New Metropolis Edition out!

The new edition of Metropolis has a superb article about Frank Gehry's new Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. One of the most interesting sections of the article discusses how the psychoacoustics of the hall is very important, nay, key. Psychoacoustics is the impression the audience and musicians get from the look and feel of the hall then affects the way the musicians play and how the audience hears a performance. Yasuhisa Tokyo (the acoustician) and Gehry have covered the interiors of hall in a Douglas Fir verneer but say that it's the concrete walls behind them that are essential to the acoustics - the sound would be just as good without the wood layer over the top.
Also stunning is the description and photos of the new Prada store in Tokyo by Herzog & de Meuron. They've got a moss garden:

"Initially the architects wanted to inject moss spores into limestone, a technique developed by the French biologist Michel Chiaffredo to clean beaches contaminated by oil spills. But implementing the technique in Japan proved problematic. The solution involved treating moss like a textile: sewing it into stell mesh, which is irrigated from behind the wall.

I work in Borders in the UK, you can get metropolis there, or get a subscription. The international subsciption costs $70 a year, but it's definitely worth it. (look for the Grit coin purse page 49 - they're made out of the currency notes from present and former enemies of US administrations).