Collect and promote sound projects in architecture
2026-2027 Edition
After
five sessions, the competition « Place for sound »
evolves in a collective archive of sound projects and
experimentations. During the two coming years, the team will collect
projects by students and young professionnals of architecture,
landscape and sound design. The jury will distinguish and expose
after two years a selection of the best projects, often invisibilised
by medias and not well promoted by schools.
Cécile Regnault and Gilles Paté, project organizers
1 Theme
The Place for sound project aims to bring together and raise awareness of the importance of sound in architectural and urban projects by grouping them together and exhibiting them more widely. Place for sound also seeks to identify original educational approaches in school programmes, highlighting schools that encourage experimental thinking with sound, and collect and promote isolated initiatives by students or young professionals leaving school who have made sound a key focus of their personal projects or scientific or creative approaches.
2 Categories
Three categories will be highlighted according to three time frames:
⁃ Past: showcasing the sound qualities and acoustic performance of vernacular architecture and contributing to the history of so-called “passive” protection and sound curiosities.
⁃ Present: highlighting ongoing initiatives that experiment with sound and encourage invention.
⁃ Future: original and inventive projects that have not yet been realized, linked to specific urban and architectural sound situations.
The competition is opened to all students enrolled in higher education (Grandes Ecoles and universities), during their studies and including three years after graduation: architecture, urban planning, landscape, geography, design, arts, music, theatre, cinema, engineering are the main disciplines targeted
The team is made up of at least two students from the above-mentioned specialities; it chooses a representative who will be the main contact with the organisers. Registration for the competition should be made by e-mail to :
concoursplaceauson@lasemaineduson.org
The representative sends the team's identity form in the form of a PDF file including copies of the student cards of all the members of the team (Last nameFirst name of the representative.pdf).
When the team's application is accepted, the organizer will assign a team number to ensure the anonymity of the competition.
The team is made up of at least two students from the above-mentioned specialities; it chooses a representative who will be the main contact with the organisers. Registration for the competition should be made by e-mail to :
concoursplaceauson@lasemaineduson.org
The representative sends the team's identity form in the form of a PDF file including copies of the student cards of all the members of the team (Last nameFirst name of the representative.pdf).
When the team's application is accepted, the organizer will assign a team number to ensure the anonymity of the competition.
The minimum requirements are:
⁃ A written summaryof the project, no more than 3,000 characters in French/English
⁃ A methodological note demonstrating the originality of the project
⁃ Three visuals/three scales:
-Integration into an urban sound environment;
-Interaction with the inhabited space;
-Acoustic details
All media allowed, photography and sensitive cards, sound postcards, video...
-projects imagined and designed, concrete utopias...
the nature of the work expected remains very open:
⁃ fundamental research work that advances knowledge about our sound cultures and ways of listening
⁃ work to enhance existing sound environments
⁃ Architectural or design projects that incorporate sound as a component of their design
Submitted documents must highlight the sound dimension, either through original drawings or through audio or video recordings. Projects submitted may be the result of individual or collective multidisciplinary work carried out in supervised workshops in schools of architecture, landscape design, or urban planning and geography ; or conceived independently outside of schools with the aim of highlighting the role of sound in architecture, landscape design, and urban planning.
A multi-scale approach will be favored, integrating everything from large-scale projects to detailed furniture designs, including acoustic inventions and curiosities.
Projects combining digital technology and experimentation are welcome.
The aim of this sound collection is not to award prizes, neglecting the less visible but equally important initiatives, rather to seek and promote rather than compete, highlight a sensitive dimension that is invisible in architectural creation, show the diversity of approaches and unearth initiatives that receive little media coverage.
An interdisciplinary approach will be welcomed, as sound in architecture concerns several fields, as will teams combining architects, musicians, acousticians, sound technicians, visual artists, etc., presenting each person's contribution to the joint project.
-Bold, sensitive projects that enhance listening
-Rather than focusing on finished products that promote fictional projects, Place for sound will prioritize the audible reality of spaces experienced by students
-promoting approaches and processes that take care of our ears
-The competition highlights acoustic experiments and sound experiences in our living spaces, whether they are simply experienced or imagined through drawings, videos, or audio recordings, experienced through sound installations or school projects.
September 2025 Announcement
January 2026 Presentation at Week of Sound Paris, Lyon
April 2026 Inter-school exchange day on experiential practices for teaching sound and the place of sound in architectural and urban approaches
September 2026 Summer school in Le Dedeiche
January 2027 Winter school in Lyon
Michel Risse, composer, Paris
Nicolas Misdariis researcher sound designer (Ircam, FR)
Nadine Schütz architect, sound artist (CH)
Stéphane Mercier acoustician, Paris
Fred Fradet acoustician, Structures Baschet association
Scientific Committee : Cécile Regnault (sound designer, Professor at ENSA Lyon), Frédéric Fradet (acoustician, Director of Structures sonores Baschet), Gilles Paté (videographer, lecturer at ENSA Versailles), Christian Hugonnet (acoustics engineer, President of La semaine du Son), Laurence Bouckaert, composer, Professor of electroacoustics at the Villeurbanne School of Music,Catherine Guastavino (psychoacoustician, Professor at Mc Gill University, ca), Pascal Amphoux, architect, Franck Faucheux (engineer-architect, Eiffage immobilier),
Nicolas Misdariis researcher sound designer (Ircam, FR)
Nadine Schütz architect, sound artist (CH)
Stéphane Mercier acoustician, Paris
Fred Fradet acoustician, Structures Baschet association
Scientific Committee : Cécile Regnault (sound designer, Professor at ENSA Lyon), Frédéric Fradet (acoustician, Director of Structures sonores Baschet), Gilles Paté (videographer, lecturer at ENSA Versailles), Christian Hugonnet (acoustics engineer, President of La semaine du Son), Laurence Bouckaert, composer, Professor of electroacoustics at the Villeurbanne School of Music,Catherine Guastavino (psychoacoustician, Professor at Mc Gill University, ca), Pascal Amphoux, architect, Franck Faucheux (engineer-architect, Eiffage immobilier),
Submissions that do not meet the terms will be disqualified. Although participants retain the copyrights to their projects, submitting projects in the competition allows La Semaine du Son to use the submitted videos at any public presentations (evening, exhibition, publication). The names of the participants will be mentioned for any use of the videos, images and texts, the authors remaining the owners of the intellectual value of their projects.
For practical information contact :
"La Semaine du Son" :
52, rue René Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Tél.01.42.78.10.15
concoursplaceauson@lasemaineduson.org
www.lasemaineduson.org
Other correspondents :
Cécile Regnault, professor (National school of architecture of Lyon); Gilles Paté, associate professor, (National school of architecture of Versailles)
Access to the competition rules :
here
"La Semaine du Son" :
52, rue René Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Tél.01.42.78.10.15
concoursplaceauson@lasemaineduson.org
www.lasemaineduson.org
Other correspondents :
Cécile Regnault, professor (National school of architecture of Lyon); Gilles Paté, associate professor, (National school of architecture of Versailles)
Access to the competition rules :
here
Initiator : UNESCO’s Week of Sound
Institutional Partners
National school of architecture of Lyon + UMR CNRS 5600 EVS University of Lyon, National school of architecture of Versailles, Music School of Villeurbanne, IRCAM
Companies
Real estate Eiffage
Cities-communities
BruitParif Acoucité
Institutional Partners
National school of architecture of Lyon + UMR CNRS 5600 EVS University of Lyon, National school of architecture of Versailles, Music School of Villeurbanne, IRCAM
Companies
Real estate Eiffage
Cities-communities
BruitParif Acoucité
Contact
Cécile Regnault : cecile.regnault@lyon.archi.fr
Gilles Paté : gillespate@gmail.com
concoursplaceauson@lasemaineduson.org
+33 (0)1 42 78 10 15
Cécile Regnault : cecile.regnault@lyon.archi.fr
Gilles Paté : gillespate@gmail.com
concoursplaceauson@lasemaineduson.org
+33 (0)1 42 78 10 15
