Performing Sound Factory | Andrea Muciaccia

Architectural acoustics has ever focused mostly on official cultural facilities hosting performing arts, particularly cultural music. Over the years musical performances had quickly evolved from classical type toward a popular one. Actually the current wide range of musical expressions are performed outside the official buildings for music, because of several requirements mismatch. While acousticians mainly work on official halls, popular concerts concurrently take place in adapted or adopted spaces. Thence it results a lack of reliable assessments of their acoustical behaviour (exept from Niels Adelman-Larsen experiences). The approach to a prospective popular music venue's project demands an innovative evalution of the acoustical performances and the electroacoustical sources distinctive features. An iterative design strategy is supplied, in order to improve the collaborative design between architects and acousticians, and is executed using CAD modeling tools, alias the architectural input, and a prediction model from Odeon software, alias the acoustical response. The case study is located in Bari and involves a disused paper factory, in front of the “Niccolò Piccinni” Conservatory and the adjoining “Nino Rota” auditorium, currently under refurbishment. At the end, the simulation process is explained in details, particularly regarding to sources and materials characterization. Therefore, a selection of the most relevant acoustical parameters, in compliance with ISO-3382/9 and listed as expected from each family beloging, is displayed and finally commented. The outcome of this workflow process demonstrates that the more aware and cross-curricular is the popular music venues design method, the more effective results it yields regarding to the predicted acoustical responses. Moreover it can contribute to reduce the unavoidable punctual sound-reinforcement treatments during or after the buiding works, and so helps to hold construction costs down.