Acoustics in Sacred Buildings

Abstract

The sound of a sacred space is a fundamental acoustic experience of people in a society. Accordingly, cultural conventions play a major role in how this is perceived. To the present day in the Christian Oc- cident, churches are widely expected to exhibit a particularly good reverberating sound. Many sacred spaces are crowned by a dome, which symbolises the heavens and the house of God not just visually but also acoustically. In synagogues and in mosques, the need to hear the sermon or prayers clearly has always been and still is of greater importance. However, these spaces -with the holy shrine, the aron ha-kodesh, positioned against the wall that faces Jerusalem or the mihrab, the deep niche for the imam in the qibla wall that faces Mecca - also have a certain numinous quality. The general expecta- tion is that a sacred space will conform to acoustic tradition. One reason for this may be that in the clamour and commotion of the world around us, aural perception has become ever more sidelined to the subconscious. Paradoxically, this makes the architectonic creation of acoustic environments more difficult. However, the greater freedom of formal expression and material design afforded by modern construction has also made new and impressive solutions possible in the field of acoustics.