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 contest organizers
Collect
and promote sound projects in architecture
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 contest organizers
1. Subject
1 Context
Today the sound dimension of architecture is relatively little taught in our schools, the courses are almost theoretical, optionnal or taking the form of intensive workshops. Projects are often initiated by isolated students, overlooked and absent from architecture awards. The Place for sound project aims to bring together and raise awareness of these attempts 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.
1 Context
Today the sound dimension of architecture is relatively little taught in our schools, the courses are almost theoretical, optionnal or taking the form of intensive workshops. Projects are often initiated by isolated students, overlooked and absent from architecture awards. The Place for sound project aims to bring together and raise awareness of these attempts 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, 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 competition report consists of two files:
File 1 Audiovisual present-future: production of a double portrait of the chosen public square. This sound portrait consists of a present-future soundtrack, accompanied by a series of still images (drawings, photos, virtual images, etc.).
-The "present" part expresses the state of the square as it exists today, with its surroundings, and make us listen to a terrace found in a specific part of the place
-The "future" part stages the fiction of the square tomorrow, with drawings of theproject of terrace and insertion in the site, plans, animation, photomontage...
-Length of the video: 5 minutes maximum-Video format: .mov or mp4, in full HD (1920x1080 pixels) with the understanding that the audio of the file (mono or stereo) will be of 48 kHz, 24 bit quality.-
Title of the video:
teamnumbervideotitle.mov
(example 23larepubliquesonnante.mov)
File 2 Project brief :
on A4 landscape format
to be downloaded from www.placeauson.org including-team number (given at registration) only (without the names of the participants)
-view of the square in the city, specifying the name of the square, the city, the country
-a text of 300 words maximum specifying the title of the project, a brief description of the existing sound environments and the bias of the future projection
-an emblematicimage of the project (300 dpi)
-digital format of file 2.pdf-title of file 2 n° teamtitleofthevideo.pdf
(example: 23larepubliquesonnante.pdf)
File 1 Audiovisual present-future: production of a double portrait of the chosen public square. This sound portrait consists of a present-future soundtrack, accompanied by a series of still images (drawings, photos, virtual images, etc.).
-The "present" part expresses the state of the square as it exists today, with its surroundings, and make us listen to a terrace found in a specific part of the place
-The "future" part stages the fiction of the square tomorrow, with drawings of theproject of terrace and insertion in the site, plans, animation, photomontage...
-Length of the video: 5 minutes maximum-Video format: .mov or mp4, in full HD (1920x1080 pixels) with the understanding that the audio of the file (mono or stereo) will be of 48 kHz, 24 bit quality.-
Title of the video:
teamnumbervideotitle.mov
(example 23larepubliquesonnante.mov)
File 2 Project brief :
on A4 landscape format
to be downloaded from www.placeauson.org including-team number (given at registration) only (without the names of the participants)
-view of the square in the city, specifying the name of the square, the city, the country
-a text of 300 words maximum specifying the title of the project, a brief description of the existing sound environments and the bias of the future projection
-an emblematicimage of the project (300 dpi)
-digital format of file 2.pdf-title of file 2 n° teamtitleofthevideo.pdf
(example: 23larepubliquesonnante.pdf)
-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 Presentation of the projects selection in the Unesco Week of sound
Michel Risse, composer, Paris
Catherine Guastavino psychoacousticien, teacher (University Mc Gill, CA)
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)
Catherine Guastavino psychoacousticien, teacher (University Mc Gill, CA)
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
