Towards a typology of listening situations: The balcony as a sonic interface in evolution

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This paper is an opening towards a comprehensive typology of listening that corresponds to the emerging forms of residential building interfaces. In this paper, we are focusing on Balconies as a main study object. In fact, ecological approaches in designing residential buildings (Concerto, HQE, eco-districts) produce highly developed architectural typologies of building facades under the form of double skin, deep balconies, large loggia, covered or semi covered terraces, that should be analyzed as such.The main corpus on which this paper relies on is the research project Esquis’Sons! on « sustainable soundscapes » conducted by Cresson research center - ENSAG. The project is about studying the sound qualities of intermediate spaces such as Balconies, Loggias, Terraces and Corridors (BLTC). The project’s main objective is to elaborate a catalogue of remarkable listening situations of these interfaces through crossing the physical form, sensory phenomena and social practices. Based on this database, the current article overall aim to elaborate a typology of listening situations that categorizes in homogenous types the new forms of sound composition corresponding to new architectural vocabulary that building facades afford.Focusing mainly on three sustainable districts in France: Vigny-Musset, Caserne de Bonne and Trapèze-Ile-Seguin, the elaborated methodological protocol put together a collage of methods in situ and in vitro that are systematically applied to each BLTC: sound recording up to 10 minutes, acoustic measurements, architectural sketches with accurate dimensions, in addition to short interviews with the inhabitants. This typology shall strengthen the sound culture of architects and urban designers by showing the spatial and sound variations on both urban and architectural scales.