Introduction
Soundworks Dome is an architectural and experiential installation conceived as a shared environment for elderly people and youngsters, where sound and moving images become tools for connection, care, and storytelling.The project is rooted in the idea that music and audiovisual experiences transcend age, cognitive conditions, and social boundaries. By combining architecture, technology, and sensorial design, the Dome creates a protected yet open space in which different generations can coexist, interact, or simply experience together—each at their own rhythm.
The geodesic dome typology is intentionally chosen for its symbolic and functional qualities: a universal, non-hierarchical form that naturally gathers people around a central experience. Set within a natural context, the Soundworks Dome acts as a soft landmark—recognizable, welcoming, and emotionally reassuring.
Main Objectives
The primary objective of Soundworks Dome is to offer an inclusive and therapeutic audiovisual experience accessible to both elderly users—particularly those affected by dementia or Alzheimer’s—and younger generations.
Key goals include:
Providing a safe and calming environment where music and video stimulate memory, attention, and emotional well-being.
Encouraging intergenerational coexistence, reducing isolation while allowing different users to share the same space without forced interaction.
Supporting caregivers and volunteers with a functional, adaptable, and non-clinical setting, improving the quality of care through spatial design.
Creating a replicable and modular architectural system, suitable for parks, care facilities, or cultural institutions.
Soundworks Dome is not intended as a medical device, but as a human-centered architectural experience that complements therapeutic practices through design.
Distinctive Elements
Architectural Form
The geodesic dome is both structurally efficient and emotionally neutral. Its spherical geometry eliminates corners and directional hierarchy, fostering a sense of equality and calm. The dome envelope combines transparency and softness, allowing daylight to filter in while maintaining visual protection.
Tensile Structures and Extension
An external tensile canopy extends the dome’s footprint, creating a transitional zone between interior and landscape. This extension enhances environmental comfort, offers shading, and visually anchors the structure within nature without imposing on it.
Interior Atmosphere
The interior design is defined by a natural and restrained palette—beige, warm wood tones, soft greens—chosen to reduce sensory overload and evoke familiarity. Furniture alternates between structured seating and informal elements (armchairs and bean bags), accommodating different postures, ages, and physical needs.
Audio-Visual System
Sound is delivered primarily through personal headphones, allowing individual experiences within a shared space. This avoids acoustic interference while preserving intimacy. Video projections and filtered screens wrap the interior, transforming the dome into an immersive but non-invasive environment.
Accessibility and Care
The base and ramp system ensures full accessibility, while façade systems and controlled openings allow natural ventilation and visual continuity with the outside. Every design choice prioritizes dignity, comfort, and ease of use.
Considerations
From a social perspective, Soundworks Dome addresses critical issues such as loneliness, cognitive decline, and generational separation. By designing a space that feels neither institutional nor recreational-only, the project positions itself in a hybrid territory—care through culture and design.
Technologically, the project relies on proven, accessible components, ensuring feasibility, maintenance simplicity, and scalability. The dome structure allows prefabrication and modular assembly, making it suitable for temporary or permanent installations.
Environmentally, the lightweight structure, reduced footprint, and integration with green contexts support a sustainable approach, both materially and symbolically.
A key consideration is flexibility: the Dome can host music sessions, video storytelling, guided therapy, or quiet individual listening—adapting to daily rhythms and different user profiles.
Conclusions
Soundworks Dome is an architectural response to a deeply human need: to feel connected, stimulated, and included, regardless of age or cognitive condition.
By merging architecture, sound, and visual media into a single experiential system, the project demonstrates how design can actively contribute to well-being without becoming prescriptive or medicalized.
The Dome stands as a gentle interface between generations, between care and culture, between technology and emotion.
It is not only a space to host experiences, but an experience in itself—where being together, even in silence, becomes meaningful.
Soundworks Dome ultimately proposes a new role for architecture: not just shelter or function, but empathic infrastructure for shared human experiences.
