World’s Smallest Concert Hall

We are always happy when our container conversions make the news. This month saw one of our successful projects transformed into a venue for performances at the Leeds International Piano Competition, complete with a baby grand piano inside! Billed as the “world’s smallest concert hall”, this new shipping container music venue has been on quite a journey since leaving our workshop, to residing in Leeds as an arts, entertainment and fashion space.

Initially commissioned by Fashion in Leeds, the container started out as a pop up catwalk, hosting pop up fashion shows in the city of Leeds, in a novel and innovative venue. For this project we used high cube containers – one 20ft long and one 40ft long – to create the desired aesthetic.  High cube containers also provide an extra 12 inches of height, allowing a spacious, light and airy ambiance for the audience to enjoy. This was enhanced by removing the long sides of the container and replacing them with polycarbonate window panels. The interior design has been through several changes in terms of colour scheme and layout, to fit with the “mood” of the show, but always remains appealing and stylish.

Not content with breaking out into the world of fashion, the container was then commissioned by the piano competition. After another make over for this event, it was installed in the popular central Leeds location, Victoria Gardens. The newly transformed shipping container music venue hosted breakfast and lunchtime recitals during the week of the competition, free for all to enjoy. In between this time, art and music activities for children kept the container at full capacity all week.

Watch and listen to Henning Kraggerud and Lars Vogt’s performance of Brahams Second Violin Sonata in the world’s smallest concert hall.

We hope to see a lot more of this container hosting special events in Leeds.  If you are considering using a shipping container to host your own shows and events, contact us to enquire about the range of conversion techniques and fixtures and fittings we offer.