‘Hello Wembley…..’

Playing Wembley is often seen as the pinnacle of an artist’s career. We imagine the Wembley Park Soundshell will offer an opportunity for musicians to perform here in a smaller, more informal setting, and hopefully give them the opportunity to take a first step on their journey towards playing on larger stages, maybe even the Arena or Wembley Stadium. The Sound Shell visually echoes the stadium’s arch creating a link between Wembley’s smallest and largest stages.

The Design of the sound shell is driven from the inside out by its natural acoustic - And everything you see is designed around the way it sounds.

Designing for sound comes down to two things – geometry and materiality.

Geometrically the Soundshell is part of a Cone….think of a megaphone……Which projects the sound towards the audience whilst creating an onstage acoustic so the performers can hear each other and play in ensemble.

The roof is a Plywood and steel monocoque shell structure, which is counterbalanced by the steel and concrete stage structure, which overall weighs 20 tonnes. This is relevant because the structure is re- deployable and already has and will occupy a number of locations within Wembley Park until it eventually settles in its final home in the Eastern Park. It is currently located in front of the Stadium within the Samovar Space.

This project has been a remarkable collaboration, with Arup acoustics driving the internal geometry, Expedition engineering overcoming any number of structural challenges the project offered up, Soundforms and ES Global, and K2 Engineers who produced the final structural design who worked with the contractor  to deliver the project.