Architectural acoustician Xu Yaying passed away at the age of 89. Weiwuying mourns

Xu Yaying, an internationally renowned architectural acoustician who designed and supervised the construction of Weiwuying Performance Hall, passed away in Paris, France on the 6th at the age of 89.

There are no more than 200 experts in architectural acoustics in the world, and the most well-known in Asia is Xu Yaying. He has long been concerned about Weiwuying and visits regularly. He only visited Taiwan at the end of October. The Weiwuying National Art and Culture Center also posted a condolence message on Facebook today. .

Xu Yaying designed and supervised the construction of four performance halls in Weiwuying. Weiwuying posted a post on social media Facebook today. Xu Yaying has participated in the planning and design of the Weiwuying National Art and Culture Center since 2007. He uses the concept of “box within a box” The concept is to block sound and vibration. The vineyard-style concert hall can be said to be Xu Yaying’s work that gathered the essence of acoustics throughout her life.

The audience seats in the Weiwuying Concert Hall are spread out in geometric ladder-shaped units. The functional goal is to enable listeners in all areas to hear the reflected sound from the sides and enhance the sense of three-dimensional surrounding space of the music.

Weiwuying said that the planning and construction of the Weiwuying venue took 15 years. After its opening in 2018, Xu Yaying still cared about Weiwuying for a long time and visited regularly. After the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) border was lifted, he He also immediately made plans to visit Taiwan. His most recent visit to Taiwan was at the end of October this year, and he personally conducted a full-house acoustic test at the Weiwuying Opera House.

“Everyone who participated in the Weiwuying construction project and worked with Mr. Xu was impressed by Mr. Xu’s professional persistence and attention to detail.” Guo Yuanxian, deputy director of Weiwuying, said that during the test in the hall before the opening During the process, Xu Yaying’s attitude and enthusiasm for carefully reviewing the design and personally participating in materials, construction and other details deeply infected everyone. All staff at Weiwuying will continue Xu Yaying’s dedication and persistence in venue space acoustics. “Teacher Xu’s achievements in architectural acoustics will remain in Weiwuying forever.”

Xu Yaying was born in China in 1934. He studied in China and later moved to Paris. Coming from a family of architects, he was exposed to architecture and art since childhood, which developed his care and enthusiasm for cultural affairs. He has focused on architectural acoustics since 1957, and has been involved in the acoustic design and research of China’s National Grand Theater in Beijing. In 1958, he conducted a 1:10 acoustic scale model test of the Grand Theater to study the impact of “early reflections” on the sound quality of the opera house. importance, and how to improve the acoustic defects of the VIP seats in the middle of the pool, he was later invited to study the acoustics of the concert hall at the French Institute of Musical Acoustics (IRCAM).

Xu Yaying has designed and built nearly a hundred cultural performance and art exhibition buildings around the world. Many of her works have won the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the architecture industry, including the Luxembourg Philharmonic Hall, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and the American Cultural Center in Paris. wait.

Wei Wuying pointed out that Xu Yaying founded Xu-Acoustique in Paris in 1987 as an architectural acoustics consultant to provide precision acoustic design solutions for international high-standard performance venues. In 1995 and 2004, it was awarded the French Academy of Architecture The highest awards in architectural acoustics are the “Best Technical Consultant Award” and the “Architectural Technology Research Achievement Award”.

(Editor-in-Chief: Zhuang Qianyu)