LISTEN TO YOUR DESIGN

摘要

I would challenge anyone not to flinch when approached (seemingly) from behind by a speeding motorbike in Amp's acoustics division's new London SoundLab. So realistic is the 3D sound experience that you feel you're really there in the sunny, tree-lined street on the screen before you, as the bike momentarily shatters the tranquillity. The 20m~2 dark-walled room, in the basement of Amp's offices in Fitzrovia, central London, has been designed from scratch as a fully isolated box-within-a-box. There are SoundLabs in New York, Melbourne and Hong Kong and there is another one in London, but the Fitzrovia facility is the first to be purpose built. Amp's Glasgow office is planning a bespoke design for next year. The main purpose of the SoundLab is predicting the sound qualities of a space, enabling architects and clients to 'listen' to a proposed building such as a concert hall, office or railways station - or even an outdoor development such as a public park or subway - before it is built, to assess general audibility and purposefully generated sound.