Ojai Pavilion was designed in the hMa office of Victoria Meyers architect, as a pavilion to project sound around curved walls. The Ojai Pavilion was commissioned by Ernest Fleischmann, former CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The pavilion was not built when Mr. Fleischmann retired, the town of Ojai decided to go in a less creative direction with the design.
Ojai Pavilion: 'Bent Sound'; Victoria Meyers architect.
Ojai Pavilion design originated with a desire to design a building with bent walls, in order to preserve all of the trees on the Pavilion site. The resulting pavilion shape became a bent wall with a roof, designed to curve around trees. The curved walls also led to the idea that the pavilion would be an experiment about a music pavilion for 'bent sound'.
Ojai Pavilion: Exploded Isometric / Front and Rear Elevations. Post: Victoria Meyers architect
Ojai Pavilion will be one of the projects featured in Victoria Meyers' upcoming book, 'shape of sound'. 'Shape of sound' will include concepts about sound in architecture, as well as 'sound urbanism' - the idea that sound can be used to determine urban spaces.
Sound Urbanism: The distance that sound travels determines the 'event horizon' of the sound. In the past, the 'event horizon' was the town limit. In a crowded restaurant, the 'event horizon' can be the distance between two people at a table. Post: Victoria Meyers architect.
Prior to the 21st century, the outer boundaries of towns were often established by the distance that important sounds could reach: church bells; factory whistles; warning alerts for fire and other events. The distance to which these sound events could travel established an 'event horizon', which, in turn, determined the outer perimeter of the town.
The notion of the 'event horizon' as a means of determining town boundaries would be establshed by the shape of the landscape, features of the land area where the town was located, and other factors. Sound 'event horizons' can be quite distant, as in the clear air of the Town of Ravello, Italy, where six Medieval churches with bells still dominate the landscape, both formally, and with sound.
