Yasmeen Almuhanna: Looking Out Week 12

LMN ARCHITECTS’ COLLABORATIVE SOUND CLOUD

"For a 700-seat concert hall at the new School of Music at the University of Iowa, Seattle-based LMN Architects wanted to design a high-performing ceiling canopy that would unify the many features of traditional theatrical and acoustic systems. The result is a 150-foot-long by 70-foot-wide surface composed of 946 suspended, intricately laced panels that incorporate complex, interdependent, and at times conflicting systems—including lighting, theatrics, speakers, sprinklers, and acoustical functionality—in a unified architectural gesture."

      

LMN built the mockup from aluminum composite paneling, a relatively inexpensive metal system composed of two layers of aluminum with a composite core. The material is highly flexible and it can be bent by hand after scoring on the CNC mill. This process could potentially eliminate on-site fabrication requirements. Fabrication data generated by this production model will be applied to all 946 of the unique panels in the final project.

Documents will go to bid this summer, and the building is expected to open in 2016.

Each piece is numbered to indicate placement within the system. (courtesy LMN Architects)

The panels are secured to rows of steel ribs. (courtesy LMN Architects)

The mockup is 1/3-scale of the original 150- by 70-foot system. (courtesy LMN Architects)