Bau’s Blaug
The latest news from “the Big Cheese” - Executive Director Bau Graves.
What is a Schroeder Diffuser?
Plans for Old Town School’s new facility are continuing to evolve in interesting directions. The proposed building will feature a flex-use concert/dance hall, three spacious dance studios, and fourteen acoustically isolated music classrooms. It will incorporate environmentally-friendly “green” technology throughout, and will be wired to take advantage of 21st century electronic communications. And those are just the basics.
Extended planning meetings with every segment of the School community produced a wealth of insight into how our classrooms actually function. Those insights are being incorporated in dozens of design modifications that separate a good building from a great one. Things like: built-in computer terminals and sound cabinets in every classroom; ample in-room storage space for everything from hula hoops to djembes; walls laid out slightly off-parallel to eliminate reverberation; clerestory windows flooding dance studios with natural light; cubbies on the far side of the room so students can keep an eye on their stuff while they dance; and our very own Schroeder Diffuser.
A Schroeder Diffuser is a surface broken up into multiple, apparently-haphazard angled planes, employed by acousticians who need to “deaden” a room. You may have seen one in a recording studio or radio station. The wall essentially “soaks up” audio waves. Our architects at VOA Associates have designed an entire interior surface, from the ground to the roof, as one giant Schroeder Diffuser. The result should be a building safe for the random music-making that makes our School so welcoming but can often turn a normal conversation in the lobby into a shouting match. Imagine enjoying that jam session in the hall – and conducting business at the front desk, too! Coming soon to a School near you.
Floor plans and renderings of the building can be viewed in the admin suite or teachers’ lounge. Our window of opportunity for your great suggestions is still open. Thanks!
Filed under: Uncategorized by Bau | October 14, 2008 | Comments (1)
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