1: Acoustically Significant Spaces
A: Passage Oerlikon. Sat. 08/03/25; 20:00
There’s an underground passageway connecting the train station of Zürich Oerlikon to the Neumarkt shopping centre. It has a kink in its middle, and depending on where you cross one enters through electric doors to either move upwards – towards the station – or downwards into a place of commerce.
It is always frequented by people, yet rarely a person stops and remains within this environment.
The space is bizarre, its materiality odd, the lighting cold und uninviting. The space is without actual appeal in of itself. It is pure threshold and a mediator between two separate environments, two audible events that, depending on the opening on the sliding doors get connected or fragmented. The sound of trains, footsteps, voices, trolleys and luggage all convene and add towards the transitory nature of the space, which is weirdly enhanced by the hallow music present in the space. The „music“, jingles or advertisements, is transmitted by a singular speaker in the middle of the space, like a curtain or the sliding door, it separates the programs.
The floor is smooth-polished stone, The walls either tiled or made up of fake timber. Its ceiling is painted concrete, its sounds are damp, reverberated and bright/hallow. If one claps, the sounds are harsh against the surfaces
B: Center 11 – Atrium. Sat. 08/03/25; 20:30
Center 11 Oerlikon is another commercial building, whose activities are centered around a large 4-storey split-level atrium, which contains two large elevators and 2 escalators per floor. On the most upper floor, COOP stretches almost cross the entire floor, while the middle floor is occupied by a JUMBO and a barber shop. The lowest floor, which also is the ground floor of the atrium, opens up towards the parking garage and contains a storage are for shopping carts and a children’s-toy vending machine.
The extremely large space has no dedicated use, it is empty apart from Infrastructural areas dedicated to navigating the different floors (Erschließung) vertically and a glass-ceiling hosting HVAC equipment. Due to its enormity and emptiness I decided to observe and document this space with audio-equipment during a time of day when most of the building is vacated.
Even though one does not register the sounds coming from the upper floors in the space itself, the beeping of the cash-registers are picked up by the sensor.
The mechanical hum of the elevator has clacking noises every time the doors open and close, voices of people in the space travel extremely far without disturbance and reverberate for a few seconds.
The constant low-frequency roar of machinery – HVAC, coin machine and the escalators – is present throughout the entirety of the space. Claps are not loud enough to come up against this carpet, even if one factors in proximity towards the audio-device. Yet, most of the sounds of people are diffused across the space, occasionally the high-pitched scream of a child interrupts the soundscape.
The sonically dense space is very boomy and noisy overall, low-frequency tones are more pronounced and resonant. You can experience me circulating through the space here:
2: Psychoacoustic Spaces
A: Supermarket Lidl Neumarkt Oerlikon, Sat. 08/03/25; 19:30
Picture a typical Supermarket-Situation during rush hour on a typical Saturday evening between 07:00 and 08:00 PM.
The chosen location is the underground supermarket of the Lidl-chain, which is conveniently tucked inside the Commercial hub that is Neumarkt Oerlikon, a shopping centre which also hosts shoe shops, a pharmacy, clothing stores, a papeterie, restaurant chains and a total of three discounters. All of these spaces are connected through a long passageway on two separate floors, which are then interconnected via a grand atrium holding two escalators and elevators.
The discounter Lidl is on the bottom floor opposing this atrium, and is separated from the passage via a transparent glass-wall. The general floor layout varies between aisles of ca.2- 2.5 meters width, either linear (parallel) or intersecting, in which case spaces for crossings emerge.
Typical for any supermarkets, there are cool-storages for vegetable, dairy, meat and refrigerated convenience products in different sections, which generally line the side opposing the glass wall and which create a distinct electronic humming/buzzing sound.
As most products are packaged in (plastic) containers, the rustling of plastic packaging and the thumbing of cardboard boxes can be heard at all times, accompanied less notably by the sound of glass bottles clinking against each other.
Shopping carts and service trolleys roll loudly on the tiled floors.
A sonic carpet of music is supporting the customer experience at all times, although the sonic qualities differ quite significantly as the volume and clarity of music is enhanced directly below the speakers which can never be directly spottet from the open ceiling containing pipes and HVAC works of all kinds. The music plays very airy, the sounds are thin and as seem quite distant, they fade in and out depending on one’s location.
The sharp electronic noise emitted irregularly by the cash registry and the self-checkout-machines disturb only in the rear section of the store. Yet, their very inorganic and bright high-frequency sounds stand out from the rest of the muddled soundscape, which because of their volume blend together quite easily.
Because of the aisle-layout, sounds coming from other aisles are generally speaking overheard quite easily, depending on the absorbent quality of the products sold. The absorbent qualities of kitchen and toilet paper create a muffled space in the section containing toiletries and hygiene-products.
Surprisingly, a variety of sound-scenes can be observed, depending on the section one finds oneself in. The music and the sound omitted by people loading their carts and/or engaged in conversations are the only consistent sounds.
Even though I tried focusing on the soundscape while always recording during my shopping-experience, I have to observe the following:
- The experience is incredibly visually stimulating, meaning that sound always tends to fade into the background, even in a heightened case of observation
- The feeling of the space is not particularly pleasant. This has a variety of factors, including the lighting, the distance of the aisles, the constant engagement with other people in the space, the disturbing volume and content of the music which is distorted against the space and the sounds emitted from the packaged products colliding with another
- The sounds of the barcode-scanners are, apart from the rolling of loading-carts, the loudest and most distinct noises due to their sharpness and irregularity
- The space holds segmented environments, which create a fragmented understanding of the space. Depending on the proximity to sound emitters (refrigerators, oven, logistic spaces, cash registry) or absorbents (paper, flour, cardboard)
- Generally a regular carpet of background sounds is present throughout all the spaces, which is why irregular sounds (either in their volume or reoccurrence) dominate the understanding of space. This includes human interactions. These irregularly emitted sounds create discomfort in the general low-frequency carpet one is able to suppress quite well
If another sound would have to be added to alert people within the space, it would have to be one that trumps all other sounds in volume (such as a siren). It would have to be an irregular sound. And it could either be human (organic) or inorganic (electronic), in both cases it would have to be a high-frequency noise.
To access the full customer experience, click play here:
2: Bathroom Langwiesstrasse, Sun. 09/03/25. 15:00
Against this very public setting, I’ve chosen the most private and intimate setting I could imagine, in which due to the routines performed in it, I would assume a relaxing environment: The bathroom of my 4-person WG, with a width between 1.15 – 1.25 meters between the two walls, either painted or tiled, most of which are on one side covered in two layers of towels at a height between 1.6m and 0.5m above the Linoleum floor surface.
Sounds are emitted by a steadily blowing air-system located in the rear corner of the shower or by parts of the sanitary infrastructure, namely the faucet, the toilet and the shower-head, which emit very different noises due to the pressure of the water and the shape of their respective containers (basin, toilet bowl and the shower separated by a thin curtain).
Other regularly occurring sounds include the sharp metallic clipping of nails, the brushing of the toothbrush against teeth or the electric humming of the motors of razors or electric toothbrushes.
Amongst other sounds in the space is the aggressive opening of plastic bottles (either in or outside of the shower) and the mirrored cabinet which contains softly-spraying perfume bottles and other body-products.
However, most of the sounds within the space are directly coming from my body within it:
- The thudding of matter greeted by a splashing of water
- The gargling of mouth wash
- The drops of shower-water falling to the floor
- The swift pull of the shower-curtain along its rail
- The muffled sound of the towel as I wrap it around my body
- The opening and closing of the cabinet which is greeted by the opening/closing of the magnet keeping it shut
- …
The reason why I believe these sounds all sound good / comforting is because they involve activation through myself as a body, even though the bathroom is very boomy and the sound reverberates for quite some time. Perhaps precisely because it is intended to be used by one non-speaking person at a time, all sounds appear quite relaxing, even the less comfortable (higher-frequency) electric sounds.
Other than that, most of the time only one additional sound prevails amongst the sound carpet of the air-vent, e.g. The shower AND the vent, or the Toilet And the vent….
Most sounds are non-informative and organic. They should not contain odd occurrences, which would deviate from their static / white noise quality and therefore concentrate my attention.
Yet, all sounds coming from outside the wooden door forming this closed environment would appear intrusive, as would the presence of another person which would disturb the 2-3 sounds at a time rule by a lot.
Additionally, any other sound not emitted or initiated through my touch would appear intrusive, if its volume rises above the sound carpet established by the vents and the sanitary system.
My typical Routine in shortened form sounds like this:
