This article was taken from the July 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
It's unusual for a performance hall to be made of concrete but 66-year-old Chiaki Arai, architect of the Akiha Ward Cultural Centre in Niigata City, Japan, "thought it would be fun". Completed last year, the 496-seat main hall is encased by multifaceted walls that can pick up low, heavy tones that would otherwise be absorbed.
To direct and diffuse sound evenly, Arai cut holes in the walls and ceiling and covered them with 1.5mm-thick sound-absorbing aluminium fibre panels. To soften harsh echoes, the concrete surfaces were given a Japanese finishing treatment called "kotataki" that gives a pebbled texture. "Because it was such a complex structure, we knew that once we'd begun to build, it would be impossible to tweak the design," says Arai. "So we used 3D modelling and conducted acoustic simulation and structure analysis simultaneously. We were able to react accurately to really nuanced feedback from the acoustic experts."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
