A room for listening to other spaces, the Arup SoundLab makes it possible to demonstrate – before it is actually constructed – why a space needs to be a particular shape in order to provide the best quality of sound.

SoundLab was created by measuring over 70 concert halls and opera houses and using more than 15 years research to calibrate 3-D models for validating the accuracy of a predicted sound environment.

It enables, for example, a listener to hear the same orchestra playing in a number of existing concert halls – each with its own subtle differences – and then transfer it to a new concert hall design for comparison.

The same technique can be applied to a wide range of acoustic design issues, such as the intelligibility of speech over a sound system in a large area like a railway station, the reduction in aircraft or road traffic noise through different types of glazing and the effect of a train passing under a building.

SoundLab has listening rooms in London and New York, with another in Melbourne to follow later this year.

The system is currently being used on the railway station in Florence; a new concert hall in Boston; the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead – due to open later this year: Oslo’s new opera house and the British Library Sound Archive Studios in London.

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