Musical analogy: an extremely inventive and simple device temporarily transformed a bleak black box

Architectural Review, The, Dec, 2002

Every two years, the Friends of the Australian Chamber Orchestra have a posh dinner to raise funds. In 2002, the Friends commissioned an installation to make a cavernous backstage box in which the dinner was to be held into a more congenial and intimate place. They commissioned architects Alice Hampson, Sarah Foley and Sheona Thompson and artist Sebastian Di Mauro to make a device that would be evocative of music and the orchestra itself.

The designers responded with a suspended device made from veneers of cherrywood and rotary cut pine that were curved in repetitive but subtly varying patterns, taking their form from the natural bending qualities of the materials. The lamellae were hung from the roof by stainless-steel cables, which were attached to delicate cramps made of hardwood slats fixed together with brass nuts and bolts.

The 20m x 30m lightweight structure hovered 2.5m over the floor, shedding light onto the tables from tungsten lamps, for which the curved forms made shades. Light shone up into diners' faces from small candles on the tables, so diners were enclosed in a warmly glowing intimate atmosphere. Both ruddy cherrywood and taut cables were evocative of musical instruments, while the repetitive but varied forms were partly intended by the designers to evoke music itself.

All materials can be reused, and the installation could be created in other ways elsewhere. The jury was very impressed with the imagination, economy and material understanding of the whole project.

RELATED ARTICLE: Architects

Alice Hampson, Sarah Foley, Sheona Thomson, Brisbane

Artist

Sebastian Di Mauro