[Austrian Museum for Paper Production, Laakirchen-Steyrermühl/A, 2008; architects: planorama architekten]

When the Austrian Museum for Paper Production got refurbished, we made use of our experience with the frequently rather unsatisfactory acoustic situation in museums using multimedia technology. We delivered architectural acoustics that established a spatial acoustical dramaturgy, created a good overall acoustic atmosphere, and still underlined the character of the former factory building. Our acoustic design also included all the audio elements, among them eight space sound installations we tailored to site and context.

The following pictures show some of the museum´s new elements based on our design:

While some of the rooms of the museum are very big (main hall: ca. 1000 sqm), the thematic steps within the exhibition are rather small. In order to enhance the focus on every subject and every part of the exhibition, we developed an architectural design concept enabling the creation of correspondingly small room-acoustical areas. By specifically structuring and arranging exhibition boards helpful room-acoustical subdivisions were created, making it easier to concentrate on the exhibits while leaving the spacious volume of the hall intact.



The cool atmosphere of the old industrial architecture was left unchanged and taken advantage of in this passage over the river Traun: we used it to create an electroacoustic simulation of a fast flowing mountain stream ending in the next room, where the visitors find themselves acoustically enwrapped in a roaring river. The sound accompanies the projection of a historic film showing raftsmen at their dangerous task of transporting wood.



One objective of the exhibition is to emphasize the importance of a sustainable way of using natural resources, and to show that the regional paper industry is keen on protecting the forest. For this part of the museum we developed and built a dramatic forest installation in a giant gold frame, with a complex, strikingly natural sound (coming from 36 specifically positioned tiny loudspeakers), inviting visitors to explore and enjoy.

In this dark space the working conditions during the early times of the paper industry can be experienced: the darkness, the heat, and most of all, the extreme noise. It was a special task to create a strong experience and at the same time, prevent any transmissions of the acoustic effects to the other parts of the exhibition. Once inside the space, the combined effects of specific room-acoustics, surround sound, and a rhythmically vibrating metal floor (developed by us) offers the overwhelming impression of a huge, old, thundering machine.



This view of a ceiling shows a prototypical architectural acoustic design of ours. This space is used for presentations by the guides, so we shaped the room acoustics of the factory building accordingly and created an acoustically transparent environment with good speech intellegibility, at the same time making sure that adjacent parts of the museum will not be affected by the presentations. By applying precise architectonic structures (but no absorption), we also succeeded in emphasizing the airy atmosphere of the old building.