Spatio Vibratum
Supportive Structure for Classical Music & Opera Spectacles in Ancient Theaters
Concept & Design Diploma Project | School of Architecture Engineering | National Technical University of Athens 2019
Supervisors: Eleni Alexandrou, Ariadne Vozani | Consultants: Androniki Miltiadou, Ioannis Timagenis
Can we perform Opera in an open-air ancient theater without microphones?
The project aims to create a network of classical music based on the ancient theaters in Greece and the Mediterranean. Opera itself is more correlated to these ancient spaces than with think: Opera was born back in the 17th century when philosophers and musicians in Florence tried to imagine and revive famous ancient Greek drama scenes. In the project, the traditional spatial relation between a musical orchestra and the singers is inverted. The singers in an ancient theater would be in front of the orchestra, for their voices to reach the audience. The orchestral sound is quite minimized because of the open field. The diploma thesis focuses on this essential acoustic structure that surrounds an orchestra and reflects the sound to the audience. By classifying the ancient theaters in Greece in use, the principles and the limits of the design process are set: The proposal contains a series of structural steps for a transportable, assembled, and reflective acoustic structure that can be adapted in many theaters and reply to each one’s unique state. The structure is formed by modules that can be placed with various schemes based on the best acoustic outcome. Each module of the final shell-like structure is divided into 3 levels: Its principal static “column” that provides the possibility of changing the inclination of the structure, the reflective surface (which is also made out of smaller modules and their intermediate connection, which is a kinetic smaller structure that reflects the mechanism of an umbrella providing many different lengths and possibilities. A system like that could also be combined with projected scenography, lighting, or alternative acoustic panel shapes.
