HAKATA-ZAFUKUOKA, JAPANACOUSITCAL CONSULTANT:ARCHITECT:OWNER:THEATER CONSULTANT:SOUND & COMMUNICATIONS:THEATER DESIGN INSTRUCTION:CONSTRUCTION COST:COMPLETION DATE:YAMAHA Ad. Sys. Dev. Center
NIHON SEKKEI, INC.
HAKATAZA THEATER
Theatre Workshop
YAMAHA Ad. Sys. Dev. Center
Theater Design, Ryoji Tsuji, et. al
31,300 Million JPY - include land acquisition
1999

The HAKATA-ZA was built in 1999 as a part of thecomplex "Riverain". It was designed specifically forclassical Japanese theater performances including
Kabuki, which is one of the most well-known forms
among them. Its elaborate costume, striking makeup,
and stylized movements of actors while entering andleaving via a "hanamichi", which is a special raised
pathway through the audience are unique characteristics.
The HAKATA-ZA has this "hanamichi" like othertraditional Kabuki theaters and it can be removed duringother performances such as Japanese folk singer
concerts.
This is the first theater in Japan which is operated
jointly by the city and private firms together. This venue
has around 1,500 seats, which are arranged in three tiers
so that an audience can see the stage clearly at any seats.
Since the hall is located close to the subway tracks,
they encounter various acoustic problems, especiallyvibration problems from the trains. Before and during
the construction, we performed the train vibration
measurements on the site several times, then various
measures were implemented according to theseinvestigations. In addition, the logical predicting
methods were developed to evaluate train vibration
based on the vibration power concept and to estimate
the effects of continuous underground wall/expansion
joints.

The hall is based on a rectangular box shape andcomposed of three tiers with side balconies which canminimize the distance to the stage from any audienceseats to get a sufficient direct sound and loudness. Inaddition, in order to get sufficient reflections to theunder balcony seats during Kabuki performances, theuniformity throughout the entire room can be realized
by Active Field Control.
The design of the speaker system including
installation conditions is important for electro-acoustic
system design in order to control characteristics at thelistener's location. The installation conditions include
the characteristics of the wall surrounding the speaker at
low frequencies and that of the finishing materials (grill)in front of the speaker at middle and high frequencies.
Differences in a loudspeaker's free-field characteristics
at low frequencies are mainly caused by interference
between direct sound and reflections of sound at thewall. Differences in these characteristics at middle andhigh frequencies are mainly caused by deviations intransmission characteristics due to grill and loudspeakerlocations. In order to minimize these influences, we
designed the acoustical transparency grill in front of thespeakers.

CRITICAL DATA
Seating Capacity
VolumeSurface area
Noise Level
Definition (250 Hz-2 kHz ave.)

1,490
310,008 m
24,319 m
NC-2062 %Estimated values for RT from measurement values arein the occupied condition.

HAKATA-ZAFUKUOKA, JAPANLONGITUDINAL SECTION

MAIN FLOOR PLAN

SECOND / THIRD TIER HALF PLANS

FINISHING MATERIALIN FRONT OF
THE SPEAKER