Competition Concert Hall in Wroclaw, PL
description

The L uxembourg office in particular has been heavily involved in the field of buildings for culture. T his interest certainly has to do with the fact that François Valentiny is an opera lover and passionate concertgoer, but has even more to do with the spatial and architectural opportunities that such “special buildings” offer the designer. I t is certainly true that nowadays cost-benefit calculations are applied to this area, too – indeed often rigorously, see the “House for M ozart”. But if the concept of a gesamtkunstwerk is still possible in any area of architecture then this can only be in the case of opera houses and theatres, museums and other cultural institutions. Without a doubt the task of designing the E uropean C ulture C entre at K atschhof in A achen was especially complex. Here, in terms of the brief, the task was to blend very disparate functions such as culture centre and forum, citizens’ centre as well as commercial and ancillary functions. Here everyday functions encounter the aspiration to create a festive, possibly even ceremonial framework for very different kinds of cultural events. It would not be stretching things excessively to mention in this context the project for a concert hall in Wroclaw. Here too, the historical context of the old town was understood as an obligation. T he interpretation – strongly sculptured and folded – thinks these constraints through in a relaxed and contemporary way, the impressions made by day and by night are presented in a very special way. T he urban preconditions for the concert hall in S tavanger, Norway, were different. I t stands by the sea and is understood as a “landmark”.
DATA

Client: Municipality of Wroclaw