German Concert Hall Elbphilharmonie Designed With Mere Algorithms Looks Breathtaking

By Staff Writer on Jan 20, 2017 11:55 AM EST

Hamburg has just unveiled a new concert hall and it costs just less than a billion dollars, $843 million to be exact. The concert hall deemed Elbphilharmonie looks astounding that it makes one to think that they're in a film set for The Twilight Zone. The concert hall can accommodate up to 2,150 spectators and is surely a candidate for a slot in the Seven Wonders of the World, adding more glory to Germany.

Elbphilharmonie Hall's magnificent lighting is composed of a thousand carefully and gracefully placed light bulbs and what makes these light sources special is that all of them are hand-blown. This auditorium is technically different from the rest of the building and its enclosure resembles that of a cocoon. As centerpiece, it has this reflector that seems to be suspended on air:

The opening of the #Elbphilharmonie, designed by @herzogdemeuron, is a cultural milestone for Hamburg. https://t.co/pJy9BtRXji By @dbasulto pic.twitter.com/Ni9q9Jn1JU

— Surface Magazine (@SurfaceMag) January 11, 2017

Visitors are in for a real treat as the visual impression of this concert hall is remarkable. The off-white panels are properly placed in between seats as if they were there for a reason. And technically, they do serve a purpose. The number of these panels reach 10,000 and they all carry up to a million seashell-shaped grooves that act as sound absorbers so that no sound bounces back to any surface within the Elbphilharmonie. In effect, unwanted echoes during performances are eliminated.

This is also where the algorithms come in as panel designer Benjamin Koren explains to The Wired that the shell-shaped grooves in Elbphilharmonie are done not by hand but by a series of computations. As mentioned, the design's purpose is to absorb unwanted sound bouncing off hard surfaces during a concert.

On top of a plethora of desired specifications, Koren was tasked to design 10,000 acoustic panels, and that not any of the panels should be alike. This is why he turned into computer algorithms to develop these unique "cells" and lay them out properly to a perfect room acoustic setup that is now what is within the Elbphilharmonie.