Prior Projects
Before founding Sound Space Design, in his 16 years at Artec Consultants and 5 years at Arup Acoustics, Essert was responsible for a large number of projects, large and small. Detailed information on some of them is included below:-
Opened in December 2004, the Sage has raised the profile of music and acoustics in the North of England. A 1700 seat concert hall optimised for chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra, with a wide range of acoustical flexibility to achieve greater clarity for piano, vocals, folk and jazz. A 400 seat recital hall serves the folk, jazz and world music traditions that are strong in the North of England, as well as an active chamber music scene. The facility also includes a new music school, a large rehearsal hall, a Music Information Centre. The building opened to great reviews -- acoustical and architectural -- in December 2004. As Project Director for Arup Acoustics, Essert was responsible for the acoustics. Working closely with architect Foster and Partners, he took personal leadership of the acoustical design and led the Arup Acoustics team of acousticians and sound system designers.
Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University, Belfast (2003)
A sound and music research/performance laboratory to support research and development in audio and acoustics as well as music technology and performance practice. Its largest space, the sonic laboratory is a large space with flexible acoustics and a state of the art surround sound system. While at Arup, Essert conceived the space and its acoustical flexibility.
Virtual Reality ReaCTor, University College London (1998)
The ReaCTor at UCL is an immersive video and audio cube, driven by a graphic supercomputer and multiple projectors and loudspeakers. Similar to a VR "Cave", the UCL ReaCTor was one of the first to include real-time immersive audio. While at Arup, Essert devised the multichannel audio system and specified it along with acoustical modelling software.
Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern (1998)
1800 seat concert hall, 900 seat medium-size music hall, and a smaller lecture hall for the Lucerne International Music Festival and use by a variety of local and touring music groups. The hall has a particularly effective reverberation chamber, and with its flexible riser system, acoustic canopy, and variable sound absorbing curtains, it handles a wide variety of music with ease. For Artec Essert was responsible for day to day design, communication and representation from project inception through detail design, managing other Artec staff and working in collaboration with Russell Johnson on the room acoustics concept and details.
1800 seat concert hall, 2000 seat Lyric Theatre, Rehearsal Studio. The total project included three more flexible theatres at approximately 750, 400 and 150 seats, and space has been reserved on site to complete the master plan in the future. The concert hall is a tall and narrow inner form surrounded on three sides by a reverberant space, with inner and outer volumes connected by heavy doors. The original room form by Anne Minors cannot be categorised as shoebox or vineyard, and neither is it a hybrid. The Architect was Michael Wilford and Partners, London in association with DP Architects of Singapore. From 1992 through 1996 (architectural competition and brief development through detailed design) Essert was Artec’s team leader, developing the acoustical design, overseeing other staff and travelling to Singapore and London to represent the firm.
Chan Centre, UBC, Vancouver (1997)
The 1400 seat Chan Shun Concert Hall breaks new ground in room shape. Neither a “shoebox” nor a “vineyard”, the form builds on those aspects of the shoebox that are successful, creating a more intimate space with better sightlines and, some would say, better acoustics than a simple rectangular box.. A particularly successful working relationship with architects Bing Thom and Lynn Pilon and theatre consultant Anne Minors produced a happy marriage of visual, acoustical and functional success in a striking building. The concert hall was designed to accommodate performances and rehearsals by the UBC symphony orchestra, touring and local chamber music, choirs and jazz. The project also includes a flexible 300 seat studio theatre designed for the UBC drama department. Essert was lead acoustician on the project for Artec, from programming through design into construction.
