BAHIRDAR UNIVERSITY

ILA-DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
[Architectural sceince [Acoustics]]
PROJECT Instructor- DAVID H.
[Acoustic case study]

NAME -HANNA MEHARIW &

-MICHAEL AMSALU
CASE STUDY
GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE, CHINA
CONTENT
• BACK-GROUND
• INTRODUCTION
• CONCEPT
• DRAWINGS
• DETAILS
• ACOUSTIC DESIGN
• MATERIAL
• INOVATION
• CONCLUSION
• REFERENCE
BUILDING PROFILE
- ARCHITECT: ZEHA HADID
- LOCATION: GUANGZHOU, CHINA DOWNSTREAM OF
PEAL RIVER
- ACOUSTIC ENGINEER : SIR.HAROLD MARSHALL
- DESIGNED IN :2002
- LAND AREA:42000 SQUARE METER
- FLOOR AREA: 70,000 SQUARE METER SITE,
- FUNCTION: AUDITORIUM
ABOUT B U I L D I N G
THE THIRD BIGGEST OPERA ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA
•ONE OPERA HALL (INCLUDES MAIN STAGE, SIDE
STAGE, AND BACK STAGE) 1,800 SEATS
•ONE MULTIPLE-PURPOSE HALL WITH 400 SEATS
•FOYER, ART GALLERY, RESTAURANT, GARAGE
•70,000 SQUARE METERS (30,000 SQUARE METERS UN-
DERGROUND)
•TOTAL CONSTRUCTION INVESTMENT OF 200 MILLION
DOLLAR
DESIGN REVIEW
•ITS UNIQUE TWIN BOULDER DESIGN ENHANCES
URBAN FUNCTION WITH OPEN ACCESS TO THE RIVER-
SIDE AND DOCK AREAS
•CREATE A NEW DIALOGUE WITH THE EMERGING NEW
TOWN
•THE SHELTERED AREA FORMED IN ITS INTERSECTION
HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE OUTDOOR
ACTIVITIES TO COMPLEMENT ITS PRIMARY ROLE AS A
WORLD STAGE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
BUILDING HISTORY

THE 1800 SEAT GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE DESIGNED BY ZAHA HADID ZAHA HADID, WON THE DESIGN
COMPETITION IN 2003 WHO OPENED FORMALLY IN FEBRUARY 2011. THE DESIGN OF THE INTERIOR OF THE
PERFORMANCE HALL WAS COMPLETED WITH INPUT FROM MARSHALL DAY ACOUSTICS (MDA).

THE ORIGINS OF THE DESIGN OF THE GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE GO BACK TO 1994 AND THE DESIGN
COMPETITION FOR THE CARDIFF BAY OPERA HOUSE. IT IS A MATTER OF HISTORY THAT THE ENTRY BY ZAHA
HADID WAS AWARDED FIRST PRIZE IN THE COMPETITION BUT THAT THIS DESIGN DID NOT PROCEED TO CON-
STRUCTION AT THE TIME.
INTRODUCTION

THIS PAPER FOLLOWS THE DESIGN PROCESS FOR

THE OPERA HOUSE INTERIOR
FROM THE DISCUSSIONS OF THE INITIAL DESIGN
CONCEPTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN
PARAMETERS FOR THE ROOM, TO THE CREATION
AND MODELLING OF THE PRINCIPAL REFLEC-
TION SURFACES.
IN THIS PAPER WE WILL LIMIT OUR DISCUSSION
TO TOPICS RELATING TO ROOM ACOUSTICS.
WHILE WE INCLUDED PORTIONS PROVIDING
ADVICE ON SOUND INSULATION, VIBRATION ISO-
LATION, AND BUILDING SERVICES NOISE
 THE DESIGN EVOLVED FROM THE CONCEPTS OF
DESIGN CONCEPT A NATURAL LANDSCAPE AND THE FASCINATING
INTERPLAY BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND
ZAHA HADID’S PROPOSAL, CALLED LENGJUN NATURE; ENGAGING WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF
SHUANGLI (DOUBLE PEBBLES) WAS HIGHLY EROSION, GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
PRAISED FOR BRILLIANCE IN FUNCTION, FORM
AND FEASIBILITY. IT INTEGRATED TWO NON-RECT-
ANGULAR INTERLOCKING BUILDINGS SITTING ON
AN ARTIfiCIAL, RAISING PLATFORM THE LARGER
“PEBBLE”CONTAINED THE LOBBY, MAIN AUDITORI-
UM, PROSCENIUM STAGE AND VARIOUS WORK-
SHOPS AND SUPPORTING FACILITIES, WHILE THE
SMALLER HOUSED A MULTIPURPOSE PERFOR-
MANCE SPACE

THE GENTLE SLOPE CREATED A MULTI-LAYER CON-

TINUOUS PUBLIC SPACE, IDEAL FOR VARIOUS CUL-
TURAL EVENTS AND ACCESSIBLE TO ALL.
LANDSCAPE PLAYED A CRUCIAL ROLE. THE
GUANGZHOU PROPOSAL INCLUDED PLANS TO RE-
SHAPE THE SITE BY CREATING AN ARTIfiCIALLY
MADE LANDSCAPE .
DRAWINGS
 DRAWINGS

ELEVATION

section
DETAIL

section
ACOUSTIC DESIGN
THE AIM IS A ROOM IN WHICH SOUND AND SIGHT
TOGETHER CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONCERT EXPERI-
ENCE. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT AS RESPONSIBLE
CONSULTANTS WE USE ALL THE RESOURCES AVAIL-
ABLE TO VERIFY AND REFINE THE ACOUSTIC DECI-
SIONS. IT IS NECESSARY TO CHECK THE DESIGN
WITH EVERY AVAILABLE METRIC THAT IS SUPPORT-
ED BY RESEARCH. THE METRICS PROVE THE
DESIGN, THEY ARE NOT THE DESIGN THEMSELVES
BUT AT THE VERY LEAST THEY ARE A CHECK THAT
GROSS ERRORS HAVE BEEN AVOIDED.
THE GOAL FOR THE ACOUSTIC OF THE OPERA
HOUSE WAS TO PROVIDE GOOD LEVELS OF CLARI-
TY. THIS COULD BE ACHIEVED USING A SHORT RE-
VERBERATION TIME, WHICH WOULD LEAD TO A
WEAKER SOUND STRENGTH, OR A FULLER REVER-
BERATION TIME BY PROVIDING HIGH LEVELS OF
EARLY REFLECTIONS.
THE USES OF THE AUDITORIUM WILL INCLUDE OR-
CHESTRAL PERFORMANCES USING A STAGE SHELL.
THE OPERA HOUSE IS FITTED WITH A SOUND
SYSTEM FOR PERFORMANCES USING AMPLIFICA-
TION AND RECORDED MATERIAL. INITIAL DESIGNS
INCLUDED VARIABLE ABSORPTION BUT THIS WAS
REMOVED DURING THE DESIGN PROCESS.
ACOUSTIC DESIGN
THE DRAWINGS SHOWED THE AUDITORIUM AS A
SYMMETRICAL PLAN WITH A REAR WALL SLOPING
AWAY FROM THE VERTICAL. OUR VIEW OF THE
FIRST PLANS SINCE THE COMPETITION SHOWED A
RETURN TO AN ASYMMETRICAL INTERIOR FORM.
ANALYSIS OF THIS FORM STARTED WITH THE CON-
STRUCTION OF A 3D MODEL AND RAY TRACING TO
VERIFY EARLY REFLECTION PATHS
LINE OF SYMETERY
REFLECTION PATHS
SPLIT LEVEL TERRACED SEATING
FEATURES OF THE INTERIOR DESIGN INCLUDED
SPLIT LEVEL TERRACED SEATING IN THE STALLS
AREA, AND ASYMMETRICAL BALCONIES.
DEVELOPMENTS OF THE DESIGN INITIAL SCHEMES
WERE DEVELOPED TO DISTRIBUTE EARLY ENERGY
WITHIN THE AUDITORIUM, AND IT WAS REALIZED
THAT THE ASYMMETRY OF THE HALL COULD
BECOME A VIRTUE BY FREEING UP WALL SURFACES
TO PROVIDE EARLY REFLECTIONS.
ACOUSTIC DESIGN
“I RECALL OUR FIRST DISCUSSION ABOUT ASYM-
METRY AND SUGGESTING THE REFLECTING SUR-
FACES FROM LEFT AND RIGHT AS ARMS EMBRAC-
ING THE STAGE, WITHIN THE ESTABLISHED ARCHI-
TECTURAL IDIOM AND WHICH BECAME THE DEFIN-
ING CHARACTER OF THE SPACE IN THE ARCHITECTS’
HANDS.” (SIR HAROLD )
FIG SHOWING HOW IT IS DISTRIBUTING PRIMARY REFLECTIONS
IN THE OPERA HOUSE
ACOUSTIC DESIGN
IN THE AUDITORIUM THE USEFUL DIRECTION OF
EARLY REFLECTED SOUND WAS LIMITED WITH VER-
TICAL WALL SURFACES AND A FLAT CEILING. SO
THEY USED A CARDBOARD MODEL TO ILLUSTRATE
THE ORIENTATION OF SURFACES THAT WOULD BE
REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE THE ACOUSTIC GOALS.
THEN CURVED WALL SURFACES APPEARING IN THE
CARDBOARD MODEL THAT SHOW BETTER ACOUS-
TIC QUALITY (REFLECTION).
THEN THEY HAD THE TASK OF VERIFYING ACOUSTI-
CAL PERFORMANCE OF THIS NEW FLOWING GEOM-
ETRY.
BECAUSE BREAKING THE GEOMETRY INTO LARGE
FLAT SURFACES WAS NOT GOING TO PRODUCE AN
ACCURATE REFLECTION PATTERN FOR ANALYSIS.
-SO FLOWING GEOMETRY THAT IS GOOD FOR
SOUND REFLECTION AND CIRCULATION IS USED
-FINALY THE MODEL WAS PRODUCED AND MANY
ITERATIONS OF THE INTERIOR DESIGN TOOK PLACE
AS SURFACES WERE MOVED AND RESHAPED TO
TUNE THE ACOUSTIC CHARACTERS.
THE ACOUSTIC DESIGNERS USED DIFFERENT TOOLS
AND MODELS TO DESIGN THE OPERA.
AFTER BUILDING AND EXPERIMENTING ON THE
SCALE MODEL OF THE OPERA HOUSE THE ACOUS-
TIC TEAM REALIZED THAT THE CONVEX CURVATURE
OF THE REFLECTION SURFACES CLOSE TO THE
STAGE WERE NOT SUFFICIENT TO AVOID DISCRETE
LATER REFLECTIONS AT SOME AUDIENCE POSI-
TIONS. (NOT ENOUGH DIFFUSION)
THEN LATER DIFFUSION WAS ADDED TO THE SCALE
MODEL, AND THE ALTERED LATE REFLECTION SE-
QUENCE WAS ANALYSED.
ARRIVING AT A SUITABLE FORM FOR THE INTERIOR
WALL DIFFUSION DID NOT COME EASILY WITH SEV-
ERAL SCHEMES OF INDENTATIONS BEING DIS-
CUSSED WITH THE ARCHITECTS. EVENTUALLY A
PATTERN BASED ON THE STRUCTURAL STEEL
WINDOW FRAMES OF THE EXTERIOR OF THE BUILD-
ING WAS DEVELOPED IN COMBINATION WITH A
COMPLEX VARIATION OF THE DEPTH OF THE PAT-
TERN.
 MATERIAL

THE WALLS AND CEILING WERE FORMED FROM

40 – 50MM GRG. SECTIONS WERE CREATED IN
MOULDS OFF SITE AND THEN FIXED TO A STEEL
FRAME. THE SURFACE WAS TREATED TO ACHIEVE A
WARM GOLD HUE.

FIG : INTERIOR DIFFUSION DEVELOPMENT DRAWING AND IN-

STALLED FORM
MATERIAL

FOR THE OUTSIDE 75000 STONE PANELS WERE

USED AND FOR THE INTERIOR THE MAIN MATERIAL
USED WAS FIBER GLASS WITH GYPSUM REINFORCE-
MENT WHICH CAN CREATE DIFFUSION AND DE-
CREASE EARLY REVERBERATION TIME.
WHEN DESIGNING GUANGZHOU OPERAS HOUSE,
THEY WERE FOCUSING ON THE QUALITY OF
SOUND AS ITS MULTI-FUNCTIONAL BUILDING.TO
ACHIEVE THEIR GOAL MATERIAL PLAYS ITS OWN
ROLE.
TO AVOID LATE REFLECTION, THEY USE CONVEX
CURVATURE AND STRUCTURALLY STEEL FRAMED
WINDOW AND DOORS.
MATERIAL
THE RESULTING PATTERN IS BASED ON 1.4M WIDE
CURVED PANELS OF GRG AND CORINA, WITH A
THICKNESS OF 25MM. THESE ARE PERFORATED
WITH A WHOLE SIZE VARYING FROM 91MM TO
5MM DIAMETER WITH A FIBERGLASS BACKING
BLANKET.
THE FIBER GLASS USED TO PROVIDE LOW FRE-
QUENCY ABSORPTION. AND WHEN THEY NEED TO
HAVE A HIGH FREQUENCY ABSORPTION THEY USE
HIGHLY DENSE FIBER GLASS IN COMBINATION
WITH PANELS.
MATERIAL
THE ROOM’S CURVATURE HELPED IT TO HAVE HIGH
DIFFUSION SURFACE. ALSO CURTAINS ( USED ON
THE REHEARSAL ROOMS) HELPED TO ADJUST THE
REVERBERATION TIME.
• THE ORCHESTRA
• AUDITORIUM
• AND THE OPERA HOUSE
ALL OF THEM HAS DIFFERENT PANEL ARRANGE-
MENT AND DIFFERENT AMOUNT OF PERFORATED
PANEL DEPENDING ON THEIR FUNCTION, SIZE, THE
NEED FOR THE QUALITY OF SOUND AND THE
AMOUNT OF REVERBERATION
.
INNOVATION INNOVATION

WE ARE FAMILIAR WITH SYMMETRICAL HALLS. AND THE MULTI PURPOSED HALL
IT’S NOT THAT HARD TO ACHIEVE A GOOD ACOUS- THE FLEXIBLE MULTI PURPOSED HALL HAS 400
TICS. BUT THIS BUILDING HAS ASYMMETRIC INTERI- SEATS FROM THEM 12 ARE INDEPENDENT. AND THE
OR WHICH IS UNUSUAL AND HARD TO ACHIEVE. SHAPE OF THE HALL IS RECTANGULAR. THE REVER-
THE AIM OF THIS DESIGN WAS TO CREATE SUCCESS- BERATION TIME BETWEEN 1.4 AND 1.5S.
FUL SOUND REVERBERATION AND CLARITY OF THIS CAUSES GOOD SOUND QUALITY.
SOUND ON DIFFERENT STAGES. THEY CHOOSE TO
HAVE SHORT REVERBERATION TIME TO DECREASE
EARLY REFLECTION.
THEY TRIED TO HAVE RT (MID) = 1.6S OCCUPIED AND C80≥+2DB
ACROSS THE SEATING AREA.IT HAS ASYMMETRIC BALCONIES IN
DIFFERENT LEVEL SO THEY HAVE CONSIDERED ALL 1800 SEATS.

AFTER THEY FINISH IT THE AVERAGE C80 MEA-

SURED OVER 18 RECEIVER POSITIONS IN THE AUDI-
TORIUM WAS 1.3DB IN THE UNOCCUPIED HALL. AP-
PLYING THE DIFFERENCES PREDICTED IN ODEON
BETWEEN OCCUPIED AND UNOCCUPIED CONDI-
TIONS GIVES AN AVERAGE C80 OF 2.2DB
INNOVATION INNOVATION

THE REHEARSAL ROOMS

TWO MUSIC REHEARSAL ROOMS AND ONE FOR
BALLET WERE DEVELOPED AS PART OF THE PROJ-
ECT. FROM THE INITIAL RECOMMENDATIONS OF
VOLUME ALLOWANCE AND AREAS OF CEIL-
ING/WALL TREATMENTS, CONSIDERABLE CHANGES
TO THE INTERIOR TREATMENTS WERE DEVELOPED.
THE ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTION INVOLVED HARD
SURFACES IN A SMOOTH AND FLOWING CONFIGU-
RATION. THE IMPOSITION OF “ACOUSTIC PANELS”
WAS NOT AN OPTION, AND THE WALL SURFACES
WERE CREATED WITH RESPECT FOR THE IDEA AND
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR SUFFICIENT ACOUSTIC
ABSORPTION AND DIFFUSION. FIGURE : PANEOLS FOR THE CEILING AND WALLS OF THE REHEARS-
AL ROOMS
CONCLUSION
FROM THIS HALL WE CAN SEE THERE SUCCESSFUL
DISTRIBUTION OF SOUND ON THE ASYMMETRIC
OPERAS HOUSE HAVING ASYMMETRIC BALCONIES
IN DIFFERENT LEVELED SEATS. THEY WERE FOCUS-
ING ON
• THE MATERIALS: THEY USE MATERIALS HAVING
GOOD ABSORPTION AND REFLECTION QUALITY.
-FIBER GLASS AND GYPSUM
-PANELS
- STEEL FRAMED WINDOWS
-PERFORATED CEILINGS
• FUNCTIONALITY: THEY HAVE USED DIFFERENT
TECHNIQUES AND DIFFERENT MATERIALS FOR DIF-
FERENT ROOMS TO HAVE A QUALITY SOUND.
E.G. THEY USE CURTAIN TO INCREASE DIFFUSION
.
CONCLUSION
• ARRANGEMENTS OF SEATS; IN GUANGZHOU
OPERAS HOUSE SEATS ARE ASYMMETRICAL. AND
THEY USE PANELS TO DISTRIBUTE THE SOUND TO
EACH SEAT IN EQUAL QUALITY.
THE CHARACTER OF THE DESIGN PROCESS FOR THE
ACOUSTICS OF THE GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE
WAS QUICKLY ESTABLISHED BASED ON THE
SEARCH FOR A SEAMLESS CONNECTION BETWEEN
THE FUNCTION AND FORM OF THE INTERIOR SUR-
FACES.
TENOR RICHARD MARGISON IS QUOTED “THE AU-
DITORIUM ITSELF IS PRETTY BIG INSIDE, BUT STILL
HAS AN INTIMATE FEELING. I MUST ALSO SAY THAT
THE ACOUSTIC IS FANTASTIC – NOT TOO DRY AND
NOT TOO BRIGHT.”
SO GENERALLY THE ACOUSTICS OF THE OPERA IS
SUPERB.
REFERENCE
-GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE _ MARSHALL DAY ACOUSTICS.PDF
-GUANGZHOU-OPERA-AUDITORIA-2010.PDF
-http://www.google.com/GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE CHOOSES L-ACOUSTICS
SYSTEMS - L-ACOUSTICS
- THE ROOM ACOUSTIC DESIGN OF THE GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE.PDF
-httm://www.archidaily.com
THANK YOU