Work has been completed on Zaha Hadid’s temporary chamber music hall, designed specifically to host solo performances of Bach’s compositions as part of the Manchester International Festival.
The hall, installed inside a 17m by 25m room at the Manchester Art Gallery, takes the form of a ribbon which creates an interior space that wraps around the 192 strong audience plus performers.
The structure is created with an internal steel frame, which is suspended from the ceiling and covered with a translucent fabric stretched tightly over the exterior but allowed to billow on the inside of the space.
Acoustic panels made of clear acrylic have been suspended above the stage to reflect and disperse the sound with minimal visual impact.
Hadid said: “The design enhances the multiplicity of Bach’s work through a coherent integration of formal and structural logic. A single continuous ribbon of fabric swirls around itself, creating layered spaces to cocoon the performers and audience with in an intimate fluid space.”
Pianist Piotr Anderszewski, Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and Violinist Alina Ibragimova will perform a total of nine solo concerts in the chamber during the festival, complemented by a series of free lunchtime concerts.
The chamber music hall is designed to be transportable and could potentially be erected in a number of other venues after the Manchester Festival, which finishes on July 19.
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