A unique venue for musicians opened in 80 North 6th Street in Williamsburg. According to The Real Deal, the newly opened non-profit music hall is like no other because it is made of unique and futuristic architecture.
The National Sawdust in Williamsburg looks like an old industrial building coming from the outside but its "interior has been designed to create a hyper-tailored acoustical experience." According to Wired, the amazing work of art is through the help of architecture studio Bureau V and engineering firm Arup.
The full design details are meant to create "hyper-tailored acoustical experience." They used bright white walls, strips of light and angular sound panels. With how it looks similar to "Star Wars" but its acoustical properties are well-aligned if you compare it to the 18th century chamber hall.
In order to be able to cancel out the noise coming from the outside the venue was designed "as box within a box," according to The Real Deal. Raj Patel, the Arup acoustical engineer said that "they made the venue a box within a box separated by layers of concrete, wood and giant springs."
According to Wired, "The room has four white walls covered with fabric panels shaped like shards of glass." Peter Zuspan, co-founder of Bureau V explained that "The fabric is the equivalent of what you see outside of a speaker."
For you to feel more the intimacy of the music inside the venue, "it is important that it quickly reaches your ears. Patel explained that ideally the sound coming from the stage and all its reflections should reach your ears in under 80 milliseconds."
He then said that, "If you don't have the right sequence of reflections in that window the room architecture and the performers feel like they're far away." And he compared it to hearing announcements on a train.
Not all types of music share the same reverberation that is why Zuspan and Patel designed the room without a fixed stage. Patel explained, "We very consciously said we're not going to do that here." He added, "We want to allow musicians to pick where they perform and compose work from a specific location."
The music hall is created in order to provide a space that will work hand in hand with musicians.