Sound waves hitting the hanging curtain

Transcription

1 Kiva Theater: Education Building: University of Idaho Case Study #4: A Performance Space Victor Ferral Noah Rinaldi Reid Weber Building Description: -The Kiva Theater is a 120 seat multi-configurable perfor- mance space located off the second floor of the Education Building at the University of Idaho. The floor plan is circular and 3819 square feet. -The Kiva features a digital sound system which uses a Mackie board and a Meyer Sound System. -The architects of the Education Building were Hummel, Hummel, Jones and Shawver, of Boise. Project completed 1969.

2 Building Description: Materiality -Gypsum Board Ceiling -Gypsum Board Walls -Brick Wall -Wood Flooring -Carpet Floors -Medium Velour Hanging Curtains -Plastic Chairs Material Absorbency List: Room (Full 500 Hz: Surface Material Area (sq. ft) Absorbency Absorption(S) Ceiling Gypsum Bd Curtain Wall Medium Velour Wall Brick Wall Gypsum Bd Floor (Small circle) Wood Floor Medium ring Wood Floor Large ring Carpet on wood Audience Sudents in tablet-arm chairs Total Absorption: Room Volume: cu. ft. Reverb Calculation: (0.049)*( / ) Reverbation Time: seconds

3 Absorbency and Reverberation Performance Analysis: The Absorbency and Reverberation of the Kiva are in line with what they should be for an Intimate Drama Performance Space... But those are not the Kiva s real acoustical issues... Model and Laser Analysis: Existing Conditions Our model of the Kiva, scaled at 1/6 = 1 0, makes use of chipboard for absorptive surfaces and aluminum foil to represent reflective surfaces. From this we confirmed that the wall tended to focus sound and the ceiling would reflect sound, but not as wide- spread as it could because it is a series of concave pockets. Laser pointed at the wall Laser pointed at the ceiling

4 Existing Ray Trace Reflections: The exterior walls are prob- lematic in this demonstration because of their inherent nature in focusing any sound that bounces off of them. When the speaker is in the exact center the reflections are okay but moving a little in any direction has strong consequences to the sound quality. Thus, what a person hears clearly in one location may not be clear just a couple feet away. Sound waves hitting the hanging curtain Redesign Materials and Implementation Strategy: To mediate the problem of concavity in the Kiva, a couple strategies should be implemented. The ceiling will better diffuse sound evenly across the space if a convex reflective cloud is used. Also the addition of wood convex panel walls on the perimeter of the space will better diffuse sound. If a portion of the ceiling becomes absorptive, the reverberation time in the space lowers a bit to become ex- actly in the middle of the desired range for a intimate drama space. Google Images

5 Material Absorbency List: Redesign Room (Full 500 Hz: Surface Material Area (sq. ft) Absorbency Absorption(S) Ceiling Gypsum Board Ceiling Acoustic Paneling Wall Wood Wall Brick Wall Gypsum Bd Floor (Small circle) Wood Floor Medium ring Wood Floor Large ring Carpet on wood Audience Sudents in tablet-arm chairs Total Absorption: Room Volume: cu. ft. Reverb Calculation: (0.049)*( / ) Reverbation Time: 1.04 Seconds! Model and Laser Analysis: Redesign The redesign clearly shows how sound is diffused over a much wider space by the ceil- ing with the use of a reflective convex cloud. Laser pointed at the cloud

6 Redesign Ray Trace Reflections: By incorporating a convex reflective cloud on the ceiling and convex panels around the walls (that will have a similar property to the curtains currently hung but diffuse sound instead of focusing it), the Kiva spreads sound out much better so the quality doesn t vary dramatically depending on the performer s position. Conclusion: While the Kiva Theater has an appropriate reverberation time for the use of intimate drame, it has the problem of focusing sound waves to specific points in the room and leaving other points in acoustical dead zones. Our redesign addressed this issue by dispursing the sound waves through means of convex detailing of the walls and ceil- ing. With these in place, the space will be much richer for performances.