Music Institution
Reading, UK
A music institution conceived as an architecture of rhythm, resonance and movement. A circular performance space anchors the project while landscaped routes connect the city to the canal.
Interpretive 3D study based on the portfolio drawings
Built from the site plan, section, exploded axonometric and renders on portfolio pages 3–7. The drum, its stepped hall, the mezzanine, the roof garden with its skylight and the terraces to the canal are modelled to the level those drawings support. Interiors beyond the section and axonometric are not modelled.
- Scale is proportional: the drum diameter and storey heights are read from the section and axonometric; no dimensions are stated.
- The outdoor terraces follow the curved bands on the site plan; their exact number of steps is not drawn.
- The timber-slatted annexe and the curved outdoor performance screen are taken from the render and axonometric; their construction is not detailed in the source.
- The section view cuts the model through the centre of the hall; the paired drawing is Tala’s own section, which remains the authoritative description of the interior.
- Reading, UK — a canal-side site
- Music institution with a circular performance space
- Recording studios, double-height performance space with stepped seating, café, mezzanine, practice music and dance rooms, rooftop garden
- Academic design project
Concept and atmosphere
The design statement sets the building out as an instrument: rhythm in the repetition of its structure, resonance in the circular hall, movement in the routes that pass through and around it. The circular performance space anchors the project while landscaped routes connect the city to the canal.
External perspective of the Music Institution at dusk: the circular performance hall above a stepped landscape descending towards the water.
Concept sketch: an exploded isometric of the circular building, the ring of rooms lifted above the performance hall.
Concept board motif: flowing lines translate the movement of the canal into the paths through the building.
Reading the site: public realm
The building is positioned within a stepped landscape, with the canal edge becoming a space for gathering, movement and performance. The site plan places the drum at the north-east of the site and sweeps curved, stepped terraces from it down to the water, with outdoor performance areas and planted circles set among the trees.
Site plan: the circular hall set within a stepped landscape of terraces and trees descending to the canal edge. No scale is stated in the source.
Site analysis collage, layering a hand-drawn plan of the canal-side site with the graffiti, weirs and movement of people found along the water.
Section: movement and levels
A continuous spatial sequence links practice, performance and the public landscape. The section cuts through recording studios, the double-height performance space with its stepped seating, the café and the mezzanine hallway, under an extensive green roof; outside, the stepped seating continues down towards the canal. Its construction legend (CT01–CT20) records CLT panels, acoustic panelling, sound and thermal layers, the green-roof build-up and the ground slab.
The exploded axonometric separates the ground ring (entrance and registry, recording studio, kitchen, bathroom), the upper ring (mezzanine round hall, practice music and dance rooms) and the rooftop garden with its skylight.
Long section: recording studios, the double-height performance space with its stepped seating, the café and the dance studio beneath planted roofs, and the outdoor stepped landscape. Labels SU01– and CT01– are keyed to the legends on the sheet.
Detail of the section through the performance space, with the mezzanine hallway above and the café and dance studio alongside.
Construction legend CT01–CT20 from the section sheet.
Exploded axonometric: the rooftop garden and skylight, the mezzanine ring of practice rooms and the ground floor with the performance hall, café and outdoor stepped seating, separated above the site (legend SU01–SU14).
Material, assembly and technical study
Structural thinking, timber connection studies and physical model-making are presented as essential evidence of design development. The material study proposes reusing reclaimed glulam, with the ABBA Arena cited as a precedent; timber connection details and a 1:20 tectonic model work out the joints, and a 1:200 site model and a section model test the whole.
Construction technology study: build-up details of the green-roof edge and the wall-to-floor junction, keyed to a cutaway through a practice room.
Timber connection study: a laser-cut model of the branching column whose angled arms carry the roof structure. The sheet cites reclaimed glulam from the ABBA Arena as a precedent; those photographs are not reproduced.
The 1:20 tectonic model of the branching timber column that supports the roof of the Music Institution.
The 1:200 site model, with the stacked plywood terraces sweeping between the landscape elements and the circular hall.
The 1:200 site model seen from above, showing the circular hall and the curved landscape elements across the engraved site base.
Section model of the Music Institution's circular hall: a curved wall segment with openings and a tier of stepped seating.
Architectural atmosphere
Theatrical experience is not an effect added to the project: it emerges from movement, light, scale and the shared experience of sound. The renders show the drum at dusk above the terraces and the water, and the hall inside lit from its skylight.
Inside the circular performance hall, where a mezzanine ring overlooks musicians playing beneath the central skylight.