Proposal for a new pavilion dedicated to music in the Royal Botanic Garden of Sydney.

Competition  entry for the Archmedium Sydney Rehearsal Follies

Project award the Honorable mention

The project proposes to create a place that is more than an building. Removing the walls to invite anyone to come and discover the music played by the students of the musical conservatory and their guests. This gesture creates a musical forum in close relation with the beautiful gardens and at the same time removes the barriers that would stop an unaccustomed audience.

The intent is to create a low tech installation to complement the existing Opera house by offering to the public an alternative experience and a new way to access the musical scene. More open and spontaneous, and less sacralised it would help diffuse music to a broader audience.

The use of the space would be flexible and easy to re-configure according to the events. Traditional concerts with famous guests or students of the conservatory. Impromptu live sessions by music lovers. Or a platform to experiment. Alternative practices like artistic-musical installations could take place there to expose new attitudes toward sound and music.

Amenities would be serviced by prefabricated pods installed on site prior to the events. Dismantable and movebale on trailers they would be stored in a warehouse offsite, leaving the site free and fully accessible the rest of the time.

The musical plaza is covered by a large sail suspended by a network of cables tighten between metallic blades. The roof is made by bands of a translucent waterproof fabric pulled over the cables and joined together forming a light and luminous roof. The overall shape echos the original design of the opera house by using a natural geometrical shape. The 2 hyperbolic curves create a concave surface, mirror symbolic of the convex shells of the Opera House.