In between the concert hall and the I-Pod

Elastik and MAT Studio’s design “KT: the listening room” was chosen as the winner of  Dezeen x Design Association container design competition.

Taking a 20 foot shipping container, MAT Studio created an interior space, a bubble of privacy, within Tokyo Designers Week where 4000 people stopped to listen to classical music.

Fifteen speakers were oriented towards the visitor’s seat in order to create what the designers hoped would be a “spatial sensation that is in-between the notion of the concert hall and the I-pod headphone.”

Whilst maintaining the premise of the Kindertotenlieder cycle as a contemplative pivot for the installation, KT: the listening room integrates several other elements that make this piece attach itself to some key values specific to Tokyo urban culture. The sense of confinement to a small space. The idea of separateness in a multitude of others. The option of self chosen isolation. The ostensive layeredness of the urban fabric. The necessity to occasionally flee the chaos.

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-Chris