Culture and auditorium acoustic design: Societal influences on the acoustic design of recently-opened auditoria Seminar

Speaker information

Rob Harris, Consultancy/University of Southampton. Rob Harris was born in London in 1954. After obtaining a BSc (Hons) in Physics from Warwick University in 1975, Rob was a stage lighting designer, a fringe theatre technical director and a sound engineer in the West End of London and Canada, mixing major musicals such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. He obtained a MSc at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at Southampton University in 1977. He then worked in acoustics, mainly in the onshore and offshore oil industries. Rob returned to design for the performing arts by joining Arup in 1982. He left Arup after 33 years as an Arup Fellow, a Director of Ove Arup & Partners and the leader of acoustics, theatre design and the Arts & Culture business in the UK, Middle East and Africa. In 2015 Rob formed Rob Harris Design Limited, providing his services as a leading international auditorium acoustic designer and theatre consultant. A major client of Rob Harris Design is Theatre Projects, with whom Rob collaborates on larger projects. Rob is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics (he was awarded the inaugural IOA Engineering Medal in 2004) and a Member of the Institute of Theatre Consultants. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2016 he was appointed as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research, University of Southampton.