This work consolidates a series of situated research projects that are a critical response to rigid conventions of acoustics and architecture in commercial practice. Two types of projects are documented: acoustic installation, creating architecture with sound; and situated composition, creating music from architecture. For the first type, a site was studied and surveyed for its acoustic properties and sonic signature, sounds were then played back into the space to allow occupants to interact with it on a sonic level. For the second type, a series of sites were chosen and aligned with musicians and composers. The composers were asked to develop a piece of music responding to the space on both an emotional and acoustic level. A situated composition was created that holistically relates to both site and composer.

The importance of this body of work lies in how it advances our understanding of the ways in which architecture affects musical composition and the occupants’ acoustic experience of space. Its role in this regard has been recognised through international workshops in Japan, Finland, Austria and the UK, and in public outputs such as the source recordings from the installation Gjallarhorn at the Science Museum, London.