Developing Embryo

Embryo has rapidly found favour with Bucharest’s in-crowd thanks to its stunning design scheme, cosmopolitan drinks and food menu and leftfield music policy. It’s as stylish a venue as anything you would find in the west.

The client wanted something organic, that would capture the interest and imagination of anyone that steps into the venue, explains Adrian Cancer, General Manager of Embryo’s interior designers Square One.

“The overall concept of the design was to represent ‘pre-life’, or life at a cellular scale. Although most of the elements are carved in hard plastic we endeavoured to create a ‘soft’ space by distorting all of the elements that give one a sense of orientation regarding scale, or the common shape of objects.”

With a stunning entrance that beckons the visitor in via a dark, brooding tunnel, much of Embryo’s charm lies in its basement (the venue occupies an area of 120 square metres at ground level and 224 square metres in its basement zone) where the space is carved between a dancefloor, restaurant area, numerous comfortable seating zones, bars, toilets and DJ booth.

Walls and surfaces are also used as projection screens for video imagery whilst the predominantly stark, white colour scheme is washed by an array of hues from a colour-changing RGB source.

Embryo’s sound system considerations have been taken care of by Martin Audio’s Romanian distributor, Paradigma Group.

Due to the considerable acoustic challenges posed by the venue’s lack of resonance, Paradigma chose to design and install a distributed system that would provide high quality coverage to every nook and cranny of the club’s multi-zone layout. As a result Paradigma have used four Martin Audio Blackline F12 mid/high speaker units alongside two Blackline S218 subwoofers to provide audio for Embryo’s main dancefloor zone.

In the club’s adjoining smaller room four AQ6 mid/highs from Martin’s architectural line (selected due to their white casing and sympathetic design) are delayed and backed with the subwoofers from the main dancefloor. Elsewhere, in the club’s bar and VIP zones, architectural AQ6 and C115 full range cabinets are also delayed in line with the venue’s main system. Audio processing is via a Martin Audio DX1.

“After running simulations in order to choose the best speaker position we integrated the system into the existing design,” explains Paradigma’s Wolfgang Kober.

“The distributed zone controlled system works well for each of Embryo’s individual areas and the Martin Audio speakers are able to handle the varying SPLs needed to cater for the venue’s alternating lounge and club usage.”