Acoustic Territoriality City Planning An PDF
Acoustic Territoriality City Planning An PDF
Acoustic Territoriality City Planning An PDF
Acoustic Territoriality
City planning and the politics of urban sound
This article discusses political aspects of urban environmental sound. In discussions
around “Gang i København” – an initiative aimed to boost the creative industries
in Copenhagen – the author identify two prominent discourses regarding urban
sound: environmental concern for noise as pollution and ideals of lively cities
embracing events, concerts and night life. Arguing for a deconstruction of
environmentalist claims for a quieter and more natural urban soundscape, the
article introduces Jean-François Augoyards concept of dynamic and metabolic
urban sound space and outlines a field for inquiries into acoustic territoriality
whereby urban places and spaces are marked and shaped through everyday
practices.
D uring 2006-2007 the Lord Mayer and the Technical and Environmental
Mayer of Copenhagen took measures to implement some of the
ideas from “Gang i København” and decided to make regulations for bars
and restaurants in the so-called Metropolitan Zone and in Nyhavn more
lenient in order to facilitate the desire for events, concerts, nightlife etc.
Outdoor serving was legalized until 2 A.M. and imperative noise limits for
restaurants and bars in both areas were suspended. The decision did not
pass without discussions, and since the local deregulations were meant to
be testing grounds for more general deregulations of noise legislation in
Copenhagen, protests from residents were clearly heard. In a feature article
in Politiken a resident of Nyhavn regretted the planned vulgarization of his
neighborhood with “noise, drinking and filth” and suggested that classical
music like Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn should dominate in the streets
gen whether the figures can be confirmed).
10 Støjen en snigende gift was the title of a radio broadcasting at the Danish Broadcasting
Corporation in 26/3 1970.
11 Reeh 2002 p. 110 (my own translation).
12 LaBelle 2008 p. 163.
66
instead of the jazz and pop music now preferred for concerts and in bars and
restaurants.13
Presently discussions seem to have cooled a bit, and the initiative settled
with a permanent solution for the two appointed areas, Nyhavn and
the Metropolitan Zone, while more general noise deregulation seem
less probable at the moment – in the light of the present environmental
ambitions of Copenhagen.16 Even though the political fate of the noise
deregulation in Copenhagen may have been very short, the lively debate
around the initiative testify to the ways in which discussions about noise do
embed values and visions for the good city life. Within the environmentalist
discourse it preferred to talk about healthy and unhealthy environments,
but – as illustrated in discussions around the past, present and future sound
of Nyhavn – it is possible to see different visions for the city represented in
statements about urban environmental sound. It may even be argued that
environmental sound – in step with the improved abilities to control sonic
environments – is increasingly becoming a symbolic field through which we
can comprehend, discuss and control ephemeral qualities like atmosphere,
13 Keel 2007.
14 According to Kjær, 2007. The Facebook-group København - vi elsker dig! - en hyldest
til storbyen was established in 2008 as a reaction to ”an increasing tendency to noise com-
plaints and anti-urban attitudes in Copenhagen”. It has 1793 members (12/7 2010).
15 Giese, 2007.
16 ”Gang i København” is presently being revitalized in order to facilitate experience
industries. So far noise legislation does not seem to be of central concern for the project.
See material on the present initiatives:
http://www.kk.dk/Nyheder/2010/Maj/GangIKoebenhavn2,-d-,0.aspx (12/7 2010).
67
ambience or mood. The preference for popular music or classical music
in the streets of Nyhavn may in a very precise way describe the preferred
atmosphere of the place.
Hi-fi soundscapes
36 Parallel with Schafers argument for the preservation of soundmarks, that reflect
community character such as carillons, fog horns and whistles, but also less ostentatious
soundmarks such as “the scraping of the heavy metal chairs on the tile floors of Parisian
coffee-houses” and “the virtuoso drumming of Austrian bureaucrats with their long-hand-
ed rubber stamps: ta-te-te-daa-ta-te-daa” (Schafer 1977 p. 240)
75
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