Design of the new opera house of the Suzhou Science & Arts Cultural Center
Résumé
With an anticipated opening in 2007, the new Opera House within the Suzhou Science & Arts Center incorporates several novel design elements to accommodate the multipurpose usage. Functioning primarily as a world class opera and concert hall, and also as a venue suitable for traditional and amplified music, the design achieves, through purely passive means, a high degree of acoustic variability and exceptional sound envelopment. The approach combines lateral reverberation chambers and a rear coupling acoustic volume, and aims to produce a high degree of listener envelopment throughout the seating area, while also providing a variable reverberation time (early and late) to adapt to an wide range of musical needs. This paper presents the design approach as well as results of prediction models for the Opera House.