holding a handrail can form part of the auditory experience.