Acoustical design and the characteristics of Sapporo Concert Hall

Abstract

Sapporo Concert Hall, with 2008 seats in the large hall and 453 seats in the small hall, was opened on July 4, 1997. Both halls were designed for classical music, the large one mainly for orchestral music and the small one for chamber music and recitals. The large hall was designed with the concept of the surrounded stage and ‘‘vineyard steps’’ seating arrangement like Philharmonic Hall in Berlin and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The emphasized points in acoustical design were as follows: (1) Effective use of the ‘‘vineyard steps’’ walls which were introduced into the audience area to provide the effective early reflections; (2) installation of the big sound reflectors suspended above the stage area to provide the effective early reflections to musicians and audience around the stage; (3) introduction of heavy material, 150-millimeters-thick concrete, into the main ceiling to get enough response in the low frequencies. The small hall was designed as a typical shoebox hall with narrow width and high ceiling. Acoustically tunable curtains were introduced to make the wide range of acoustical possibilities. The results of the acoustical design and its characteristics will be reported.