Doppler Effect - what does physics have to do with architecture?

 I was originally so puzzled by the title of Robert Somol and Sarah Whiting’s “Notes Around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism.” In the article, they both push back against the characterizations of architecture as critical, autonomous or a “between” position (which they call out as an “everyday fact of life”), and introduce a fourth way of framing it — the projective position. 

This is the part that called me back to high school physics class. The Doppler Effect is the perceived change in the frequency of a wave that occurs when the source and receiver of the wave have a relative velocity. The Doppler Effect explains the change in pitch between the sound of a train as it approaches and then moves away from the listener. (Perhaps you were confused too if that doodle of a train in the middle of the page overlapping the text was supposed to be there? The answer is yes, it even has a caption callout). 

Now to tie it back to architecture: the Doppler metaphor is a way of describing how architecture can oscillate between both polarities of culture and form. These two points are constantly in motion and changing their relative velocities to one another. Both experiences of hearing different frequencies are true, valid and even concurrent. This is important because of its flexibility and wide area architecture can now exist within!

I really enjoyed this clever explanation of architecture. I am not a fan of Eisenmen’s autonomous architecture. I find his approach conceited but could see some of its merits and how it opened a door for his proteges to further explore. However, I was also skeptical of the “between” position because it seemed a little bit like a lazy cop out. This Doppler explanation accounts for “architecture’s inherent multiplicities: material, program, writing atmosphere, form ,technologies, economics, etc,” and allows us to focus more upon its effects. I also liked the point that when architecture venture into the realm’s outside our scope, we are not labeling ourselves as experts on the subjects, but we are experts on design and how design can impact said field. While their diagram is a bit simplistic, it shows how we can really dip our toes into any subject as it ties to design.