Ouverture. ERA21 #01/2023 Editorial

Filip Landa

Unbelievably, nineteen years will soon pass since the first time ERA21 magazine focused on the relationship between architecture, music and sound. The 04/2004 issue was a collaboration with architect and musician Ivan Palacký, who became ERA21’s first ever guest editor and issue curator. Following his example, we still often invite experienced professionals with unique insight to help us develop an issue.
When that 04/2004 issue came out, I confess I didn’t have a clue ERA21 existed. I had just graduated high school, I knew I was starting my architecture degree come September, and my music school graduation concert was due in two weeks. It was Benedetto Marcello’s Sonata in E minor for bassoon and a string orchestra. But it was clear to me that music was never going to be my living, even though, being the son of a music school teacher, I always liked it. As I was swinging back and forth between music and visual arts, opportunity and chance led me to architecture. Only later did I learn that architecture actually overarched all these fields, and was—as F. L. Wright put it—the mother of art. Everything suddenly made sense. Architecture as an orchestration of space, matter and time. Add to that my notion of architecture as part of the humanities, a keen interest in theory, a certain sensitivity with language and maybe even a stylistic deftness—things couldn’t have ended any other way for me than with the editor-in-chief job for this magazine you’re reading right now. And this very magazine is revisiting the topic of sound in architecture. Or architecture in sound? There is so much to share! Aural architecture, soundscapes, composed urbanism…
But we onlyhave limited space available, therefore the texts and projects presented on the following pages all went through a thoughtful selection process. And anyway, paper generally can’t transmit sound (other than the shuffling)... unless we follow the links hidden in the QR codes.
I wish you, dear readers, a blissfully undisturbed reading experience.