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Group G Gorse Hill Studio 20 Years On

Gorse Hill Studio(GHS)is an independent charity encouraging and supporting young people with additional needs and those struggling with mainstream education, which generates a wealth of positive impacts. By having an array of workshops including music, dance, drama, visual arts and digital arts, GHS offers opportunities for young people to learn, develop new skills, be creative, have fun and demonstrate to themselves and others that they have the skills, tools and social capital to be resilient and reach their full potential. We have a great concern on specific demands of such social group, interested in creative art performance, and need your help to improve their learning environment! Throughout the event session, an innovative yet practical scheme of redesigning the recording studio for Gorse Hill Studios will be produced. This will be presented through a variety of forms and mediums, including but not limited poster, video, sketches and 3D representations. Students will be inspired by site visits to the Gorse Hill Studios and The University of Salford Sound Lab, and will have direct discussions with our client, acoustic professionals and architects from BDP in the form of critics. // Download Poster

Kwun H // Kam C // Alice I // Yingying Z // Runzi Z

GHS // AFTER EVENT
GOOD NEWS FROM GHS!

Last Friday we received good news from Caroline that Gorse Hill Studio had been successfully funded on the redevelopment of studios! Hurrah!
Posted 30 Apr 2019 16:06
GHS// DAY 10
FINAL PRESENTATION TO GORSE HILL STUDIOS (GHS)

Both groups finished their final schemes this morning and delivered the final presentation to Caroline of GHS in the afternoon. Not only was Caroline incredibly impressed with the increased level of detail and development of our proposals since last Friday, she also mentioned that she presented our work from last week to the young students of GHS, the users of the recording studio and have received many positive feedbacks. Videos of their comments were recorded, and she mentioned that she will share those videos with us in the not too distant future.

Overall it has been an incredible two weeks with high participation and tremendous hard work from all Group G students. We believe that we have produced some aesthetically pleasing design yet practical solutions. It was particularly satisfying to hear Caroline’s encouraging feedback. We believe that we have all learnt a great deal from each other, as well as some insightful technical knowledge from BDP and University of Salford regarding acoustics design. We look forward to receiving more feedback from Caroline once she has presented our final presentation to the GHS students, and hope that one day our schemes will be realised should the presentation to council from GHS prove successful.
Posted 5 Apr 2019 16:34
GHS // DAY 10
FINAL AFFORDABLE PROPOSAL OF VOCAL ROOM GROUP 1

Above is the finalised scheme of the vocal room that was designed by Damjan. Day 10 is our last day of the Event project, masters, year 1 and 2 students have been working hard together to produce the final presentation slides this morning. As mentioned before that four schemes (two affordable and two ideal schemes) have been produced, which these are the options for GHS people to choose from.
Posted 5 Apr 2019 16:31
GHS // DAY 10
FINAL AFFORDABLE PROPOSAL OF LIVE ROOM GROUP 2

Day 10 is our last day of the Event project, masters, year 1 and 2 students have been working hard together to produce the final presentation slides this morning. As mentioned before that four schemes (two affordable and two ideal schemes) have been produced, which these are the options for GHS people to choose from. Above is the finalised affordable scheme of the live room that was designed by Zahra and Adriana.
Posted 5 Apr 2019 15:45
GHS // DAY 9
FINAL PROPOSALS OF LIVE ROOM AND VOCAL ROOM FROM GROUP 2

An 'Minecraft' inspired scheme has been produced by the end of today's event. The students in group 2 have used a variety of bright colours (magenta, pink, green and grey) to present the fun and interesting side of Gorse Hill Studio. In this perspective, it shows that the students have considered the use of insulation materials and finishes materials according to their environmental research on existing GHS condition. Adriana and Jack from group 2 have created this excellent perspective ready for the final presentation to Caroline this Friday.
Posted 4 Apr 2019 18:49
GHS // DAY 9
FINAL PROPOSALS OF CONTROL ROOM FROM GROUP 2

Towards the end of our event, two finalised schemes have been produced by our group 2 year 1, 2 and master students for GHS. We have used a series of green colours to represent Gorse Hill Studio for the overall patterns of the recording studio area (control room, live room and vocal rooms).

The 3D perspective drawing on the left is our ideal scheme, which is designed to have better acoustic quality but the disadvantage is that the use of material (acoustic panels etc.) increases the cost of the construction. Considering the funding situation of GHS, we have come up with another more affordable scheme (shown on the right), this scheme minimises the use of expensive material which means the cost of the project would be less.
Posted 4 Apr 2019 17:56
GHS // DAY 9
FINAL PROPOSALS OF VOCAL ROOM FROM GROUP 1

Presented here is the exploded axonometric diagram and sectional persepective of the control room for ideal scheme. The idea here is to use as much absorbing panel as possible as it can effectively reduce the echo of the room in order to get the best vocal recording and be more flexible on post-editing the sound.
Posted 4 Apr 2019 17:53
GHS // DAY 9
FINAL PROPOSALS OF LIVE ROOM FROM GROUP 1

Presented here is the exploded axonometric diagram of the live room for both affordable and ideal scheme. For ideal scheme, we use a mixture of combination of absorbing and diffusing panels to achieve the best acoustic effect. On the other hand, we replace the absotbing panels into a black curtain to achieve a similar acouistic effect but in a more affordable price.
Posted 4 Apr 2019 17:47
GHS // DAY 9
FINAL PROPOSALS OF CONTROL ROOM FROM GROUP 1

Presented here is the exploded axonometric diagram of the control room for both affordable and ideal scheme.
Posted 4 Apr 2019 17:45
GHS // DAY 8
TWITTER ENCOURAGEMENT

Group G was twitted by Gavin Stevenson and re-twitted by Rob Hyde for last Friday's project review. We are really grateful for his useful advices and highly appreciate the encouragement and support. One more day to go until the final presentation, visual materials are coming along nicely, and we can not wait to deliver the final proposal to Caroline tomorrow.
Posted 4 Apr 2019 16:57
GHS // DAY 8
CONTROL ROOM

We developed both the affordable proposal and ideal proposal in parallel. Basically, the distinction between these two proposals is based on the material use. In the ideal one, the walls are surfaced by absorption panels shaped in checkboard patterns. While the affordable one, the walls are surfaced by tissue fabric with insulation behind shaped in free patterns. They both would achieve good acoustic performance.
Posted 4 Apr 2019 07:32
GHS // DAY 8
LIVE ROOM & CONTROL ROOM

Presented here is the sectional sketches showing the space in live room, the control room and the wall detail. The color pattern on the wall is chosen to match the theme color of Gorse Hill Stuido. Different geometry in two room identify the two different spaces. The sketch help us to understand more about the relationship betweeen each room in order to provide a more suitable design approach.
Posted 3 Apr 2019 14:04
GHS // DAY 8
CONTROL ROOM PERSPECTIVE

Presented here is the first draft perpsective inside control room for us the visualize the room. We used a combination of diffusing panel and absorbing panel in order to achieve the best acoustic in the control room
Posted 3 Apr 2019 14:03
GHS// DAY 7
VOCAL ROOM INTERIOR

Above is a exploded axonometric drawing of the vocal room from Jack our Year 1 student. His idea is to create a 'Tetris' look of the interior together with the used of GHS green colour scheme. This drawing has shown the build up of ceiling, walls and flooring with their texture and colours. Ceiling and all of the walls are fitted with acoustic absorbent and the hardwood flooring acts as an diffuser for the vocal room.
Posted 2 Apr 2019 20:33
GHS // DAY 7
CONTROL ROOM DESIGN

Presented here are the control room design from our group 1. The exploded isometric diagram shows the construction detail of the wall and ceiling. We have come up with two schemes which one of it is the affordable design and the other one is the Ideal design. The main different between two schemes is the uses of the mineral wool behind the plasterboard and the abosorbtion panels.
Posted 2 Apr 2019 18:25
GHS// DAY 7
GROUP 1 CONTROL ROOM INTERIOR (work in progress)

The two groups were each asked to come up with two schemes, one affordable and one idealistic. Shown here is the idealistic version with a rectangular design language. This is a concept perspective of the control room, with two voice booths on the side and facing the live room. Windows were placed in all connecting walls of each of the spaces to allow direct communication during recording sessions. Colour scheme is yet to be finalised. Materiality is as follows:

Ceiling: Mineral fibre acoustic panels with proprietary ceiling rods with rubber mounts
Wall: Various depths of sound absorbent panels creating a seemingly random wall pattern, leaving some gaps in between panels as original drywall finish. These gaps will act as diffusers whilst sound absorbent panels will provide good acoustic performance in the room.

Room layout has changed in order to allow full views from control desk to look into the voice booths and the live room at the same time. Note that walls of voice booths are at an angle to prevent standing waves within the control room.
Posted 2 Apr 2019 17:52
GHS// DAY 6
CASE WORKS FROM BDP

Mr Stevenson is the acoustic director from BDP and he has brought us a brochure of the acoustic related projects done by BDP. Therefore, we are using these practical projects for a reference when designing our case and it has been proved very useful.
Posted 1 Apr 2019 21:11
GHS// DAY 6
CONTROL ROOM DESIGN

According to the feedbacks that we got from last Friday's presentation to Mr. Gavin Stevenson and our client Caroline, today we developed the proposal by applying materials to the interior spaces and detailing the composition of walls to achieve maximum acoustic performance.
There are two proposals in each group, one is intended to be more affordable, and another one is more ideal.
In the affordable one, the wall composition is highly considered. The walls are composed of a layer of tissue fabric with the acoustic insulation (mineral wool) layer behind instead of finishing it with absorption panels which tend to cost higher. In the control room, the hard flooring will act as sound diffusers. There will be well enclosed floor-wall joint to prevent sound leak between rooms, glass panels of the double layered windows too are angled between rooms to prevent standing waves.

In terms of construction, the interior walls are designed to be drywalls with double studs on the existing masonry wall. There will be a gap between double studs to ensure there is no sound transmission between the construction of the walls. In terms of space, we located the vocal booths within the control room to provide direct contact and communication with control desk. The color and shape of the tissue fabric will give the space a welcoming atmosphere that follows the colour palette of the existing Gorse Hill Studio.
Posted 1 Apr 2019 21:08
GHS// DAY 6
LIVE ROOM DESIGN

One proposal for the live room from our two groups applies the shape of the hexagon in the use of absorb panel so that they can interlock piece by piece and also create a dynamic interior atmosphere. Curtain division between the main live room and storage space allows the possibility of larger space if needed. The circle lighting system is on the top.
Posted 1 Apr 2019 21:01
GHS// DAY 6
CONTROL ROOM DESIGN

The sketch shows how the control room has been designed in terms of the interior with the consideration of the acoustic panels. The yellow indicates the absorb panel and green shows the diffuser panel. Three windows are drawn in blue connecting the control room with vocal room and live room. Suspended ceiling has been added in this room as well.
Posted 1 Apr 2019 19:25
GHS// DAY 5
PROJECT REVIEW

Above is a summary of the standard arrangement of a Control Room. It shows that base traps should be placed at the corners of the walls to prevent sounds of low frequencies to be absorbed into the corners. At the same time corners that are intersections between three planes, such as the corners at the ceilings and floor should have bass traps that are of a T-shape.

The sound control person should be seated at a third of the longer length of the room, with two speakers placed in front of him/her forming the shape of an equilateral triangle to achieve the ideal sound effect.
Posted 1 Apr 2019 16:30
GHS// DAY 5
PROJECT REVIEW

Above is a summary page of diagrams done by Group G students showing the design requirements of the Live Room. A Live Room is a performance space for bands to jam music in, a space where recordings will be taken from. Several key points are:

1. The room should not have parallel walls and corners should not be perpendicular to avoid any standing waves that can cause echoes.
2. All internal surfaces, including walls and ceilings should be insulated. Floor can be an exception as it is difficult to apply absorbent panels onto the floor.
3. Several strategies showing different combinations of absorbent panels versus diffusers to suit different price range.

Note: Diffusers are normally twice the cost of absorbent panels. Thus, the cheaper option tend to be a mixture of absorbent and diffuser panels.

Posted 1 Apr 2019 15:57
GHS// DAY 5
PROJECT REVIEW

Today was the first time Group G students get to meet Mr. Gavin Stevenson, acoustic director of BDP. It was also the first time for Group G to receive professional feedback from our external collaborator- Caroline of Gorse Hill Studios.

The two proposals done by the two groups of students were both presented to Gavin and Caroline and have both received some very positive feedback. Mr. Gavin Stevenson was deeply impressed by the level of research and understanding the students have on acoustic designs, and expressed that he is confident that the final proposals will be of high quality and real substance.

Caroline was particularly impressed with the new layouts. She found it very innovative that the students were able to reconfigure the use of spaces to enlarge the live room as well as providing sufficient storage for the space. She also provided some advice on flooring finishes according to her operational experience of GHS. She suggested that we should consider having more colours in the recording studios to match with the colour scheme of the rest of GHS.
Posted 1 Apr 2019 15:40
GHS // DAY 5
PROJECT REVIEW

Presented here is part of the sketches from the students during the discussion with Mr. Stevenson, we have learned a lot of professional acoustic knowledge from Mr.Stevenson such as construction detail of the wall , material selection and the finishes.
The sketches show how the block wall should be constructed with acoustic consideration by having a cavity between two walls, sectional detail showing the false ceiling and the floor finish and so on.
Posted 1 Apr 2019 15:40
GHS // DAY 5
PROJECT REVIEW

It is our hornor to have Mr. Stevenson, acoustic director from BDP as well as our collaborator, Caroline with us to review our project today.
Mr. Stevenson was interested in our project and has given a lot of comments on the room construction, material selection on diffusing and absorbing panels. On the other hand, Caroline was happy and amazed about the progress we have right now and looking forward to the final proposal.
Today absolutely is an unforgettable experience for Group G studens, we shared a lot of ideas with Mr. Stevenson and Carolione, which gave us insights on further development. We look forward to our final presentation.
Posted 30 Mar 2019 20:16
GHS// DAY 4
ACOUSTIC FOAM FEATURES STUDY

Researching on the benefits of acoustic foams that are of different sectional profiles. Pros and cons are listed on the side. This study shall inform Group G students of what sort of absorption panels will be suitable for GHS's recording studio.
Posted 28 Mar 2019 22:48
GHS// DAY 4
GROUP 2's RECORDING STUDIO PLAN (PREFERRED OPTION)

Presented here is Group 2's preferred option of the recording studio plan out of all the previous ideas they have come up with. Walls are more clearly demonstrated here with the black solid hatch. As shown, the live room and the control room (with two voice booths) are treated as two separate chambers each with their own inner shell. The two voice booths are treated as part of the control room chamber, thus the walls between voice booths and control room are not double layered. Where there are double walls, there are double door leaves to ensure sounds are well sealed within those spaces.

One interesting design feature to note here is that walls are not parallel within the voice booths or live room. This is intentional to prevent any standing waves between the walls which could cause unwanted echoes, a necessary requirement that was advised by Professor Andy Moorhouse from our visit to the acoustic labs at the University of Salford.
Posted 28 Mar 2019 22:36
GHS// DAY 4
GROUP 1's RECORDING STUDIO PLAN (PREFERRED OPTION)

Presented here is Group 1's preferred option of the recording studio plan out of all the previous ideas they have come up with. A design feature to note here that is important to acoustic performance is the double wall between the live room and the control room, with a 130mm gap in between to ensure that there is no transmission of sounds between the two rooms. An additional double door has been added to seal off the corridor area outside the live room and control room. This acts as a sound lock to prevent sounds from the live room to escape to the rest of the building, thus the walls between the live room and the corridor does not need to be a double wall, leaving more room as usable space for the recording studio spaces.

Windows are positioned in every adjoining walls between recording spaces/ performance spaces and the control room to ensure visibility and easy communication. Above are some simple diagrams illustrating zoning, views between rooms and circulation diagram within the recording studio spaces.
Posted 28 Mar 2019 22:36
GHS// DAY 4
ARRANGEMENT PLANS & PHYSICAL MODELLING

Group G has been divided into two groups. Following some precedent research yesterday and the field trips on Monday and Tuesday, each group has come up with an arrangement plan for Gorse Hill Studios' recording studio. Each design has their own advantages. A 1:50 model has been built by each group to convey the idea more clearly, ready for presentation to the client and BDP's acoustic expert tomorrow.

A range of diagramming summarising acoustic research and ideal properties of the recording studio has also be collated to supplement each group's proposal. Examples of diagrams to follow later.
Posted 28 Mar 2019 21:53
GHS// DAY 3
DEVELOPMENT

Above is one of the finalised layouts designed by the students under considerations of programme, wall thickness, user circulation, suitable area and others. Students draft plan digitally using software like AutoCAD which they could play with the furniture and walls easily. The plan still needs to be further developed but it has been a great progress since the start of our event.
Posted 27 Mar 2019 18:21
GHS// DAY 3
DEVELOPMENT

Today we have moved forward with the sketch layouts from yesterday by start making physical models and drawing layouts using AutoCAD. Some of the students work on further research on acoustic technology and material while the rest work on finalising the plan of the GHS studio in a proper scale.
Posted 27 Mar 2019 17:04
GHS// DAY 2
ZONING AND LAYOUT

We kick start our designing by zoning exercise. Our event team is divided into two big groups which each student develops his/her own idea during the first part of the afternoon session. Then pinning up to share ideas, students are able to get many feedback from their peers. We encourage them to be creative about our scheme but also be considering to the users in GHS. After that they finalise everything into a single scheme and at the end of the day we have two completely different and interesting layouts of the studio which we will further develop on.
Posted 26 Mar 2019 21:21
GHS// DAY 2
GHS RECORDING STUDIO (OUR SITE)

At the end of the tour, we visit our scope to understand the current condition and layout. This includes a live room, a sound booth, a control room and some storage spaces. Students have taken photos and measurements (ceiling heights, door heights etc.) to prepare for their upcoming design exercises. Caroline explains to us that the studios have a history of 20 years and currently they are hoping to improve them for their future expansion.
Posted 26 Mar 2019 21:18
GHS // DAY 2
VISIT TO GORSE HILL STUDIO

Caroline gave us a tour of Gorse Hill Studio. She introduced some important function rooms like theater, dance studio, art room and the recording studio which we are going to re-design. She explained that it could be better if the function room can be multi-purpose like there is a black curtain around the dance studio to hide the mirror at the back in order to serve different purposes.
Posted 26 Mar 2019 20:56
GHS // DAY 2
VISIT TO GORSE HILL STUDIO

It is the first time that the BA students to visit Gorse Hill Studio and meet with our colaborator. Our students know more about the background and the needs of GHS after the visit. Our colaborator, Caroline gave us a tour of GHS and show us around each room and the functions. Students were enjoyed in discussing the design scheme with Caroline. It is a good start to have the site visit before they start focusing on the design.
Posted 26 Mar 2019 20:48
GHS// DAY 1
RECORDING STUDIO

A visit to the recording studio provided us with an understanding that the live room (performance space) of the studios do not need to be big. It only needs to be large enough to accommodate the musical instrument and the player. Secondly, space can be more cleverly utilised by having one control room for multiple live rooms. For instance, one control room can be in the shape of a pentagon in plan so that it is connected to multiple live rooms with windows looking into them. That way multiple performances can be happening simultaneously with one control room overlooking all performances, saving a substantial amount of floor space.
Posted 25 Mar 2019 17:40
GHS// DAY 1
LISTENING ROOM

Listening room is an interesting space that has a combination of diffusers and absorbant panels. It is designed not to have zero reverberance like the anechoic chambers, but to achieve low reverberance so one can clearly focus on hearing the sounds and pitch without much echos. Specially designed panels of various modulation lined the walls to prevent standing waves, whilst boxes with mesh fabric line the higher section of the room to absorb sounds.

We learnt from today's experience that sound insulation is different from sound absorption. And that a recording studio should not target for zero reverberance but should use a mixture of diffusers and absorbant panels to achieve the idea effect.
Posted 25 Mar 2019 17:39
GHS// DAY 1
FULL ANECHOIC CHAMBER

It was explained to us that anechoic chambers are all built as a room within a room, with the inner room completely floating and isolated form the outer shell. The idea is to isolate the chamber from any outside sounds and the inner room is designed to absorb all sounds. The inner room of the chamber is infact sitting on four springs within the outer shell. The wedged shapes you see here are in fact dense porous acoustic foam that is able to absorb all frequencies of sound waves. The pores of the material itself absorbs sounds of high frequencies, whereas the gaps between each wedge absorbs sounds of low frequencies. Each wedge is in fact 1m deep in order to achieve such soundproof quality. A few simple tests of clapping and speaking were performed for Group G students to experience the effects and differences. The difference between a semi-anechoic chamber and a full anechoic chamber is that semi-anechoic chamber has a normal hard floor whereas a full anechoic chamber is fully lined with wedged foams including the floor, with a trampoline mesh on top to ensure that sound is absorbed from all six surfaces of the room.
Posted 25 Mar 2019 17:39
GHS// DAY 1
REVERBERATION CHAMBER

The reverberation chamber is a chamber consisting of two spaces, one is sound source room and the other is the reverberation room (the receiving end, which is set with multiple microphones suspended in the air).
It was emphasized to us that the curved ply were set up in a such a way to ensure that the room gives a constant sound field at every point. The room is also deliberatly designed to not be at right angles, meaning that the walls are not parallel or perpendicular to each other in order to prevent standing waves which would cause echos. The source room will play loud noises and the wall between the two rooms will be fixed with the product that is to be tested for its acoustic rating. For example, plasterboard or partition panels will be mounted as a wall between the two rooms, carefully sealed with special tape or material, and the microphones in the reverberation room will measure the level of sound that penetrated through the panels to determine their acoustic rating.
Both rooms have double doors with dense insulation within the door leaves to ensure no sounds escape these chambers into the rest of the building.
Posted 25 Mar 2019 17:38
GHS//DAY 1
VISIT TO UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD ACOUSTIC RESEARCH LABORATORY

Professor Andy Moorhouse of University of Salford has kindly led us on a tour to visit the sound labs today. We visited a total five types of spaces, including:

1. Reverberation chamber (Photo 2)
2. Full anechoic chamber (Photo 3)
3. Semi anechoic chamber
4. Listening room (Photo 4)
5. Recording studio

Not only did he explain the properties of each room in great depth. A sound demonstration was also performed to show us the effect of the reverberance chamber. Detail construction methods and design details were also explained to us regarding how to make each chamber soundproof.
A few little details to be mentioned here is the fact that these anechoic chambers are all built as a room within a room, where the inner box is completely detached from the rest of the building, with floor plates built on springs. This ensures that no sound or vibrations from the outside are able to get into the chamber and vice versa.
The third photo as shown above is the anechoic chamber, the wedges from the walls are all made from special acoustic foam that is able to absorb all frequency of sound waves. The floor is also covered with these wedged shaped foam with a trampoline mesh material on top.

Today is, without a doubt a remarkable experience that Group G students found highly inspirational. We look forward to using some of our knowledge learnt from today to come up with interesting designs for GHS's recording studio.
Posted 25 Mar 2019 17:36
GHS// SESSION PLAN - WEEK 2

Session plans have been updated for each of the Events week. Working hours are expected to be from 10AM - 5PM every day, except for Wednesday afternoons where students will have half a day break.

Week 2 focuses on production together with 5th year students. First and second years will find this period extremely useful to brush up on their digital representation skills as well as public speaking skills.

Day 3 - there will be rehearsal presentations where strengths and weaknesses will be discussed, followed by improvement suggestions by 5th years and peers.

Day 5 - Final presentation to Gorse Hill Studio representative. This will be a day to showcase students' hard work over the two weeks.
Posted 20 Mar 2019 00:01
GHS// SESSION PLAN - WEEK 1

Session plans have been updated for each of the Events week. Working hours are expected to be from 10AM - 5PM every day, except for Wednesday afternoons where students will have half a day break.

Students should pay particular attention to the two exciting visits we have prepared, both are in Week 1, including:

1. Day 1 - Afternoon site visit to the Acoustic Research Centre at the University of Salford. This is a rare opportunity to see an anechoic chamber, which is a room designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves.

2. Day 2 - Morning site visit to Gorse Hill studios. This will provide your first point of contact with our collaborator to gain a sound understanding of their needs, thus a visit not to be missed. Students will need to bring along sketch book, writing instruments and tape measure as we will conduct a basic site survey to obtain key dimensions, which will be crucial for ideas development for the following days.

Attention should be paid on the meeting points prior to these visits.
Posted 20 Mar 2019 00:00
GHS // Acoustic Research Center

University of Salford has an outstanding set of facilities for students. Their facilities are built to the most professional specifications and is avaliable for students, researchers and commercial clients. They have wide range of studios like reverberation chambers, semi-anechoic room and anechoic chamber.

Reverberation chambers | When designing room like music theater or concert hall, it is important to have accurate reberation time of space in order to get the best acoustic of sound. Different material can be tested in this room to know the level of absorbtion of sound of the materials.

Semi-anechoic Room | This is a room which sound reflections only come from the floor as the walls and ceiling are absorbent. The solid floor makes this room much easier to work in than the anechoic chamber, because equipment can be stood on the solid floor. Absorbent material can be put on the floor to reduce floor reflections.

Anechoic Chamber | This is a room which is acoustically like being high above the ground in the open air because there are no reflections from the walls, floor or ceiling. This means it is ideal for testing the response of loudspeakers or microphones because the room doesn’t affect the measurements.

To know more about Acoustic Laboratories : http://www.salford.ac.uk/acoustics-testing/labs
Posted 19 Mar 2019 23:46
GHS // What is Acoustic?

There are many kinds of sound and many ways that sound affects our lives. Sound sources can be speech, background noise, speakers, music etc. Acoustic design or consideration are a crucial topic in architecture. Different purpose of a room require different acoustic design solution. When all sound is absorbed equally, a room sounds balance and pleasant. On the other hand, some room may required the sound to linger on for a while like theater or music hall. Therefore material selection and placement of absorbent panel are important for acoustic design.
Posted 17 Feb 2019 22:37
GHS // Skills and Softwares

MSA students’ proposals of the recording studios will be delivered by a variety of representational methods, including digital modeling, physical models and drawings. These will be presented to Gorse Hill Studios and BDP acoustic director on the final Friday of the events week. By being involved in our events group, participants will have a chance to learn or brush up their different modeling and presentation skills, as well as developing their communication skills through discussions with our collaborator and acoustic professionals. This will be extremely beneficial for those who wish to pursue a career in architecture, where one would be expected to work with clients and specialists frequently. This is a golden opportunity not to be missed!
Posted 17 Feb 2019 16:43
GHS // Location Plan of Acoustic Research Center

We will be visiting Acoustic Research Center in University of Salford on 25th March to experience sound testing under different situations. It is an ideal place for testing the response of different sound instruments as there are no reflections from the ceiling , wall or floor. Students can imagine how it feels when being in a recording studio and what acoustic requirement needed inside a recording studio.
Posted 16 Feb 2019 18:33
GHS// Promotion and Influences

As a very new charity in Trafford, Gorse Hill Studio has acknowledged that there is a need to promote their branding and programmes to the local people. At the start of collaborating with GHS, they have already shown enthusiasm in change to their environment and we hope that we can provide useful information for their future developments during this event and catalyse the relationship with professions and specialists. We are also aiming to promote GHS through different meetings and visits and to gain more recognition between the locals, students and other user groups.
Posted 14 Feb 2019 23:10
GHS// Development

Our project is to help Gorse Hill Studio to idealise their future development and to summarise potential changes. From the many programmes of Gorse Hill Studio, we have picked to redesign the recording studio area; this includes two recording studios, corridor area and possible outdoor area and entrance. Redeveloping the recording studio area could potentially support the charity income of Gorse Hill Studio by introducing multi-functional areas that allow students or the public to use.
Posted 14 Feb 2019 23:09
GHS // Event blog background

"Gorse Hill Studios (GHS) offers creative, social and personal development opportunities for young people and the community. GHS is an independently-run charity, established in 2015 and gaining charitable status in 2017 after previously being part of Trafford MBC for 16 years.

They deliver services from a thriving youth arts centre based in the North of Trafford as well as outreach settings with specific contracts with key Local Authorities, Schools and Commissioning Groups, as well as working in partnership with several youth organisations."

Reference:https://www.trafforddirectory.co.uk/kb5/trafford/fsd/service.page?id=DLGBuq9qaHY
Posted 14 Feb 2019 23:03
GHS // Location Plan of Gorse Hill Studio

We will be visiting Gorse Hill Studio on 26th March to take a look at the recording studio that we are going to re-design and have a discussion with our collaborator.
Posted 14 Feb 2019 01:20
GHS// Collaborator

Meet Caroline, the friendly representative of Gorse Hill Studio. She will give the MSA students a tour of Gorse Hill Studio on the 26th March and also will participate in the discussion of design schemes on the 29th March with Mr. Stevenson (BDP acoustic director). Caroline is looking forward to see the final products from our students!
Posted 12 Feb 2019 12:39
GHS // Images of Storage

We have organised the second meeting with our collaborator in Gorse Hill Studio on 2nd Feburary. We updated the design area and site photos. Here is the current condition of the storage for the music instrument.
Posted 12 Feb 2019 10:51
GHS // Images of Music Room

We have organised the second meeting with our collaborator in Gorse Hill Studio on 2nd Feburary. We updated the design area and site photos. Here is the current condition of the music room.
Posted 11 Feb 2019 11:31
GHS // Images of Control Room

We have organised the second meeting with our collaborator in Gorse Hill Studio on 2nd Feburary. We updated the design area and site photos. Here is the current condition of the control room.
Posted 10 Feb 2019 17:44
GHS // Initial Site Plan


The site information has been provided by GHS AND and design requirements were added
Posted 6 Feb 2019 18:39
This was our initial site visit and we walked around the whole building including the recording studio. Studio condition: The studio had been built before the established of GHS. Although it is still in usable condition, repairing and renovation works should be undertaken for further development.
Posted 28 Jan 2019 15:25
GHS // Final Poster

We have made our event more fun and interesting!

The Gorse Hill Studio(GHS)is an independent charity encouraging and supporting young people with additional needs and those struggling with mainstream education, which generates a wealth of positive impacts. By having an array of workshops including music, dance, drama, visual arts and digital arts, GHS offers opportunities for young people to learn, develop new skills, be creative, have fun and demonstrate to themselves and others that they have the skills, tools and social capital to be resilient and reach their full potential.

We have a great concern on specific demands of such social group, interested in creative art performance, and need your help to improve their learning environment!

Throughout the event session, innovative yet practical schemes of redesigning the recording studio for Gorse Hill Studios will be produced. These will be presented through a variety of forms and mediums, including but not limited to poster, physical models, video, sketches, and 3D representations.

Students will be inspired by site visits to the Gorse Hill Studios and The University of Salford Sound Lab, and will have direct discussions with our client, acoustic professionals, and architects from BDP in the form of critics.
Posted 27 Jan 2019 23:16
Hello everybody,

So here is a timetable for the Events week with Group G. With our project, not only will you have the chance to challenge your creativity with designing enhancements for a recording studio, there will also be some exciting site visits in the first week, including:

1. Visit to the Acoustic Research Centre at the University of Salford - students will be able to gain an insight on acoustic technology;
2. Visit to Gorse Hill Studios - opportunity to interact with our collaborator and end users.

We believe these visits will prove valuable to students as it will involve processes and skills that you would pick up when working with real life projects. Representatives from Gorse Hill Studios will work closely with us and provide feedback to MSA students' proposals at the end of the Event.

Final outputs include: Full set of 1:10 coloured proposal drawings of the recording studio (plan & 4 elevations), a 1:10 scale model of proposal, at least 2 coloured graphics (perspectives or isometric) and proposed phasing diagrams.

Looking forward to working with you all soon!
Posted 27 Jan 2019 21:03
GHS // Crucial events

Join us and participate into these crucial events !
Posted 27 Jan 2019 19:36
GHS // Initial Site Plan

We are Group G and we focus on how architecture can improve the quality of life for the social minority.
Posted 27 Jan 2019 18:26
How can we improve the Studio for future 20+ years use? We can 'phase' the development to suit future GHS conditions. Let us start from The Recording Studio Re-Design to drive the development of GHS.
Posted 10 Jan 2019 09:33
Gorse Hill Studio(GHS)is an independent charity encouraging and supporting young people with additional needs and those struggling with mainstream education, which generates a wealth of positive impacts. By having an array of workshops including music, dance, drama, visual arts and digital arts, GHS offers opportunities for young people to learn, develop new skills, be creative, have fun and demonstrate to themselves and others that they have the skills, tools and social capital to be resilient and reach their full potential.

We have a great concern on specific demands of such social group, interested in creative art performance, and need your help to improve their learning environment!

Throughout the event session, an innovative yet practical scheme of redesigning the recording studio for Gorse Hill Studios will be produced. This will be presented through a variety of forms and mediums, including but not limited to poster, video, sketches, and 3D representations.

Students will be inspired by site visits to the Gorse Hill Studios and The University of Salford Sound Lab, and will have direct discussions with our client, acoustic professionals, and architects from BDP in the form of critics.
Posted 9 Jan 2019 15:16