Haven Henningsen

U-Sample

Sound - both rhythmic and raw - is one of the most outward expressions of identity. In a crowd, it can bring you closer to others; conversely, it becomes a method of isolation and individuality. Music is an accessory to the core elements that make us who we are, affecting how we perceive ourselves within culture and reflecting this perception onto the world.

Enacting the terms and methods of “sampling” commonly found in hip-hop and techno music, remixes of standardized wall assemblies are generated as methods of orchestrating and recording one's existence. Through their manipulation, relationships between parts and the standards of architectural assembly are challenged and simultaneously, clarified.

Gate, crush, shift, reverse… these are just a handful of the operations that bring new life into samples in music, and in the case of this project, space. Once enacted, the sample attaches itself to contemporary sound and thus becomes part of its culture - the function of remix adheres two seemingly distant noises, emphasizing and recontextualizing its parts to configure itself as a contemporary “whole”. 

Walls serve as the foundation for representing oneself through sound, allowing their arrangement to influence our comprehension of the elements that comprise architectural form and our interaction with those forms, as both designers and activators of space. 

The limitations of templates and standards found in both the construction of sound and the orchestration of space are broken - the arrangements configured using the presented “wall types” set the stage for further improvisation.

In architecture and music, there is an element of desire for structure, for consistency, and for cohesion. This project emphasizes sampling - a method of sonic deconstruction that steps away from the calculated, conditional practice of music theory -  as the breach between standardization and formal expression.