MATSUSHIMA, Miyagi Prefecture--An inflatable concert hall has been erected for a music festival here as part of a program that will take it to other disaster-stricken areas of northeastern Japan. (With video)
MATSUSHIMA, Miyagi Prefecture--An inflatable concert hall has been erected for a music festival here as part of a program that will take it to other disaster-stricken areas of northeastern Japan. (With video)
The music festival winds up Oct. 13.
The mobile concert hall has a membrane made of polyester, which can easily be inflated or deflated. Called Ark Nova, the structure resembles a giant seashell on the inside.
It stands 18 meters high, is 30 meters wide and 36 meters long.
The concert hall, jointly created by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki and British sculptor Anish Kapoor, can accommodate 500 people.
Classical musicians from Europe who performed at the world-renowned Lucerne Festival in Switzerland worked out plans to hold concerts in areas devastated by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
After the Matsushima festival ends, the structure will be deflated to go on tour elsewhere in the Tohoku region. Concerts will be held intermittently for three years. The next venue has yet to be decided.