As part of an ongoing regeneration programme at Wat Tyler Country Park in Basildon Essex, we have been commissioned by the Council to create a sculpture that would engage the community, particularly the children.  

We therefore wanted to create something playful and physically engaging rather than something purely ornamental, and we went on designing these two giant marshmallows, which seem to have landed there from space.

The Sonic Marshmallow create a stunning acoustic experience: their shape focuses sound and allows people standing in front to hear each other's whispers 60 metres over the pond that separate them. They work like reflectors to create a precise beam of sound.

The cylinders are also concave on their other sides, allowing the users to respectively spy on the people in the nearby car park, and the animal in the woodland, thanks to those 2.5m ears.

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We have worked with acoustic designers Sandy Browns Associates to assess the sound efficiency and optimise the placement of the marshmallows, which have been aligned by laser during installation. We have also research different shapes and possibilities.

Basildon being so close to the coast, we were also inspired by the early sound mirrors built between the two wars as early attempts of detecting incoming enemy planes approaching. Famous remaining examples lye off the Kent coast, near Dungeness.

'As acoustic reflectors, the sonic marshmallows inscribe themselves in a long tradition of whispering galleries and other acoustic phenomena that were integral parts of older buildings, from St Paul's cathedral to the U.S. Capitol.

We believe sound is being considered as problematic in modern architecture. Acoustic designers seem to be mainly working on how to eradicate sound reflections, or noise, from our built environment. Creating the Sonic Marshmallows made us realise the intensely magical nature of these acoustic experiences.

Credits

Design: Troika
Acoustic Engineering: Sandy Brown Associates
Fabrication: London Engineering