Soundproofing
The media room is perhaps one of the most specific rooms in the house. At this point, the architectural team seems to be emphasizing the use of shared spaces to maximize the effectiveness of each room. Examples of shared spaces would be the kitchen sharing some of the same space as the courtyard, labs sharing space with the garage, and the office sharing some space with the courtyard as well. The media room circumvents the problem of not sharing space for several reasons. First, the media room is a specialized room in that the audio and video function will dominate the room, which does not lend itself well to “sharing” with other rooms. Additionally, the media room does have some multiuse purpose within the realm of audio and video. The soundproofing used in the walls of the media room allow the room to be used for any functions that require a quiet space or for activities that are too loud to perform in a normal room without disturbing people in other rooms. Essentially, the isolation of the media room will ensure that the shared space functionality of other rooms is maintained. Given the amount of audio/video activities that can take place, the room should be very well utilized. Presentations, Duke basketball games, movies, music, and other loud entertainment activities would warrant the need for a well soundproofed room.
Extremely effective and impressive soundproofing for the media room, which will help maintain multi-use function of other rooms of the house.
A disadvantage is the need for thick walls.
One interesting idea for a future direction of the project would be to build one or two of the media room walls to be mobile so that the media room can open up, allowing more people to watch videos or television. Nothing has been researched in this area yet, so as of now, talk of a mobile wall is purely speculation. If built, mobile walls could be a breakthrough in home design and space usage. Further research to implement mobile walls should definitely be pursued.