But what does it sound like?

What would a place feel like if it was designed not just to look good, but also to sound good? After all, the eyes and the ears are how most of us experience the world, but town planning usually only focuses on what things look like. 

But Brent Cross Town is quite literally going to be wired for sound. If this sounds unfamiliar, that’s because it is: this will be the first UK town to be designed with a holistic sound and music strategy, implemented from the very beginning. And it’s central to our flourishing pledge: in 2019, the World Health Organisation concluded that music reduces stress, improves mood and helps us learn new things.

“Places are designed on screen, and so they’re very visual. The whole point of this strategy is to keep reminding all the teams working on Brent Cross Town that, ‘Yes, that looks amazing on screen, but what does it sound like?’”

Dr Julia Jones, AKA Dr Rock, is a partner at JLP Consultancy and the author of our sound and music strategy. Jones is talking over Zoom from her home, where several guitars, a picture of David Bowie and an entire drum set make up the rock ‘n’ roll scenery behind her.

Jones wants to move away from noise as pollution and treat it as a source of joy: “You’re missing a massive opportunity if you don’t also embrace the positive effects that sound has on the human brain.” As a sensory input it’s supremely powerful, she adds: “Sound helps us feel safe and calm, but that part of the picture is rarely being told.”

Our enjoyment of sound is universal: humans evolved to enjoy the sounds of safety, like gentle water or a breeze, whereas sounds of a potential threat, like roaring lions, made us stressed. “Even today, general sounds that are soft, quiet and gentle tend to have different brain effects than sounds that are aggressive, rapid and loud,” says Jones. 

But, no, this doesn’t mean the trees of Brent Cross Town will play muzak. “The key with sound is that you shouldn’t even notice it, right?” The sounds of Brent Cross Town might just drift around in the background, not even rising to our conscious brains, says Jones, “But your subconscious brain is still processing that sound, even if you’re not consciously aware of it.”

Instead of music, the sounds might be white noise, birdsong, a sweeping soundscape or a deep listening experience. It may also be the sound of silence, such as a secluded area of the park where you can’t hear the traffic due to clever construction. Good sounds may also mean designing restaurants for better acoustics – an open-plan kitchen looks great, but it’s loud! Other ideas include practice spaces, playground instruments, “zen dens”, silent discos, music venues, and busking plots with quality speakers.

Blanketing spaces with sound is still the norm, but it doesn’t need to be this way. “In a restaurant… you’ve just got a few speakers and everyone is getting blasted with the same music. But for not very much more money, you can have lots of smaller speakers so that you can zone areas – if someone doesn’t want music, you just turn those speakers down,” says Jones. It’s the same with live music performances: “You can really be quite precise with your sound, and a lot more sophisticated than just blasting everyone with two speakers, which is what we’ve been doing for decades.” 

A good sound and music strategy is often just about taking a moment and considering how it can be done better, says Jones: “This is a breakthrough moment, because it’s the opportunity to get a lot more sophisticated about the use of sound and music. A lot of the complaints that come from sound and music is because we’re being stupid about it!” She laughs. “We have the technology now, and it’s possible to do it differently.”

Music can also be a powerful tool for building community. Jones lived in New York for six years and remembers street parties in the East Village fondly: “And they weren’t necessarily loud. They were lively, maybe with a busker playing, but it’s about food and people coming together.” She is equally obsessed with the idea of sound as a means to get people active in sport and play – starting with staircases. 

“I’ve been obsessing over staircases for years! Climbing staircases is the easiest way to stay healthy, but people are making those areas very unattractive. By creating immersive experiences we can encourage people to use them.” If Jones gets her way, the staircases of Brent Cross Town will have rain forest sounds today, and Sir Ian McKellen reading Lord of the Rings tomorrow. “We’ve also been looking at embedding busking pitches along the running track, and in the playgrounds we’ve got musical instruments.”

There’s always some kind of sound floating about in the city, but as we work to make the sounds of Brent Cross Town pleasant, this will help make it a place where people enjoy being. Sometimes that means arranging a space for the best young rapper in the neighbourhood to draw in the crowds, and other times it won’t even be noticeable – it will just be a feeling. As Jones puts it, “The trick is having sound that makes people say, ‘This just feels like a really nice place.’”

Photo at top is from the Cubitt Sessions at Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross, photographed by John Sturrock