Casa da Música

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Panoramic view of the entrance area
View of the concert hall
Staircase in the Casa da Música
Interior shots of the Casa da Música

The Casa da Música (German: House of Music) is the municipal concert hall in the northern Portuguese city ​​of Porto , designed by the architects Rem Koolhaas and Ellen Van Loon from OMA (Rotterdam). It was inaugurated in April 2005 and houses the cultural institution of the same name with its three orchestras “Orquestra Sinfonica do Porto”, “Orquestra Barroca” and “Remix Ensemble”. The project started in July 1999, with the official stipulation that it should be completed by 2001, when Porto was European Capital of Culture . Civil engineers were the English engineering firm Arup .

In the design by Koolhaas, the different areas of the concert hall were combined in a compact volume, which is a polygonal body made of white exposed concrete in the “Rotunda da Boavista” square, like a crystal for music. The forecourt, which is entirely covered with Jordanian travertine in shades of brown and gold, contrasts strongly with the ubiquitous gray granite in Porto . The white shell covers a 3-D puzzle that occupies eleven floors.

Inside, the architecture made of concrete, aluminum and glass is clad in many different materials. The large concert hall with 1,300 seats is designed like a box, the small auditorium with 350 seats is arranged on one level above at right angles to it. Koolhaas surrounds the two halls with a shell reminiscent of a crystal, which offers additional space for foyers, seminar rooms, recording rooms, a children's room, a cyber area for experimental music, reception areas and restaurants. The rooms are all designed with different materials: the walls of the large concert hall were clad with gold leaf on the wood paneling, its acoustics were developed with Yasuhisa Toyota , the front side opens towards the city with a large, wavy glass front . On the one hand, these glass waves distort the view, on the other hand, the sound is also broken favorably. The small performance hall is decorated in red and the foyers are tiled with Portuguese azulejos .

literature

  • Till Boettger: Threshold spaces: transitions in architecture. Analysis and design tools . Birkhäuser Verlag, 2014.

Web links

Commons : Casa da Música  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Gänshirt: Carpenters and restorers for handicraft. Construction and execution of the Casa da Música. In: Bauwelt No. 21/2005, pp. 40–43

Coordinates: 41 ° 9 ′ 31.7 "  N , 8 ° 37 ′ 51.5"  W.