With Kirkegaard Associates in the 00s, Zackery Belanger helped design the acoustic surfaces of EMPAC.

The curved, machined diffusive panels of EMPAC Studios 1 and 2 were designed via bespoke MATLAB script, inspired by tree bark in a forest clearing. The ceiling of the Concert Hall was constructed of two different custom weaves of Nomex fibers for just the right balance of acoustic reflection and transmission. The visually striped lower sidewalls of the Concert Hall were made as flat as possible.

EMPAC opened in 2007, and in 2011 Zackery left Chicago for Troy. He spent five years in and around EMPAC thinking about this question of form. A failed attempt at a PhD in the acoustics program of RPI's School of Architecture dovetailed into an offer, from Director Johannes Goebel, for EMPAC's first Research Residency in 2013.

In 2014 Zackery received an email from a student in that same acoustics program. It was Elizabeth Teret, who had come to RPI to turn decades of musical instrument building into a career in acoustics. They met, and she said: "I was told to stay away from your thesis, so I had to meet you." Nicholas DeMaison, then conductor of RPI's orchestra and choir, was introduced by Johannes Goebel.

Each member of the Umbel team arrived in their own way, at their own time, intrigued by the potential for an intrinsic acoustic architecture.

Location Troy, NY

Client Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Architect Grimshaw 

Acoustician Kirkegaard Associates