Symphonexus

instagrammable popup

Manayunk as a town has a influx of millennials. The pop-up in question is a series of acoustic panels designed for a outdoor concert under the railroad, creating a new venue of attraction for the small town while stimulating local business. The popup functionally incorporates plants as a sound deafen-er, while aesthetically creating a nostalgic overgrown green public space for use during the day. It will symbolically gesture the community’s comeback from a industrial town. Nevertheless, during the evening, the popup will then become a SymphonicNexus.

Schenk Woodman Competition | With Miki Ji and Alexander Jackson

Located at the intersection of the local regional transit line, the SEPTA, Green Lane, a major thouroughfare into the town of Manayunk, and its connection to Main Street and local residents, the pop-up engages all the communities at large. Transforming the un-activated Cresson Street and Conarroe Street, the SymphoNEXUS brings in a contemporary concert hall and performance space to draw people and spectacle to that which is underneath. Isolating the road into a new venue, the existing facades of the buildings act as one of the primary acoustical treatments. The planting create a sound barrier and separation from the railroad above, while the panels carve new acoustical experiences into the urban fabric. The system is a series of pop-ups, each unique to create various spatial and experiential zones. Attaching to the existing structure of the SEPTA line above, the new concert venue is created in mere days instead of months. This fast, sudden, and easy temporary infrastructure invites spectacle and awe, engaging within the local community, and that at large.