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Notes on ART

When Architecture Listens: The Music Pavilion by SHH Architecture & Interiors

Stella Manferdini

Notes on ART

03.10.25

Keywords:

Creations , Music , Landscape , Arts & Crafts

There is a point, in a private park in Surrey, where architecture ceases to be merely form and matter and becomes a fully immersive acoustic experience. It is here that the new Music Pavilion by SHH Architecture & Interiors finds its place: a structure at once minimal and arresting, conceived to realise a singular ambition – to experience music in its purest form, enveloped by the natural surroundings.

The story began several years ago, when the London studio undertook the restoration of an Arts & Crafts residence. That collaboration evolved into mutual trust: the client, a collector and devoted music enthusiast, subsequently sought a space dedicated to listening. Not a rehearsal room, nor a conventional hi-fi lounge, but an architecture capable of articulating their relationship with both art and landscape.

©Richard Chivers

The pavilion itself is conceived as a double-skinned structure, an “building within a building” designed to eliminate external interference and function as a precisely tuned resonant chamber. Walls are clad in acoustically transparent panels, volumes calibrated to studio-grade logic. Yet technical rigor does not constrain form: externally, the project converses with its surroundings through materials that fuse tradition with contemporary expression.

Japanese charred timber (shou sugi ban) and Corten steel form a living, tactile envelope, contrasting with expansive glazed openings and capped by a green roof that both promotes biodiversity and integrates the pavilion seamlessly into the garden, as though it has always belonged there. Light – both natural and artificial – becomes part of the architectural narrative, filtering through the large windows to mark the passage of time like a sun clock, while flexible lighting systems modulate the atmosphere without ever overwhelming the space.

©Richard Chivers

Inside, sound encounters art. Every detail – from bespoke joinery to the discreet integration of technical blinds – has been carefully considered to preserve the acoustic integrity, allowing the music and the client’s collection of artefacts to take centre stage. Material choices are deliberately restrained: a grey microcement floor, backlit metal panels showcasing prized pieces, and a suspended Wonderglass lighting installation that ripples across the floor like water as light plays upon it. Everything is orchestrated to maintain a delicate balance between contemplation and intimacy.

Beneath this apparent lightness lies an almost obsessive attention to acoustic precision. Geometry, proportions, and the interplay of absorbent and transparent materials have been meticulously calibrated in collaboration with specialists. The dual aim was to deliver a flawless listening experience while preserving the tranquillity of the surrounding landscape. Technology, though seamlessly embedded – from climate control to integrated AV systems – remains invisible. Even the window treatments, not initially requested, were designed to mitigate glare and solar gain without disrupting the architectural purity.

©Richard Chivers

Originally conceived as a listening space, the pavilion has quickly taken on multiple roles: it is now a place for reading, creative work, and quiet reflection. It is an architecture that welcomes rather than imposes, that amplifies rather than displays. More than a building, the Music Pavilion is an exercise in harmony: between technical precision and landscape, between materiality and sound, between intimacy and openness. It is a project that reminds us how, when architecture truly listens, it can itself become music.