ASO Studio: Frozen Music - Rhythm & Harmony in Architecture: San Francisco Symphony Experimental Theater
Theaters and performing arts buildings are among the most complex typologies, consequently they provide an excellent and challenging subject for the study of advanced and comprehensive architectural design. In this studio, students design a new flexible venue to host a variety of different musical and multimedia performances.
Hodgetts and Fung, Wild Beast, Cal Arts, Valencia.
ASOS Catalog Course Description
Design research focusing on a specific building typology can elucidate basic principles of architecture theory, technology and practice. Theaters and performing arts buildings of all types are among the most complex typologies, consequently they provide an excellent and challenging subject for the study of advanced and comprehensive architectural design. In this studio, students design a new flexible venue to host a variety of different musical and multimedia performances.
All creative disciplines, specifically architecture and music, similarly express humanity’s artistry in different media. The architectural typology of performance, in which music is ubiquitous, is perhaps where this dialog and synergy can be most effectively and poignantly addressed. Issues of rhythm, structure, harmony, hierarchy, sequence and balance are seminal to both regardless of function.
Most global cultures developed musical and theatrical performance independently, with their own unique forms and traditions. Contemporary theater building design typology has continually evolved with changes in culture, social mores, cross-pollination with other cultures, and the development of new technologies. Occupants experience space through their sequence of movement and the changes occurring in the spaces they inhabit.
A site visit and meeting with the “client” – executive leadership of the symphony and the professionals working on the actual project – is planned for Spring Break. We will study San Francisco’s Civic Center, the Davies Symphony Hall, SF Jazz, the deYoung Muse¬um (Herzog & deMeuron) and California Academy of Sciences (Renzo Piano Building Workshop). An optional extension to Los Angeles will include tours of Disney Concert Hall (Gehry Partners), the Getty Museum (Richard Meier), Cal Arts “Wild Beast” Recital Hall (Hodgetts & Fung) and LACMA Pavilion for Japanese Art (Bruce Goff). Funding for this trip will be available for a minimum of $500 per student, with some additional funding available for those with additional need.
This studio is part of the Theater Architecture concentration and is the result of a direct invitation to participate in this real project from Len Auerbach of Apiero Design, one of the leading theater design consultants.