Fiona Smyth: Architecture and the history of acoustics.

A is for Architecture

In Episode 135 of A is for Architecture, Assistant Professor in Architectural History and Theory in the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, Dr Fiona Smyth, discusses her book, Pistols in St Paul's: Science, music, and architecture in the twentieth century (Manchester University Press, 2024) ‘a ground-breaking account of the scientists and architects who pioneered acoustics in twentieth-century Britain’.

As the publisher’s blurb elegantly puts it, ‘On a winter's night in 1951, shortly after Evensong, the interior of St Paul's Cathedral echoed with gunfire. This was no act of violence but a scientific demonstration of new techniques in acoustic measurement. It aimed to address a surprising question: could a building be a musical instrument? […] the scientists, architects and musicians who set out to answer this question […] would come to define the field of 'architectural acoustics'.

Fiona can be found on the Cambridge University website, and on her research website too. The book is linked above

+

Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick