The Red Bull Music Academy stage was constructed for Babylon Soundgarden music festival, which is held in Istanbul Kilyos beach on 4th June 2016. The fragmented structure’s four components function as the stage for the dj performances, two bars and water supply. Built with layher speedy scaffolding system, the temporary project is built in 22 hours, exposed to 34 hours and disassembled in 2 hours.

In the 2015 event, the Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) stage was installed on sand right in front of a road (wooden deck road) which was representing the densist axis of the festival area and running parallel to the coast. This positioning enabled the audience to completely experience the backstage. Although the impact area was not the beach as it was envisioned before, it was a narrow space just near the seacoast. Therefore it was decided to install the stage on sand, right between the dense festival axis that was running parallel to the seaside and the coast.

Given the advantage that there were only going to be dj performances throughout the stage programme, the stage is conceptualized as a volume that communicates with the audience not through a single-sided stage but with four open sides, in order to increase the impact area of the stage that runs parallel to the whole beach.

Strengthening this communication paved the way for the stage to be envisioned in circles and their derivatives. It is aimed for the audience to experience the broad spatial perception of the stage along with four volumes that are located around the stage unit in the middle and functionalized with festival-oriented requirements. Standing out as units which have the highest potential to attract the audience subsequent to the stage, bars are positioned symetrically to the stage and near the seashore by getting detracted from the dense axis. Therefore the entrance/exit area functioning between the main axis of the festival and RBMA area is facilitated and it enabled the audience to experience the space in a much easier fashion. The front of house is installed near the dense axis after determining the area that allows the audience to see the stage clearly, stands relatively far away from mass circulation (by calculating the circulation of the production team in the area) and holds the closest distance to other stages. Turning into a basic need at summer festivals, a free-of-charge water-distribution point is installed on the symettrical point between the front house and the stage. Owing to the advantage of Layher speedy scaffolding’s rapid installation and the molar and volumetrical variations it enabled, pursuit of different forms were diversified in the mass-volume-audience relation. Along with consoles implemented in the structures that hold festival-related functionalities, the intended space design is realized through increasing the dominance of the relevant units by reducing their space on the plan-sand. Considering the territorial data; sea, nature and wind are the only parameters that affected the selected materials at the most. In an attempt to foster the effect of sea and sand that stand out as the greatest strengthts of the festival, aluminium-profiled mirrors are emplaced for the relevant strenghts to be perceived much more deeply. Due to strong winds in the Kilyos area, mirrors are positioned fragmentally. These fragments rendered various perspectives possible through different angles. Scaffolding volumes are concretized through unrefined jutes in an effort to lighten the load taken on the consoles that is caused by the wind and coincide with the RBMA essence. For not contrasting with this installation plan; space, sound and lighting systems are distributed not only to the stage but also to the five structures. Therefore BARN arch.’s design concept where the space dominates the stage (not vice versa) is successfully executed.

Here is a brief video of the project: https://vimeo.com/192953392