Nico Potenza

Architectural Sound

Architectural sound, part of the space from the beginning

Sound belongs with architecture, light, materials and furniture — designed from the first sketches. Left until the end it becomes an equipment problem, and by then the room has already decided what is possible.

The design problem

Considered too late, sound becomes equipment

Most rooms are specified in a fixed order: the architecture first, then the materials, then the interior, and sound only at the end, if at all. By the time acoustics is raised the ceiling is closed, the walls are finished, and the positions that would have carried a system elegantly are already occupied by something else.

The alternative is to treat acoustics as architecture — how sound behaves within a space — specified with the drawings rather than added at handover.

A Japanese water courtyard in mist, stepping stones across a still pool, and a dark cylindrical loudspeaker on a lit base at the water's edge.

Conceptual visualisation featuring authentic Architettura Sonora product designs.

Products in this setting: Cylinder Medium

Indoor environments

Part of the interior, not applied to it

Architettura Sonora combines acoustic engineering, natural materials and precise fabrication into objects that read as architecture rather than equipment. Coverage, placement, amplification, DSP, finishes and lighting are planned with the room, considered together rather than decided one after another once everything else is fixed.

A tropical residence at night opening to lit planting, a concrete cube loudspeaker on a lit open base beside the sofa and a black spherical loudspeaker on its stand across the terrace.

Conceptual visualisation featuring authentic Architettura Sonora product designs.

Products in this setting: Cube_400 TEN · Sphere_360

Terraces and swimming-pool environments

Outdoor rooms, engineered like indoor ones

Cube 400 TEN and Sphere 360 are engineered for indoor or outdoor systems, so a terrace or a pool deck can be specified in the same conversation as the room behind it. Sphere 360 in particular covers a terrace, a garden room or a lounge without a listening axis to protect, with two base designs that let the same object sit on a floor, a plinth or a planted edge.

A coastal villa interior open to a sunset sea, a spherical loudspeaker on a low stand at the left and a marble cube loudspeaker on a lit open base beside the seating.

Conceptual visualisation featuring authentic Architettura Sonora product designs.

Products in this setting: Sphere_360 · Cube_400 TEN

Architettura Sonora

Architectural sound as part of the project

Architectural sound for residential, hospitality and outdoor environments, designed in from the beginning rather than added at the end. Architettura Sonora combines acoustic engineering, natural materials and precise fabrication to create professional sound systems, planned with the architecture rather than fitted to it afterwards.

The current range

Four objects, each an engineered instrument

Alongside

Where it sits among the other disciplines

Private cinema, game rooms and integrated interiors are their own disciplines, each coordinated with architectural sound rather than built around it.

Tell me about the project, and where sound sits in it.

Discuss an architectural sound project