Juliana de Freitas

It’s been said before that music is the universal language of mankind. From tone to style, it crosses boundaries and paves way for social change and interaction, going beyond physical space and time. It is a part of our daily lives, provides community, and has shown many benefits for brain development, yet music education is still limited in its accessibility today in Johannesburg, South Africa. This project intends to bring music education to the forefront of the community of Sophiatown, a community in Johannesburg whose rich and tragic history is sung with the sounds of Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Dolly Rathebe and many more. This dissertation aims to explore the intersection of place, memory, music, and architecture to locate Sophiatown as a space fit for an educational environment that fosters a deeper engagement with music.

The research moves beyond metaphor to use music as a formal design driver of architectural space. The building will take its form as a music school that integrates an archive centre and performance spaces, where students will be encouraged to learn and perform together, while the musical histories of past and present performers are recorded for safekeeping, exhibition, and further learning. These spaces will be carefully considered using sound, not only in terms of acoustic design, but also as a design tool for form making and analysing its influence on our perceptions of space, thus creating an educational environment where both the individual and collective power of music can be observed. The resulting design for the School of Sound demonstrates how a deeper understanding of sound, acoustically and conceptually, can shape architectural form and create an environment that fosters cultural preservation and community empowerment.