Secret musical messages in Australian Chamber Orchestra’s new home | juliepower
If walls could talk. And windows and ceilings. They do in the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s new concert hall, The Neilson, where the surfaces contain secret and coded messages about the power of music.
The indentations of the Braille in the curved panels acted to “sweeten” the reflections from the walls and avoid “acoustic glare”, said Nick Boulter, associate principal with Arup. His practice also wanted to make “make buildings with meaning” that the public could relate to on a human scale. “You’re not necessarily aware of what’s under the bonnet ... [but] you feel the excellence, the manufacture and the attention to detail.
“It is always good to see what people wrote about the masters, or those who ended up as part of the cannon, before they became demi-gods,” Tognetti said. Tognetti said the architects spent so much time sound proofing the only sound that comes through is when a helicopter flies low overhead.The Power of the Dog