Setting for Prometeo Opera, Venice and Milan, Italy

This was one of the structures that I used as part of the precedent study for the Book Peoples Retreat. The idea behind it is very simple, put the audience in the centre with the orchestra surrounding them. Members of the orchestra could also move around to create distortions in the music. It was a temporary structure that could be taken apart and installed inside buildings which suffer from bad acoustics.

The drawing of the section took the best part of a day for me to complete, and I went through two packs of drafting pens. It was almost like learning to draw all over again as I have become so familiar with AutoCAD.

The Model

Although challenging, I had fun building this model. To give you an idea of the scale, when on the floor it reaches a couple of inches above the knee. To ensure the models integrity, the only glue used is holding the layers of balsa wood together to construct the curve. The rest of the model slots in to place and holds itself and can be taken apart when in transit just like the full scale structure, this is very handy when using the underground at rush hour to get to the presentation.

The Plan

Project Details

Client Ente Autonomo, Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Architect Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Italy

Design Team R Piano, S Ishida, A Traldi, C Abagliano, D L Hart, M Visconti

Structural Engineers M Milan, S Favero

Music L Nono

Libretto M Cacciari

Director C Abbado

with R Cecconi

Contractor G F Dioguardi SpA