Biography: Louis de Saran is a Boorloo-based designer and design educator in Architecture at the University of Western Australia. His multidisciplinary practice spans architecture, spatial design, landscape, furniture and installation works.
Working across scales and disciplines, his projects are grounded in collaboration and an engagement with context, site, culture, and the sensory qualities of place. Through listening, material experimentation, and spatial experience, his work seeks to foster meaningful relationships between people and their environments.
Beyond his design practice, Louis works as a creative engaging across the fields of creative direction, photography, fashion and graphic design.
DRF01 is an exploration of sound, material and atmosphere through the design of a recycled sound system. The project investigates the potential of Defy as both an acoustic and aesthetic material, using it to rethink the conventional enclosure of audio equipment.
Across my recent work, I have increasingly explored sound and sonic environments as tools for shaping experience. Rather than simply accompanying a space, sound can establish atmosphere, influence perception and create a sense of presence, becoming increasingly significant in an age where so much of our experience is mediated through digital environments.
The project is also informed by the cultural history of sound-system culture, from its roots in Jamaica and its development through the UK, club and dance scenes, to its contemporary resurgence as both a social and spatial practice. The sound system is understood not simply as a piece of equipment, but as an architectural object capable of bringing people together and producing a shared atmosphere.
DRF01 brings together a collection of second-hand and inexpensive audio equipment accumulated through my ongoing experimentation with sound. The project seeks to re-house, redesign and modify these existing components, transforming readily available equipment into a high-fidelity system with a considered architectural and material identity.
The system uses a three-way configuration to produce a high-fidelity sound across a range of applications, from events and installations to venues and temporary spaces. Through the combination of recycled material and equipment, sound-system culture and spatial explorations, DRF01 explores how something assembled from existing and discarded components can become a new, high-performance object.
Materials: Defy Recycled HDPE Panels – Bambi; MDF ; Stainless Steel hardware; Recycled fabric waste insulation; Second-hand vintage high-fidelity audio drivers, crossovers, and wiring.
Dimensions: 4x 1052 H x 450 W x 500 D mm
Price/ NFS: Price not provided.