London 2012 Olympic Water Polo Arena
BBC Earth Experience
Projecting footage from BBC’s nature documentary ‘Seven Worlds, One Planet’ on multiple multi-angle screens, this temporary exhibition offered audiences an unforgettable journey with an immersive audio and visual experience.
Key information
Architect
wooarchitects
Value
Undisclosed
Year of Completion
2023
Sector
Services
Challenge
The exhibition was housed in a new 1608m2 demountable venue in Earl’s Court, London, and featured hundreds of multi-angle screens, along with interactive rooms - allowing visitors to enjoy the immersive exhibition and original BBC Earth footage at scale. It used state-of-the-art digital screen technology, accompanied by bespoke narration from Sir David Attenborough.
We were appointed to provide acoustic design services for this project, including a feasibility study for planning. Our approach was to minimalise the noise impact on the surrounding residential areas and balance out the local background noise, without giving up the sound quality in the exhibition.
Immersive experience
The entrance from the front of the house into the main hall was via an entrance corridor without doors. To improve the sound insulation provided by the entrance, acoustic absorption was proposed to provide an environment that enabled people to chat in small groups when the building is fully occupied. A total of 60mm high density (60kg/m³) mineral wool insulation was applied and covered the walls and ceiling of the entrance corridor to maximise the sound insulation.
To create a fully immersive space, three wall types were used for sound insulation purposes with ratings of 40dB Rw, 45dB Rw, and 50 dB Rw. This allows reasonable speech privacy between rooms without disturbing the adjacent spaces.
The noise-generating plants were located externally on the east and west sides of the building. All HVAC units were selected to a sound power level of no more than 69dBA and only operated during the day, making the noise levels comfortably below the background noise levels.
Gallery
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