Biography
I am an Assistant Professor in Architectural History and Theory. My research lies at the interface between the history of architecture and the history of science. I am particularly interested in the history of environmental design and its fundamental relevance to cultural studies of sound and the history of ideas. My approach draws strongly on archive work, field work, iconography, and the reception of musical and architectural ideas. It utilises the solid structures of architecture and material culture to identify and explore the intangible aspects of ideas and interdisciplinary interactions. My book, Pistols in St Paul’s: Science, Music, and Architecture in the Twentieth Century (Manchester University Press) investigates musical and architectural experiments in the twentieth century, exploring the concept of building as instrument, and examining how ideas in music and science became manifest within architectural design.
In 2022, I was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for the project Spectres & Camouflage: The Sound of Silence, a five-year undertaking that examines the cross-disciplinary transfers and transformations of knowledge that shaped environmental design for silence in the twentieth century. Prior to that I held a three-year Marie Sklodowska Curie (MSCA) Global Fellowship at Harvard (History of Science) and Trinity College Dublin (Engineering) for a research project entitled Science as Applied to Building which centred around the emergence of acoustics as a branch of building science in Britain. That research explored architecture as both a catalyst for, and an expression of, scientific development. It identified a trajectory of development that unfolded in response to shifting social and political priorities in the first half of the twentieth century and explored its interdisciplinary and international underpinnings.
I have published in Architectural History, the Journal of Construction History, the Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, Frontiers in Environmental Science and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. I have also authored chapters in books published by the Orpheus Institute, and the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini.
My research has been awarded the Newman Medal for Architectural Acoustics by the Acoustical Society of America, the Stanley Smith Prize for Construction History by the Construction History Society, and the Hawksmoor Medal for Architectural History by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. It has been supported by grants from European, British, Irish and US sources including the European Commission, the British Society for the History of Science, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Creative Arts at MIT, and the Royal Irish Academy.
Voices feature strongly in my work, in terms of advocating for inclusion and inclusive practices in education, and also in terms of demonstrating the voices and expert ears of different groups of people whose historical contributions to architecture and acoustics are often overlooked. I am a firm advocate for EDI.
Publications
| Smyth, F. (2024) ‘Free Fields and Four Foot Walls: The Silent Test Chamber at the Building Research Station’, in Journal of Construction History, 39 (2) pp. 133-55. |
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Smyth, F. (2024). Pistols in St Paul's: Science, Music, and Architecture in the Twentieth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press. |
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Smyth, F. (2024) “ ‘… Mysterious Changes in Molecular Structure…”: Pragmatics, Poetics and Designing for Musical Tone’ in Sound, Music and Architecture, pp. 225-42. (Illiano, R. ed.) Turnhout: Brepols.
Smyth, F. (2024) “Faith not Works”: Chance Encounters and the Origins of Britain’s first Consultancy in Architectural Acoustics, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 83 (4) pp. 505-524, https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2024.83.4.505
Smyth, F. (2024). The Tacit Turn? Designing the Silent Laboratory. In Construction Matters - Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on Construction History, 8ICCH 2024 (pp. 1208-1215). doi:10.3218/4166-8
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Smyth, F., Rath, V., Kift, S., Sharp, M., McCarthy, P., & Loughrey, D. (2023). Shifting Sands: Reasonable Accommodations in the Covid/Post-Covid Environment. In AHEAD 2023. Unity: How Staff and Learner Communities Drive Inclusion. Dublin. |
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Roche, J., Barber, G. L., Bell, L., Brown, A., Crean, S., Darling, O., . . . Zouboulakis, K. (2023). Interrogating illusions of progress: citizen science, science communication, and a call for inclusive reform. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2023.1269816 |
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Roche, J., Jensen, E. A., Jensen, A. M., Bell, L., Hurley, M., Taylor, A., . . . Smyth, F. (2023). Bridging citizen science and science communication: insights from a global study of science communicators. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2023.1259422 |
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Massarani, L., Bray, H. J., Joubert, M., Ridgway, A., Roche, J., Smyth, F., . . . de Abreu, W. V. (2023). The distribution of science communication teaching around the globe. Journal of Science Communication, 22(6). doi:10.22323/2.22060205 |
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Smyth, F., Rath, V., McCarthy, P., Loughrey, D., Sharp, M., & Kift, S. (2022). Shifting Sands: Disability and Reasonable Accommodation in the Covid/Post Covid Higher Education Environment. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Forum for Disabled Staff and Postgraduate Students. |
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Smyth, F. (2022). ‘Sirapite for Sopranos’: Tempered construction and designing for musical tone. In History of Construction Cultures - Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on Construction History, 7ICCH 2021 Vol. 2 (pp. 294-299). doi:10.1201/9781003173434-150 |
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Roche, J., Arias, R., Bell, L., Boscolo, M., Fornetti, A., Knutas, A., . . . Wolff, A. (n.d.). Taking Stock and Re-Examining the Role of Science Communication. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 9. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2021.734081 |
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Smyth, F., & Tzotzkova, V. (2021). Experiments in Experience: Listening to Rooms and Pianos. In W. Brookes (Ed.), Experience, Music, Experiment: Pragmatism and Artistic Research. Leuven: Leuven University Press. |
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Smyth, F. (2020). Review of Edward Gillin, 'The Victorian Place of Science, Scientific Knowledge and the Building of the Houses of Parliament'.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
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Smyth, F. (2019). 'A Matter of Practical Emergency': Herbert Baker, Hope Bagenal, and the Acoustic Legacy of the Assembly Chamber in Imperial Delhi. Architectural History, 62, 113-144. doi:10.1017/arh.2019.5 |
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Smyth, F. (2018). Symphony for Full Orchestra and Asbestos: Tuning the Albert Hall during WWII. In J. Campbell, & et al (Eds.), Studies in the History of Services and Construction. Cambridge: Construction History Society. |
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Smyth, F., Tzotzkova, V., & Hollerweger, F. (2017, November). T60 or The Mystery of Acoustics: first steps towards a theater of sound in 12 scenes for piano, live electronics & voices. [Performance]. Killian Hall, MIT. |
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Smyth, F. (2016). Fine-tuning and Demolition: the First Acoustics Laboratory at Britain's Building Research Station. In J. W. P. Campbell, & et al (Eds.), Further Studies in the History of Construction. Cambridge: Construction History Society. |
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Smyth, F. (2015). Hope Bagenal and Wallace Clement Sabine: A legacy in letters. Acoustics Bulletin, 40(2), 26-30. |
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Smyth, F. (2014). Acoustic Design in the 1930s: Robinson and Keefes Church of Corpus Christi, Dublin.. In J. W. P. Campbell (Ed.), Construction History. Cambridge: Construction History Society. |
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Smyth, F. (2014). A Centenary of architectural Acoustics: Hope Bagenal and Wallace Clement Sabine. In Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics Vol. 36 (pp. 105-112). |
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Smyth, F. (2014). More than "a Machine for Living in": Science, Noise and Experimental housing in 1930s Britain. Construction History, 29(2), 103-120. |
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Smyth, F. (2013). Scales of Interaction: Aligning the Qualitative with the Quantitative in Music and Architecture. In Scale: Imagination, Perception and Practice in Architecture (pp. 88-98). doi:10.4324/9780203722909 |
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Kearney, G., Gorzel, M., Boland, F., Smyth, F., Lennon, D., & Rice, H. (2011). Real-time Walkthrough Auralisation of the Acoustics of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. In Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics Vol. 33 (pp. 244-258). |
