LONDON — The Serpentine Gallery commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects to create a second space — the Sackler Gallery, which features Zaha Hadid’s characteristic curvaceous white roof. Jake Miller from RG Jones met the challenge of meeting the objectives for “full-range sound — bass response below 100Hz — without being obtrusive to the eye” by installing K-array’s compact KZ12 and KKS50 components.
More details from K-array (www.k-array.com):
In the beautiful Kensington Gardens in London, The Serpentine, a lake in the grounds, has historical associations both old and recent. In 1864 it was a site for the Christmas Day 100 yard swimming race that was inaugurated by JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. Right in the heart of this beautiful space is The Serpentine Gallery, which has shown modern and contemporary art since its opening in 1970. The gallery has recently commissioned architect group Zaha Hadid Architects to create a second space – the Sackler Gallery, located on the other side of the Serpentine Bridge.
The new venue is a former gunpowder store built in 1805 however; it now features an elaborate curvaceous white roof that is something of a trademark of the architect. The extension to the original building has created all new dimensions to the square rooms of the old gunpowder building and all sorts of challenges for Arup Associates who were commissioned to specify the system requirements for the audio and video features of the gallery.
One of the first challenges for Arup Associates was to create a flexible system that could be used for day-to-day announcements, playback, artist visits and accommodate demanding installations with unique audio specifications. In the two powder rooms where you can view the visiting artists work K-array KZ12s (Lyzards) were installed. The KZ12s offered a unique solution to create maximum quality sound but must be hidden within the architecture of the new design. Just 10cm long, the KZ12s are subtly installed among the beams which are connected to a KKS50 bass array containing four 4-inch transducers tucked away on a windowsill, out of sight.
The audio installation was managed by Jake Miller from RG Jones who firmly acknowledged the challenging brief set out by Arup Associates. “It was important from Arup’s point of view that the speaker system provided full-range sound — bass response below 100Hz without being obtrusive to the eye.”
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