In July 2010 the Governor of the Omsk Region asked Valery Gergiev to conduct in the Omsk Philharmonic concert hall in April 2011. While the 1960's hall had hosted many important events, the acoustics in the room weren’t designed for the beauty of unamplified music performance. So the Governor had a vision to renovate the room to support the rich musical talent of the Omsk Philharmonic in time for Gergiev’s performance.
Sergey Bannicov, Executive Director of the Omsk Orchestras had begun to research the concert halls of Russia and found that the renovated hall in Kazan, Tartarstan was acoustically among the best. The team contacted the acoustician for the hall—Nicholas Edwards of Acoustic Dimensions—to interview him for the project. Edwards began his work with research on the hall, but there was little information. After all, the hall was concealed within a city that had been closed to Westerners until 1991. Nick was able to connect with pianist, Andrey Chulovskiy who informed him by email that the concerts of the symphony orchestra were well attended and the hall was very comfortable, but that the acoustics did not fully support classical music.
Nick received his first real clue about the acoustical nature of the hall when he was sent a photograph of the interior: The low, wide, multi-purpose hall had strongly sound-diffusing wall and ceiling surfaces. While the design worked for multipurpose performance, for concerts it lacked the volume and sound-reflective surfaces needed for listeners to receive the reflections which define the great halls. It struck him that much would need to change to meet the Governor’s visionary goals and to facilitate the connection between the performers on the stage and the patrons in the audience.
Later that day the next photograph arrived showing a view to the back of the hall. The steep seating rake provided excellent sightlines—perfect for a lecture room or cinema but it created a shape that worked against the acoustic needs of a concert hall. Nick also noticed that demolition was in progress – before the concept for the new hall had even been proposed – evidence that the decision to renovate the hall had been made and was in progress. He shortly received another email saying “We'll be calling you soon. We're waiting for the answer about the wall's covering - to remove or not to remove?” By return, he said “There is no question -- the wall covering must go.”
To meet the rapid timeline prior to receiving his visa and the architectural drawings of the hall, Nick used the photographs to create line drawings of the hall to scale, and began to compare the hall with other concert halls. When the sketches arrived, it was revealed that beyond the prominent inner walls of the hall lay a simple rectangular box shape. For an acoustician, this was an exciting discovery. The rectangular shape opened up acoustical possibilities that the fan shape would not have allowed. However, the seating rake was not as easily resolved. To create the volume needed for the music, the main floor had to be demolished.
With a passion for the project, Nick went to work utilizing proprietary IMAGES software to begin the predictive analysis to draw the concept for the renovation. A week later, Edwards submitted his design.
When he was later asked “Where did the design come from? And did it really just take a week?” Nick laughed and clarified, “It actually took thirty-two years of design experience, and a week.”
- Cathy Hutchison, Acoustic Dimensions Blog
