The Sound Futures CDT launched its topic days series in late January with the CDT students travelling to Salford, Manchester to visit the Salford Acoustics Innovation Labs and the RIBA award winning performance space, Stoller Hall.
Hosted by Stoller Hall, the first day opened with Adam Thomas (Arup), who outlined how the Arup team delivered the hall’s unique “box-in-a-box” construction.
His talk highlighted the hall’s bespoke acoustic finishes and the engineering decisions that enable its exceptional sound isolation. Students were then taken on an exclusive behind‑the‑scenes tour, where they examined the hall’s independent inner structure and its separation from the ground using elastomeric bearings.
The visit also gave students the chance to apply concepts from the Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics module in a real‑world setting. Working within the performance space, they carried out some impulse response measurements and perceptual tests, gaining practical insight into how acoustic theory translates into architectural experience.
As an added highlight, the group enjoyed a lunchtime recital by students from Chetham’s School of Music, offering a live demonstration of the hall’s acoustic qualities.
Day 2 was hosted by Salford Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Salford.
First a tour of the acoustics labs with introduction to accredited standard testing and calibration with from Danny Wong-McSweeney (Head of The Centre for Acoustics of the Built Environment), followed by hands on experimental sessions on sound absorption measurements with James Massaglia and Jonathan Hargreaves.
