Williamsburg music venue creates chamber hall acoustics through futuristic architecture

National Sawdust hopes to inspire music through its unique architecture

National Sawdust
National Sawdust

A new non-profit music hall has opened in Williamsburg and it’s like no other venue you’ve seen before.

national-sawdust-2Once upon a time, music was composed with specific venues in mind – a very distant memory in the age of digital music. But National Sawdust, at 80 North 6th Street in Williamsburg, hopes to inspire new compositions through its unique architecture, according to Wired.

National Sawdust looks like a generic industrial building from the outside, but inside, the venue has been designed to create “a hyper-tailored acoustical experience.” Architecture studio Bureau V and engineering firm Arup used bright white walls, strips of light and angular sound panels to a futuristic space with the acoustic qualities of an old chamber hall.

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To cancel out outside noise, the venue was designed as box within a box. Arup acoustical engineer Raj Patel says they made the venue a box within a box separated by layers of concrete, wood and giant springs.

The main room is composed of four white walls covered with fabric panels shaped like shards of glass.

“We want to allow musicians to pick where they perform and compose work from a specific location,” Patel told Wired. [Wired]Christopher Cameron