Zaha Hadid Designs Music Hall for Manchester International Festival
ZHA's design features a translucent fabric ribbon swirling throughout the space, with embedded clear acrylic acoustic panels above the stage to reflect and disperse the sound.
Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 8/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
Marrying two of our culture's greatest pursuits, classical music and architecture, Zaha Hadid Architects recently completed a temporary chamber music hall at the Manchester Art Gallery, just in time for the second annual Manchester International Festival.
The 82-by-56-foot hall, which remains open for public viewing through September 1, was specifically designed 
to house solo performances of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach during last month's festival. It features a translucent fabric ribbon swirling throughout the space, intended to create a spatial and visual response to the relationships of Bach's harmonies. The ribbon careen above a stage before swooping into the ground and wrapping around the audience.
"The design enhances the multiplicity of Bach's work through a coherent integration of formal and structural logic," says Hadid.
An internal steel structure suspended from the ceiling articulates the ribbon, which featured visually imperceptible clear acoustic panels above the stage to reflect and disperse sound. The translucent fabric wrapping the ribbon varies between high-tension skin effects on the exterior, and a softer billowing appearance on the interior. Designed to be transportable, the installation also features programmed lighting, as well as a series of dispersed musical recordings in the spaces between the ribbon, which were reserved for non-performance times.
Photos and renderings courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects.
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