The Sonic Gathering Space – a 6.5 metre circular biophilic sound design installation – has been set up in the Melbourne CBD as part of a study that will observe whether the ambience of a city impacts the mood of residents.

The installation has been created by RMIT School of Design Research Fellow Jordan Lacey, in collaboration with landscape architect and RMIT Associate Professor Charles Anderson.

“Typically, biophilic design has been used to create ambiences in cities that are densely populated to create spaces of restoration for busy, stressed-out citizens who don’t have access to nature and parks,” Lacey says. 

The researcher says it was ironic that the garden city entered lockdown for a second time last year at the time the design was completed and installed. However, Lacey believes the timing couldn’t have been better as attention now turns to reinvigorating the CBD in the wake of the pandemic.

“There’s no doubt the vibe in Melbourne’s CBD has changed dramatically over the past two years. I think the most obvious difference is the lack of people on the street. You have a lot more people working and studying from home and businesses that have closed down,” he says.

“And even now, without any government lockdowns, people are trying to reduce their movement, so you don’t have that normal human vibe of the cafes and bars and restaurants humming along. And there’s a lot less traffic around, so it’s also not as noisy.” 

“So, it provides the perfect opportunity to stop and think about ‘what is it that draws us to a particular place, like the city? What are the sounds and smells and sights that make us want to keep coming back?”

The space features a QR code which allows users to answer questions created by Griffith University’s Emeritus Professor Lex Brown regarding how they respond to the intervention.

“The questions are specifically designed to understand people’s mood when they arrive at the Sonic Gathering Space and their mood after they've experienced the work. They are designed to get down to the nitty gritty of what makes ambience, and does it improve people’s mood,” Lacey says. 

“When we think about ambience we usually think about a cafe or a restaurant, but I am interested in exploring the kinds of interventions that can be introduced into cities that can generate a certain vibe in a city and that also have the potential to impact people’s moods and feelings in an everyday context.” 

Lacey says with an increase in hybrid working arrangements, there is an opportunity for the city to be reimagined, not just as a place of commerce, but also a place of intrigue.

“If biophilic design has been partly about exploring how we can create small sites of ambience for restoration in dense cities, it’s now a great time to think about, well, what are the interventions we can think about to reinvigorate and create a bit more of a buzz and vibe in a quiet city.” 

Melbourne holda a strong reputation for creating a unique ambience that dates back to the 1980s. At the time, a number of laneways were transformed into vibrant places for art, retail, alfresco dining and hidden bars. 

“Melbourne has famously used design interventions previously to create a certain ambience, particularly with its laneways. We’ve been a world leader in that,” Lacey says. 

“So, there’s no question we can reimagine and reinvigorate the city for it’s changing needs. And I believe the laneways will continue to play an important role in reimagining the ambience of our beautiful city.  

“Part of that might be introducing things like sounds and small park benches and plants and other textures into those laneways to offset the infrastructure and traffic noise, so people can also use them as potential sites of respite, because they’re very special.” 

The Sonic Gathering Space will remain in its current location until the middle of the year when Lacey will begin analysing the responses from users to gain insights into how the ambient intervention has impacted the mood and feelings of its users and what implications it might have for the future vibe of Melbourne’s CBD. 

The Sonic Gathering Space is located at 377 Russell Street, Melbourne. 

Image: Supplied