INAUDITOS: Alternative structures for music manifestations - B.Arch final thesis
(Author: Vinícius Lemos / Advisor: Ana Rolim )
This project deals with music as a collective cultural manifestation, using the prolific scenario in the city of Recife, NE Brazil, as testing grounds. The fourth largest city in the country, Recife is a coastal capital where a myriad of festivals happen yearly.
Although we live in a world where music downloading is very strong, this has not stopped people from wanting to experience live music collectively. Based on recent studies by Packer and Ballantyne (2011) on the four facets - personal growth, subjective well being, social interaction, and identity issues - of this type of experience, as well as, the different types of festivals in the contemporary world (Projeto Pulso, 2017), this study proposes an alternative to standard types of music stages. The argument is that festivals in their multitude of styles tend to embrace diverse audience, music, activities, and merchandise. So, why do stages have to look the same?
Anchored in the generative design field, the point of departure is a review of types of geometries based on case studies focusing on the soft mesh, double-curvature, and hyperbolic paraboloid typologies (Agkathidis, 2015). The pros and cons of these geometries are analyzed in relation to the nature of types of current music festivals and their desirable aspects, that vary from viability and cost to assembling effectiveness.
A common scaffold structure and prefab parts are used as the backbone structure, which is combined with ETFE panels. Size wise, a survey of current running festivals leads to a family of small, medium, and large size stages, later developed through various digital procedures (Kolarevic, 2005, 2003; Agkathidis, 2015) .
Other than an ordinary backdrop, together with the performers, the stage becomes a feature, a soft acoustic shell-like artifact that is responsive and engaging.
For the soundtrack that inspired and was inspired by the project, please follow Inauditos on Spotify.
 The stage is set in one of the music festivals in the city of Recife. |  Overall view of 3d-printed prototype model |  Four facets of a festival experience |
|---|---|---|
 Types of festivals |  Synthesis of geometric strategies |  The current music festival locations in Recife, Brazil, where the proposal would be implemented |
 Case studies: Phillips Pavilion (Le Corbusier & Iannis Xenakis, 1958); Tuballoon (Snohetta, 2006); Soundforms (Jason Flanagan & Paul Bavister, 2012), and JS Bach (Zaha Hadid, 2009) |  Phases of digital design process |  The full geometric family |
 The small size family stage with Gaussian curve analysis |  Selected geometry of small, medium, and large size stage prototypes |  The morphogenesis process |
 Shape optimization and acoustic analysis |  Two phases in the process of optimizing the parts of the artifact |  Mapping of small-size stage prototype |
 Floor plan of the small size stage prototype, the variation selected to be detailed |  Transversal section |  Detail of prototype model |
 Front elevation |  The stage is set in one of the current venues in Recife, Brazil |  Then band and the soft shell |
 The show is on! |