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 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."