Extending Xenakis: From Architectural Geometry to Sonification of the Philips Pavilion

2026-07-06

AI Summary

This study explores a bidirectional generative relationship between architectural geometry and music, focusing on the nine ruled surfaces of the Philips Pavilion. By extracting their control lines and spatial sample points, the authors map geometric features to musical elements—specifically, string glissandi, density-driven energy blocks, and wind instrument sequences—thereby proposing a time-based music generation method rooted in architectural form. This approach constitutes the first implementation of structured music synthesis inversely derived from existing architectural geometry, extending Xenakis’s original unidirectional compositional paradigm and establishing a reversible mapping mechanism between architecture and sound. Implemented in Python for geometric processing and MIDI generation, and integrated with Ableton Live for audio rendering and real-time 3D visualization, the system successfully produces a performable composition featuring continuous glissandi, five distinct energy blocks, and sparse wind sequences, demonstrating the viability of architectural geometry as a structural substrate for music.

Abstract

Architecture and music have been linked through proportion and temporal structure, yet architectural geometry is rarely viewed as a source of generative music. Revisiting Xenakis' one-directional transformation from string glissandi in Metastaseis to the ruled surfaces of the Philips Pavilion, we invert this workflow and sonify the completed Pavilion as a temporal composition. We reconstruct the Pavilion as nine ruled surfaces, extract their governing ruling lines, and subdivide each surface into structural lines and spatial sampling points. Four evenly spaced ruling lines per surface generate continuous string glissandi, while 3357 sampled points develop five density-based energy blocks and a sparse brass and woodwind subsequence. Implemented in Python, the system produces MIDI rendered in Ableton Live, accompanied by a real-time 3D visualization that reveals architectural motion, stasis, and structural contrast through sound and image. In general, this work paves the way for the transfer of architectural geometry as a performable musical structure, extending Xenakis's architectural and musical thinking to sonification and interactive music practice.

Problem

• architectural geometry
• sonification
• generative music
• Xenakis
• Philips Pavilion

Innovation

• sonification
• ruled surfaces
• architectural geometry
• generative music
• Xenakis