SOUND LOUNGE School of Architecture University of Virginia
Sound Lounge promotes Jefferson’s concept of the “Academical Village” for the 21st century, fostering dialogue and communication among users. Using Holosonic speakers to emit a column of directed sound through each of the elliptical cones, the “sound showers” provide contained communal auditory experiences that can be programmed by students and faculty to include music, outside lectures, podcasts and other audio. The largest cone marries sound and image, visible from a projected image framed by the elliptical carpeted wall screen. The oval listening stations are referential to the fixed oval classrooms located beneath the library of the original Jefferson Rotunda. Their free and open plan suggest the liberation of the traditional classroom into a more flexible and informal one, made by the marriage of design and technology. (With Joel Sanders Architects)
