Concert Hall, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay opened its doors in 2002. Located on prime waterfront land on the shores of Marina Bay, this complex features the Concert Hall, Theatre, Outdoor Theatre, Recital Hall, "Black-box" Theatre, 3-level retail mall, and an underground carpark. In its immediate vicinity are over 5000 world-class hotel rooms, two major convention centers, 1000 shops, 300 restaurants and 7500 parking spaces.
Esplanade's 1800-seat Concert Hall features acoustics control chambers that surround most of the audience areas, a 3-segment adjustable acoustical canopy over the concert platform, and remote-controlled acoustical curtains, which are placed at strategic locations. This enables the hall to provide ideal acoustics for a wide range of performances from solo recitals, to concerts with full orchestra, organ, and chorus. The flexibility of performance production systems and adjustable acoustic systems also allows the hall to provide both Asian music and traditional Western performing arts ensembles with the same level of acoustic quality. Its flexible performance platform is designed for a maximum of 170 musicians and 200 chorus members. The concert hall features a Klais Orgelbau pipe organ.
Both performance venues are constructed as "boxes-within-boxes" to insure protection from outside noises and vibrations. The isolation techniques include wide structural air gaps to further insure that vibrations generated in "noisy" areas will not be transmitted to the acoustically critical performer and audience areas. Solid, dense construction materials were used to insure that acoustic sounds from the lowest organ pedal notes, to the highest overtones of string and percussion instruments, are preserved and distributed to the listeners.
Artec provided Design and Planning services covering Auditorium Acoustics Design and Background Noise and Vibration Control for Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay. The project's architect for the center was Sir Michael Wilford and DP Architects.
