The best idea I have ever had

Earlier this year, I met a new friend with an interesting background. He was an architect and guitar luthier. And now he had decided to become an acoustician. This might sound like a strange combination, but it turns out interdisciplinary knowledge might be precisely what we need to crack the code on how to build the optimal wooden building with regards to sound insulation.

My friend told me that a wooden building is basically the exact same thing as a musical instrument. A combination of wooden beams and plates that vibrates and produce sound when they are excited. The primary difference is that a musical instrument is wood that has been refined to produce as much sound as possible, whereas a wooden building should be refined to produce as little sound as possible. As of 2019, there is uncertainty in the civil engineering sector regarding wooden construction, especially with acoustics. Luthiers on the other hand, have known for 500 years how to design their instruments. Modern science has also confirmed and verified their ancient knowledge. We now know how and why musical instruments produce sound.

What if we use the knowledge from musical instrument construction – but we do the exact opposite? That should result in an optimized wooden building! I am an acoustician and a musician. I have been playing music for three decades and and I have worked with improving the sound insulation in wooden buildings my whole career. This idea – to use musical acoustics in civil engineering – has integrated the two largest parts of my life into one. You know that feeling when it just “clicks”, and you realize that you have had the solution to a massive problem right in front of your eyes for years but haven’t been able to see it. Not until now. Thank you Tim Näsling for planting the seed, I am grateful to have met you.

I am convinced that this idea will work. Let’s get started!