Playable Pavilion Aims to Make Beatboxing an Olympic Sport
Sketch of the Beatbox Pavilion. (Courtesy of Pernilla and Asif)
Coca-Cola has big plans for an Olympic Park pavilion for London’s 2012 sporting extravaganza. London-based architects Pernilla & Asif have created the “Coca-Cola Beatbox,” a spiraling structure clad in red and white panels that appear to be suspended in frozen animation. It’s not only an intriguing structure but an interactive musical instrument. The experimental architecture works with cutting edge sound technology, encouraging people to interact and “play the pavilion.”
Inspired by sounds of the Olympic games—the plunge of an archer’s arrow into a target, athlete’s quickened heartbeats, squeaking sneakers—the Beatbox will be imbedded with sound-bites created by Grammy Award-winning producer Mark Ronson that allow visitors to remix their own mashed-up productions.
The Latest From Gwynne Pugh
The logo for Pugh's new firm
We recently ran into Gwynne Pugh, former principal at Pugh + Scarpa (now Brooks + Scarpa), who earlier this fall left his longtime job (22 years to be exact) to start his own firm, Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio. It seems that he’s already quite busy working as an urban design consultant. Pugh, who sees himself as an intermediary between cities and developers, is consulting with agencies in the cities of San Diego, Carson, and Long Beach. He’s also teaming up with Bridge Housing on an affordable housing project in Santa Monica and working with Coca Cola to review its sustainability scheme for its bottling plant in Downey. Pugh is also president of the planners’ division of the League of California Cities. “It’s been a great opportunity for me to focus on some of these issues I care about,” said Pugh, who right now is working with three employees, and plans to move to a new office in Playa Vista in the beginning of next year.
Advertise on The Architect's Newspaper.
Archives
Categories
Architecture
Design
East Coast
Midwest
National
Planning
Shft+Alt+Del
Sustainability
Transportation
West Coast
