The face of the Disney Concert Hall

I was in L.A. last week. One of the things I went out of my way to see (another will get its own blentry soon enough) was the Disney Concert Hall. As with most people, I only know the works of Frank Gehry from the outside; I would often tell people that you really couldn't have much respect for a man whose entire design process apparently involved throwing a crumpled tissue at the client followed by the demand for a large check.



I got a chance to take lots of photos of, yes, the outside, but also the lobby/milling/loungey areas (which you never see featured anywhere because they're "non-primary-functional".. bullshit I say).

http://public.fotki.com/juanolator/trip-to-la/disney-concert-hall/

But most interesting is the main auditorium itself.... The acoustics, and thus the shape and surface of EVERYTHING seen inside the auditorium were designed by a Japanese man (Yasuhisa Toyota).


See the face? See the kabuki face?

hint: the center element is an organ; as in, pipe organ, moving a lot of air, as in breathing... the two blue areas in the top left & right are skylights (natural sunset light)..... and the sound comes from the.....


I will never accuse Frank Gehry of being a humorless man again.


As for the acoustics...... I will just say that there is a downside to an auditorium designed so perfectly that, even with the orchestra playing, you can hear every fiber of the clothing worn by people within 100 ft of you flexing as they reposition themselves in their seats... like corn popping... I'm all for function over form, and I'm very happy when there can be both, but when both get blown right out of the park with no compromise(*) it is awe-inspiring.

(*) I think the compromise is that it is actually a very small space for an internationally-known performance hall; maybe 300-500 seats, with in-the-round type seating to minimize "dead spots" in the back corners etc. They definitely had to (had to? got to!) choose quality over quantity in terms of seating.