The Mega Corrugated Mirroring Metal Sheet & the Machine Gun Mayhem

Visiondivision was assigned to design a new entrance for the music forum “Arene” in Vienna.

In 1976 activists who called themselves “Arenauts“, squatted an old slaughterhouse in Vienna.

Since that day the Forum Arene Vienna has grown to become the provider of Austria's biggest alternative cultural communication center.
Due to the wide array of events and the variety of big music acts to small alternative ones, 

visiondivision's commission was to design a roof for the waiting crowd for the different concerts that would have an aesthetic that would appeal to this wide range of concert goers and their specific musical genres. It would therefor had to please the death metal aficionados, the hip hop lovers and the pop fans at the same time. Since the Arene is a non profit oriented organization, the clients where looking for low cost solutions. Visiondivision designed two different low budget ideas; one based on the tectonic approach of building a simple roof structure, and one idea based on taking a ready made and redesign it by different techniques of subtracting material.

The Mega Corrugated Mirroring Metal Sheet

The tectonic approach is a simple roof structure. Corrugated steel sheets is one of the cheapest materials there is, and it has a suitable atmosphere for an underground club that hosts everything from punk concerts to hip hop. We decided to design our own corrugated steel sheet; a mega corrugated mirroring metal sheet.

One of the experiences while going to a concert is standing in line. Thats often when people interact the most with each other and depending on what concert there is, the crowd looks different as well. The mega corrugated mirroring is designed for that specific purpose. The ceiling will change appearance depending on which type of crowd the concert gathers. If you are on a punk concert the roof will look punk, if there is a black metal concert the roof will look more devilish. The roof also has a social purpose; people can interact with each other through the mirroring roof, get eye contact with the people in front or behind themselves in the cue and perhaps flirt or start talking to each other.

Image of cue                                                                                                               

Diagram and kit of parts                                                                                          

The Machine Gun Mayhem
Since the area for the project almost had the same foot print as a shipping-container, and that the Arene people would most likely build the structure themselves. Visiondivision also looked into the solution of buying a cheep container and remodeling it with different types of tools, ranging from control to mayhem. In the controlled version the people at Arene could carve out the container with different building tools as a social interaction during a weekend. The result could various depending on who and how many would do the carving. Another type of carving would be more aggressive. The container would be taken to a field and shot at with different types of machine guns giving it a finish that could suit a rough environment.  

   Diagram control vs mayhem                                                                                 

The mayhem approach                                                                                             

Container in day light                                                                                               

Container at night