A
A(t)tuned space
Navn
Emilie Lindeskov Agertoft
Uddannelsesgrad
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Arkitektur
Institut
Arkitektur og Rum
Program
Spatial Design - Architecture, Design and Interiors
År
2025
About the project
The project aims to explore how acoustic and spatial design can help create spaces that embrace a diverse way of sensing and perceiving the world. By redesigning an existing youth club to better accommodate blind and visually impaired children, the aim is to expand how sensory-inclusive design can enrich architecture for all users.
In a field dominated by visual cues, the sense of hearing is often overlooked. Yet sound plays a vital role in how we perceive space, context and presence. Drawing on R. Murray Schafer’s critique of reductive approaches to acoustics, the project instead focuses on the qualities of sound we might want to preserve, encourage, or amplify - like “removing the earplugs” and relearn how to listen.
By reducing reliance on vision, the design supports greater independence for blind and visually impaired children, while making acoustic experiences more legible and engaging for everyone. Rather than treating sound as a problem to eliminate, it becomes a tool for spatial connection—creating opportunities for orientation, interaction, and inclusion. The project is ultimately about meeting halfway: letting sound act as a shared foundation for understanding and navigating space.
Research questions
Research questions
- How might spatial design, from a perspective of experienced sound, create spaces that enhance encounters between blind, visually impaired, and sighted children?
- By focusing on the experience of sound, how can rethinking the physical framework empower blind and visually impaired children, making them less dependent on their sighted peers in order to participate in community life?
Developed as part of the theoretical standpoint of the project’s program and as research alongside the design was three booklets. A collection of gained knowledge on theories of sound and space, acoustic design and visual impairment, they served as reference works throughout the project.
Research booklet - Sound and Space
Research booklet - Acoustic Design
Research booklet - Spatial Accessibility Parameters
Spatial strategy
Visual impairments vary greatly, and what works well for one person may not be ideal for another. Vision exists on a spectrum. However, when working with accessibility for blind and visually impaired individuals, there are several spatial parameters that can and should be considered. As the project puts focus on sound as an acoustic experience that support spatial orientation, the main focal point has been on inclusive design strategies that use sound to support orientation and wayfinding. Easier orientation reduces cognitive load, allowing energy for social engagement and community participation.
Based on inclusive design strategies that use sound to support orientation and wayfinding, three main spatial strategies have been deployed:
Spatial strategy - organisation, zones and connections
1_SPATIAL ORGANISATION
Mapping
Sound sources and their relations pertain with spatial organisation. With the intention of amplifying the present sonic identities to help enhance navigation and spatial orientation, I used soundmapping as a method for analyzing the existing soundscape—looking at whether there were already present acoustic qualities that could be amplified, and whether certain rooms or activities, based on their sonic identity, might benefit from being rearranged to make ceratin zones stand out more clearly.
Soundmapping - experienced soundlevels in relation to spatial organisation and activities
Soundmapping - existing exterior conditions
Existing situation plan 1.100 - Mapping activities and flow of people
Diagram - future spatial organisation and room tones
Future plan, 1:50 - Spatial organisation and room tone
2_ZONES
Maintaining the possibility to move fluidly between participation and retreat, zones help spatial navigation and offer different spatial conditions depending on the child’s needs in the moment.
Acoustic characteristics
Elements of room tone, sound shadow and ceiling geometry support zones and a sense of acoustic transition. A spatial sequence throughout the club emphasizes the experience of moving between spaces, supporting a feeling of expansion and compression as you move through the building.
Future imagined sound experience 1:50. Part of the project has been exploring how to depict sound visually
Section 1:50 - Ceilings support and underline transitions between zones and experienced soundvolume
Material characteristics
Material leadlines and navigation 1:50 - entrance, hallway and commonroom
3_CONNECTIONS
Diagram of future conditions 1:50 - connections via. sound
Entrance
Hallway
Soundwindow
Det Kongelige Akademi understøtter FN’s verdensmål
Siden 2017 har Det Kongelige Akademi arbejdet med FN’s verdensmål. Det afspejler sig i forskning, undervisning og afgangsprojekter. Dette projekt har forholdt sig til følgende FN-mål
