Time Sep

(Jeff_L) #1

82 TIMESeptember 3–10 2018


As visually striking as the
Herzog and de Meuron–
designed concert hall is—a
glass tower perched atop a giant brick
warehouse surrounded on three sides
by water—it’s the acoustics that steal
the show at Elphi (as the locals call it)
which opened in 2017. The central
auditorium is covered in 10000
gypsum-iber white acoustic panels
each with a unique series of divots that
scatter or absorb sound. No two panels

are alike but together the undulating
interlocking panels create an optimal
sound map across the entire auditorium.
The result is a richer better sound
for those occupying the 2150 seats
surrounding the stage. Acoustician
Yasuhisa Toyota is even more focused
on the response from the performers.
“The more time they spend in the hall
the better their ensemble becomes since
they can hear themselves and each other
more.”—Kate Rockwood

Spotlighting indigenous artists
SKWACHÀYS LODGEVANCOUVER

NEXT-GEN ACOUSTICS
ELBPHILHARMONIEHAMBURG

Although Canada’s
indigenous population
has exploded over the
past decade its cultural
contributions are often overlooked.
Not so at Skwachàys Lodge a
boutique hotel—featuring 18 guest
rooms and a rooftop sweat lodge—
that provides affordable housing
to 24 First Nations artists who

work and live on-site. The result is
a facility that immerses guests in
Native art—they can take classes on
beading tribal art and spoken-word
poetry—and also empowers the
people who create it. Skwachàys has
already used hotel proits to launch
an in-house gallery space; soon it will
start helping indigenous artists sell
their crafts online.—Abigail Abrams

THE ARTFUL


ESCAPE
JACKALOPE
MERRICKS NORTH
AUSTRALIA


REPURPOSING


THE PAST
TAI KWUN
HONG KONG


Hong Kong’s largest-
ever restoration proj-
ect which opened
this summer is a
complex of 16 former
police and judicial
buildings—some of
them 150 years old
and all relics from
Hong Kong’s days
as a British crown
colony—revitalized
as a complex for
the city’s arts and
culture. Visitors can
have a drink in the
former jail or watch
a Shakespeare play
in a onetime prison
yard among other
activities.—Casey
Quackenbush


It’s easy to luxuriate
at this boldly
remodeled 143-year-
old homestead
located on a vineyard
in Australia’s
Mornington
Peninsula. But
the hotel’s most
memorable feature
may well be the art
including a 10000-
bulb chandelier
meant to evoke
the champagne-
fermentation
process and
the namesake
sculpture—a 23-ft.
ode to the mythical
jackalope (a rabbit
with antelope horns).
—Eli Meixler


In addition
to being
a hotel
Skwachàys
Lodge
provides
housing to
indigenous
artists

THE WORLD’S GREATEST PLACES 2018


ELBPHILHARMONIE: TODD ROSENBERG; WILDERNESS SAFARIS BISATE LODG

E: CROOKESANDJACKSON
Free download pdf