Live Architecture Venues, Stages and Arenas for Popular Music

Live Architecture explores the physical form of popular music performance space from 1960 to the present day.

This book quantifies the factors that determine what makes a venue successful focusing on both famous and less well-known examples from the smallest barroom music space to the largest stadium-filling rock set. It draws on the author?s extensive research expertise in the field of temporary and portable architecture, in the development of general contemporary architectural design, and personal experience of music performance.

Including a range of case studies, the book analyses some of the most significant popular music venues, events and landmarks in the world. The detail of how a venue is created, how it is constructed, and the acoustic and visual environmental factors that impact on its success are examined here.

Highly illustrated throughout with design drawings, plans and full colour photographs, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the architecture of live popular music.

1. Foreword 2. Introduction 3.Adopted Spaces 3.1. 100 Club, London, UK, 1942 3.2. Birdland, New York, USA, 1949–1999 3.3. Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, USA, Hart Freeland Roberts, 1994 4.Adapted Spaces 4.1. HighLine Ballroom, New York, USA, Bluarch, 2007 4.2. VIP, Saint-Nazaire, France, LIN, 2007 4.3. O2 Arena, London, UK, Populous, 2007 4.4. O2 Arena, Dublin, Populous, Ireland, 2008 4.5. Knitting Factory, Brooklyn NY, USA, HeCho Inc., 2009 5.Dedicated Spaces 5.1. Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, USA, Welton Becket Assoc., 1974 5.2. The Cavern Club, Liverpool, UK, David Backhouse Architects, 1984 5.3. Colosseum, Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, USA, Scéno Plus, 2003 5.4. The Joint by Rogue, Las Vegas, USA, Scéno Plus, 2007 5.5. Liverpool Echo Arena, UK, Wilkinson Eyre, 2007 5.6. Sun Valley Music Pavilion, Idaho, USA, FTL, 2008 5.7. De Vorstin, Hilversum, Netherlands, Cie Arkitekten, 2010 6. Mobile Spaces 6.1. Valhalla, Rudi Enos, 2000 6.2. Rolling Stones Stage Set, ‘A Bigger Bang’, StuFish, 2005 6.3. Martina McBride Stage Sets, Studio 10A 2006–10 6.4. U2 360˚ Stage Set, Mark Fisher, StuFish, 2009–11 6.5. Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, Somerset, UK, 1971–2010

Robert Kronenburg is an architect and holds the Roscoe Chair of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, UK. His long-standing research into innovative forms of architectural design is renowned internationally. His books include Houses in Motion, Spirit of the Machine, Portable Architecture and Flexible: Architecture that Responds to Change, and he is co-editor of the Transportable Environments book series.