BEAUTIFUL NEW SOUND PLACES

All week long, we’ve been asking the question of “What does sound look like?” Here are some beautiful new places that are exceptionally beautiful to both hear and see.

 

ARK NOVA

Sculptor Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki have designed the world’s first inflatable concert hall in Tohuku, Japan.

The mobile structure, called Ark Nova, was part of an effort to spread hope by touring throughout the northeastern part of Honshu, which has been ravaged by earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Ark, which can house between 500 and 700 audience members. The pneumatic structure is made from an elastic shell that can be quickly inflated and dismantled. It is now stationed in Japan's Matsushima, a locale still recovering from the natural disaster induced devastation.

Photo: Courtesy of Fry Reglet. Bing Concert Hall.

 

BING CONCERT HALL

The Bing Concert Hall, at Stanford, is a spectacular new sound temple designed by Ennead Architects, Nagata Acoustics, and Kreysler & Associates. Together they created an environment that is both intimate and tremendously dramatic.

Photo: Courtesy of Chronicle. Bing Concert Hall.

 

The innovative design includes eight giant wall panels, resembling sails, and a 127-foot cloud structure for the ceiling made of 80 individual panels.

842 seats are arranged in a “vineyard” format, with seating sections ringing the stage. The center-section seating begins on the same level as the stage, offering beautiful sight-lines from all angles, bringing the artists and audience together in a unified experience.

Photo: Justin Terveen for Jaffe Holden Acoustics, Inc. Dallas City Performance Hall.

 

DALLAS CITY PERFORMANCE HALL

 

The Dallas City Performance Hall is one of the most versatile performance spaces. Warm, intimate acoustics, designed by Jaffe Holden Acoustics, deliver reverberant sound, coming from the relatively large acoustic volume of the room and its carefully shaped cast walls.

 

The selection and placement of loudspeakers, combined with careful tuning, ensures that every seat in the new hall gets appropriate and consistent sound that emanates from the stage, not the loudspeakers. As a result, acoustic music events and amplified events alike can work seamlessly in the same room.

 

Double layered acoustic fabric banners can be deployed on the side walls, which can be used in a number of different settings to tune the room for different types of events. A movable orchestra shell surrounds the musicians on stage providing a blending and projection chamber, while an orchestra pit can be tuned for opera and dance performances.

Photo: Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects. Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Center rendering.

 

ABU DHABI PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE

 

Zaha Hadid’s design for the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre was conceived as a sculptural form, reflecting the fluidity of motion. It is inspired by natural forms.

Photo: Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects. Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Center rendering.

 

Zaha Hadid describes the bodies housing the performance spaces as being ‘embedded like pearls and exposed at the same time, emerging out of the structure, like fruits of a plant, facing the sea’.

 

The building has been designed to flow from the Sasdiyat Cultural District, with views of the Arabian Gulf. It will house five theaters, music hall, concert hall, and opera house.

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Read more about Beautiful Sound Visions, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, including 10 New Books on Sound & Vision, The Great Animal Orchestra Vision,  The Fusion of Sound and Taste, and The Fusion of Sound and Vision in our posts throughout this week.

 

Enter this week’s BN Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Sound Visions. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 01.19.14.

Photo: Courtesy of InterActiveMediaSW.

Also, check out our special competition: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World! We are thrilled about this effort, together with SoundCloud and The Sound Agency. The Winner was announced 1/12/2014 at 12:00 p.m EST. Click here to see and hear the winning entry.