Soundwave Plaza: the Chinese installation that responds to movements

"Architecture is frozen music" said Goethe, underlining the symmetry between a building and a musical composition.

The thought expressed in this phrase pushed the Penda architectural firm to search for a new cross-cultural language and inspired a very special project called Soundwave Plaza.

Located in Xiangyang, in the province of Hubei in China, at the entrance of the great Myrtle Tree Garden, it is an installation made up of over 500 perforated steel fins, of different heights and four shades of purple, the color of the millennial trees of myrtle that surround it.

Each column is equipped with motion sensors and LED lights that capture the movement of passersby and turn it into sound. The brightness of light and the volume of music vary in intensity depending on the ferment inside the square, a place that in China, especially during the evening, is used by locals for shows and group dances.

The spaces between the installation elements vary from narrow paths to wider areas, giving visitors and local dance groups the opportunity to revitalize the sculpture during the day and night.

Soundwave Plaza populates a two square kilometer park of music, rhythm and dance, in perfect harmony and complicity combined with the surrounding landscape.

It is just an example of how architecture can have the function of a bridge able to connect nature, culture and people, in order to obtain a better quality of life.