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‘Architecture is frozen music’. I came across this phrase when I was researching about the similarities and differences between architecture and music. Surprisingly I found more similarities between the two systems rather than differences. If the phrase ‘architecture is frozen music’ is taken as something true then can music be taken as liquid architecture? Going back to architecture, the experience of a wonderful building might in some way equate with the experience of a remarkable piece of music. The experience is same in the sense that they have the same effect: the powerful after image, the triggering of so many associations. The whole artistic experience is about the change of perception. How many times have you been left in complete awe of a building? How many times has a building or I should say a great piece of architecture moved you or reminded you of something, or a particular kind of feeling. Music has the same effect. You listen to a great piece of music and you are reminded of some feeling or event you experienced in the past. I remember years ago when I saw the IVS campus for the first time. In that moment, a certain calm took over me! It felt like nothing else existed. I knew this was where I was meant to be and that feeling was great. I remember it to this date. Similarly a song can have the same effect on you. Out of personal experience, the song ‘We are One’ holds great meanings for me! So architecture and music are similar in the sense that they have the same effect.
Most people would question the similarity between architecture and music. The difference between the two is very obvious; architecture does not use notes or chords and music does not use columns or windows. For most people such very obvious and apparently fundamental difference between the two systems would eliminate any possible similarity between them. However if we use a linguistic analogy and regard each of these systems as a unique kind of language which seeks...