Sunday, October 4, 2009

Detailed Research on chosen case study

The Walt Disney Concert Hall was to create a world class concert hall with great acoustics and this project was successfully completed in 2003 designed by Frank Gehry. It engages audiences with the greatest ideas in music as well as the architecture itself. It has become one of the most astonishing building ever built in Los Angeles.

Frank Gehry's competition winning design for Walt Disney Concert Hall.

One of Gehry's plan sketch for concert hall site

Coloured drawings of the Grand Avenue

One significant objective of Walt Disney Concert Hall was to effectively make the area more appealing and liven it up. So Gehry did a lot of drawings exploring the site's interaction at night times to fully visualise the downtown, where many community celebrations take place along with the built Concert Hall for the whole area originally had a "weak" brand image as a city.

"Downtown has to make itself more physically appealing - beyond the first blush of enthusiasm - in order to reach the second and third levels of residential growth. There is a friction generated by the needs of the ingredient and homeless Downtown and the emerging residential community there. Catalytic projects like Disney Hall have to be seen in that context." - Zev Yaroslavsky

The Concert Hall is a place for great concert performances which can contain adequate sound reflections. Gehry accomplished these by experimenting with shapes and curves [as seen in his many expressive sketches] for the exterior construction and the bowed strips which sailed across the concert hall ceilings, providing maximised sound reflection.

Experimental models Gehry used to explore the many possibilities of the exterior wrappers along with expressive sketch.

Top: Orchestra Level PLAN.
Bottom: Garden Level PLAN.

Top left to right: Axonometric drawing of the Concert Hall Interior. Cutaway drawing of the Concert Hall Interior.
Bottom: Final Model of Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Top: Model with metal exterior.
Bottom: CATIA computer drawing of the steel structural frame.

Top: Model [Early 1992].
Middle: Working of models.
Bottom: One tenth scale model prepared for acoustical testing.

Construction of the Concert Hall began in November 1999 and structural framework was completed within 19 months. The interior of the auditorium proved to be one of the world's greatest not only because of its aesthetic qualities but also the impressive sound reflectional function.

The exterior was also a challenge for Frank Gehry wanted to avoid the look of a church organ. Models were made to explore possible designs as well as making one-tenth scale models which were used for acoustical testings. With the help of CATIA [Computer-Aided Three dimensional Interactive Application], it allowed him to abstract forms of any scale and was able to compose walls of curved planes. Therefore, the chosen material for the exterior forms of the Concert Hall was steel because it could produce unlimited numbers of compound curves.

The building had to look brilliant during both day and night times. So it was decided that rigid, three sixteenths inch thick plates were to be used for they were wire-brushed in multiple directions "to achieve a luster that would eliminate glare but remain luminous at night".

Reference
Symphony: Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, Harry N Abrams, New York, 2003

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