‘Tsuru’ is the largest acoustic art installation by the Amsterdam textile designer Samira Boon.
Studio Samira Boon has created ’Tsuru’ for the central atrium of the Performing Arts Centre of Brighton College, United Kingdom. This acoustic textile art installation grows ivy-like on the large theatre box walls, both bringing nature into the building, as well as adding important acoustics properties in the heart of it.
The Richard Cairns Building is a Performing Arts Centre designed by the Dutch architecture studio KRFT. The atrium, located in the heart of the building, connects the 400-seat theatre, classrooms, a café, and lounge by wide staircases which also can be used as rehearsal space, lunch hangout or theatre foyer. It is a true crucial social connector, hence the utmost importance of good acoustics in this spacious void.
Essential qualities of the artwork are the acoustic properties. Tsuru is more than 100 square metres in size. It spans up to 10 metres high and 26 metres wide, consisting of three-dimensional textile origami surfaces. Angled triangular and diamond-shaped facets are ideal acoustic diffusers.
The intricate organic-geometric pattern is parametrically designed and by highly advanced weaving techniques integrated into the high-tech textile, realised at the TextileLab in Tilburg. “The folds are pre-programmed into the textile, which is composed of a variety of structures of various twisted yarns, resulting in subtle colour and texture variations,” explains the designer. “This complex creation process gives the installation its natural ivy-like appearance.”
Photography: Stijn Bollaert
