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Sound business

Behind the brain cells creating Paris’ new opera house

Acoustic design is a bit like sailboat design—a brain-splitting mix of mathematics, intuition and art. So why has the French government selected Auckland firm Marshall Day Acoustics from 98 competitors to design ‘la Philharmonie de Paris’, the new $400 million opera house?

The answer, says founder Dr Harold Marshall, may be found in the 35-year-old Christchurch Town Hall. “Because we were isolated from the rest of the world, we weren’t forced to rely on precedents in the design,” he says. “There were no rules in the world for a concert hall like it.” Marshall’s groundbreaking design features an inner and outer chamber. The French opera house will have a completely different design, but based on the same acoustic principle.

Marshall Day also has an understanding of architecture, which means the firm can work closely with French architect Jean Novel. After all, the opera house will need to share a skyline with the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph and sound like better than the Berlin Philharmonic Hall.

The way in which architecture and acoustic design works is fascinating in itself. In the case of la Philharmonie, Marshall says the Jean Nouvel team has two groups working alongside each other on the creative space and the ‘nuts and bolts’. “Both teams are given equal weight and then the alchemy happens,” he says. “The catalyst for the alchemy in this case was the acoustics—that’s where we come in.”

Business partner and acoustic engineer Chris Day says the relationship between the acoustics consultant and the architect is the key. “The two can’t be in isolation. They need to work together at the conceptual stages to ensure that the shape, orientation and acoustics will work together with the architecture.”

Marshall says an architectural background helps. “It’s about having confidence to conceive new ideas.” His teams then test the ideas against the known properties of sound and spaces using physics and engineering.

Some acoustics designers arrive at an architectural firm with the room designed, and then expect the architect to build around it. “We’d rather let the room have its own voice,” he says of his conceptual design. “It doesn’t say to the architect this is what you have to do; it says here’s a possibility. It enriches the architectural experience.”

Conceptual ideas show a ‘nest’ design featuring a ‘space within a space’. The brief calls for ambiguous spaces with asymmetric possibilities—not just a static space. La Philharmonie de Paris will include a major concert hall space, rehearsal rooms, smaller practice rooms, a foyer, café and library. The main concert space will seat an audience of 2,400 in suspended balconies. The construction is expected to begin in 2009 and be completed by 2012. 

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