festival hall
on public space
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It was an apple that was responsible for the dot on the carpets of the Royal Festival Hall. The carpets, like the rest of the 1951 building, are a keystone of mid-century design. During the design process, chief architect Leslie Martin had an apple on his desk. Spotting it, he drew a dot, nestling the “ball” within the neat, symmetrical lines of the “net” - a repeating, not-quite rectangle inspired by what sound looks like through an oscilloscope.
I wonder what the sound might be like if you put the wave from the carpet back through an oscilloscope and into an instrument. I’ll not know. Instead, the sound of the carpets of the Royal Festival Hall is that of my son’s footsteps running along the labyrinthine corridors, up its staircases and along the floating balconies off the high-ceilinged dining rooms and heavy wooden doors above. Footsteps and babble.