Unclassical Music | Berlin, Germany | Unit 21 | 2025

Unclassical Music redefines the rehearsal and performance of classical music, serving as a complex of rehearsal rooms for the Berlin Philharmonie, an instrument repair shop, and a café. Above the rehearsal spaces sit a series of ‘sensory chambers’ that filter noise from below and distort the auditory experience. It explores sensory representation, culminating in distorted spaces shaped by the phenomenology of a restaurant. The project challenges traditional ideals of performance acoustics, experimenting with new sonic landscapes while maintaining functional rehearsal environments. Distortion began as a response to the site’s iconic surroundings, the Berlin Philharmonie and the Neue Nationalgalerie. Their contrasting plan lines were extracted and overlaid onto the site, dragging and pulling massings later refined by acoustic simulation. Further distortion occurs in the sensory chambers, each altering sound uniquely. The above-ground forms echo Scharoun’s dynamic Berlin Philharmonie, while Miesian influence appears in columns, lighting, and rectilinear basement spaces.

Using Grid Lines as Context Surrounding context of Neuenationalgalerie and Berlin Philharmonie used as framework to create early distortions.

Auditory Occupation of Proposal Excerpt from final animation.

Sonic Alterations Collapsed sensory stimulation displaying different types of sonic alterations.

Final Plans and Sections

Final Visualisations