When you have two concrete parallel walls, like we do in our rehearsal spaces and then in the Justice Forum [an intimate theater space], parallel walls are really bad for acoustics. You get a condition called flutter echo, where you have two sound waves bouncing off two parallel hard surfaces. So we had to break that sound up. What we needed to do was create a random texture which would diffuse and break up the sound. That’s where we came up with crinkled concrete. — CityLab
In a recent interview with CityLab, Steven Holl Architects' senior associate Garrick Ambrose discusses a design solution the firm created in order to mediate acoustics within their newly opened Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts expansion, The REACH, in Washington, D.C.
Ambrose shares with CityLab, "We knew that we needed to create a three-inch-deep texture in the concrete surface that would diffuse and break up the sound to mitigate the echo. We knew that the pattern needed to be as random as possible."
"We experimented in our shop with different ways of getting that three-inch relief. When we stumbled upon crinkling the metal, we found that it was incredibly striking visually, and it gave us the random pattern needed, and it also gave us the three-inch depth to break up the sound."
1 Comment
or, you know, make the walls not parallel.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.