The Soundwave

TheSoundwave penda

penda's soundwave pierces the myrtle tree garden in china with 500 steel fins
Architects: Penda
Location: Xiangyang, Hubei, China
Area: 5000.0 sqm
Year: 2015
Photographs: Xia Zhi
Design Team: Dayong Sun, Chris Precht, Fei Tang Precht, Yongjian Huang, Zhonghua Tang, ChunLei Zhu, Junfeng Li, Runxin Tang

Penda based the design on the quote “Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music” by German writer and politician Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The purple pillars of varying heights are intended to represent the rising and falling bars of a digital sound visualiser that synchronises with crescendos and diminuendos in music.

“Music, rhythm and dance in combination with the surrounding landscape were the main parameters shaping The Soundwave,” said the architects. “Resting on Goethe’s definition ‘Architecture is frozen music’, the aggregation of fins presents a solidified moment of a soundwave in motion.”

Innovative architectural team Penda are pushing the boundaries of design with their latest multi-sensory project, the Soundwave Plaza. Located in Xiangyang, China, the vast Soundwave sculpture – made up of 500 purple pillars of varying heights – pay homage to the rising and falling bars on a digital sound visualiser, as well as Asia’s largest Myrtle Tree Garden, in which it sits. Alternating between being a serene walkway by day, to a booming public dance floor at night, the plaza highlights the space between the city and its landscape.  

As visitors enter the sculpture to the Myrtle Tree Garden, they are surrounded by more than 800 fins which sprout up like trees in a topographical landscape of stones and water. Resting on Göthe’s definition “Architecture is frozen music”, the aggregation of fins presents a solidified moment of a Soundwave in motion. The vivid city, the Rhythm of Music and the Colour of Nature are reflected within this moment.