The Brutalist architectural technique comprising exposed and unpainted concrete, reminiscent of post-WWII United Kingdom, forms inspiration for a state-of-the-art concrete speaker. The monochrome color palette of bare structures is carried onto the base of this speaker, but it’s the bright orange top that adds an element of modernity to the brutalist-esque speaker system.
Clever engineering and design have made possible speakers whose housing is made of concrete. The idealistic purpose of replacing wood or plastic with concrete has allowed audiophiles to realize the considerable difference in sound. Concrete creates a robust housing for a speaker and this element forms the essence of Orange – Concrete Speaker.
Designer: Duc Vu Anh
To retain the robustness of the construction material; Duc has kept the interaction with the concrete speaker very physical. A tap on the top, springs open the head and turns the speaker on. Knock it back to switch the speaker off.
On the concrete base (ideally shaped as one of the Brutalist structures from the bygone era) you have four physical buttons for volume, play/pause and Bluetooth. Presumably, the chunky speaker connects wirelessly over Bluetooth to any mobile device. It also gets a USB port on the left side to recharge the probable built-in battery.
The concrete housing makes the speaker an interesting addition to your desk, but it’s the incredible orange finish that adds a refined ingredient to the bare aesthetic. Resilient, durable, and portable, the concrete speaker, by its virtue, produces music that sounds like original without distortion.
Concrete as a material, by its weight and high density – prevents speaker from vibrating, but its pour and finish mean the shape and surface have symmetry. The grains ensure no two speakers have the same acoustics (there will be the minutest of differences, but you will never notice anything).
