Concert halls, music, and performance venues stand as iconic symbols of cultural vitality within urban landscapes. Through these structures, which often become landmarks of the city, the residents are invited to take part and experience artistic expression, fostering a sense of community and connection. For architects, this program poses the intricate challenge of balancing form and function, creating spaces that enhance the acoustic experience, allow for the flow of audience and performers, and create visual spectacles in their own right.
Featuring both emerging and internationally recognized offices, this week’s curated selection showcases music and performance venues, from mixed arts and cultural centers to opera and ballet halls. Including proposals for international competitions such as David Chipperfield Architects or SHL and PAX architects’ designs for the Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw or Hariri Pontarini Architects’ design for an integrated center for the arts in Canada, the selection explores the program of music venues across scales and programs.
Read on to discover 8 music, culture, and performance venues submitted by the ArchDaily community, along with descriptions provided by the architects.
Polish Royal Opera
David Chipperfield Architects, Berlin, in collaboration with P2PA, Wrocław
In their interaction, nature and architecture at the Royal Baths appear as an ideal landscape. The simple structures of the pavilion buildings are full of Palladian regularity. They are located in the landscape, which in its romantic richness provides a counterpoint to the classical, Enlightenment of architecture. The natural and simple image of the buildings immersed in the idyllic landscape provides sophistication and craftsmanship that makes the place royal as a whole.
The music wood - Il bosco della musica
Settanta7 S.r.l., GPA S.r.l., Stain Engineering S.r.l., Vibes S.r.l.
“Expanding knowledge and beauty, grown for centuries within the walls of the Conservatory, creating a place of wide destination and giving a second life to the neighborhood.” The Music wood - Il Bosco della Musica of Rogoredo, the campus of the new Conservatory projected by Studio Settanta7, is a multifunctional structure that includes classrooms, laboratories, an auditorium, student residences, relax and refreshment areas and the redevelopment of the ''Ex Chimici'' building and the former “Radaelli” steelworks.
Polish Royal Opera 2023
Collaboration between SHL architects and PAX architects
An airy pavilion-like structure lightly sits in the green park - its soft shape allows the park and building to mediate. The foyer space is organized as a fluid space all around the façade, which creates a welcoming building connecting with the park. The curved shape of the building embraces the park and creates green pockets along the façade, thus visitors of the opera, as well as the public, can enjoy and use the venue. – A democratic gesture in the park.
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
Hariri Pontarini Architects with LMN Architects, Tawaw Architecture Collective, Smoke Architecture and SLA
A team led by Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA) has won the international design competition to reimagine Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. The winning design, called Transparence, creates a bold connection with its historic neighborhood and establishes a new cultural hub in the heart of the city. The reconfigured St. Lawrence Centre preserves features of its Brutalist form and material while dramatically altering the orientation of the two theatres, currently side–by–side on the ground floor with limited public space. The central axis of the main theatre is rotated 90 degrees to address a new public plaza on Scott Street, which can function as an extension n of the versatile 600 – 1000-seat theatre as well as provide additional public programs.
Resonance: Social Reconciliation Platform
Charbel Chlela Architect
Amidst tumult and division, a transformative project rises in Beirut, embracing its tormented past to forge a new future. Once scarred by the Civil War, it aims to revive Social Anarchy through vibrant expressions of Culture. Beit Beirut, a symbol of endurance, becomes a beacon of reconciliation, preserving memories and fostering unity. Facing the essence of the Green Line, I take on this sensitive area, honoring the past while sowing seeds of hope for renewal. My project fosters uninhibited self-expression and serves as a collision of emotions, shaping an architectural manifestation that embodies the indomitable spirit of the place.
Wuhan Film Production Studio Plot D and Plot E
Wuhan is an ancient yet diverse city with a rich history and traditional culture. Aedas Global Design Principal Dr. Andy Wen and Executive Director Yijun Qian led the team to win the competition of the Wuhan Film Production Studio Plot Design Scheme in the heart of the city. Integrating the Wuhan landscape with cultural characteristics, the design is set to be a cultural-commercial hub filled with historical and functional features.
OMA.municipal arts workshop
Arch. João Paulo Barbosa, Des. Maria José Almeida
The architectural proposal combines conservation and requalification of the urban front of the building existing, reference, and memory of the old building “Cineteatro de Ermesinde”, with the introduction of a new volume, contemporary language, where the different valences. Volumetrically, the new building consists of three bodies interconnected and related to each other: the vertical volume parallelepiped corresponds to the main body of the old Cineteatro, the volume of the ellipsoid, although “discreet” as a whole, will be the one with the greatest architectural impact, its shape, and exterior plastic treatment, and the volume form parallelepiped horizontal, designated by the activities, simply “landed” on the volume of the ellipsoid, it will be inside it that we will find the support rooms for various artistic activities.
Clwb Ifor Bach
Expansion and remodeling plans by Nissen Richards Studio for legendary Welsh music club Clwb Ifor Bach submitted for planning. Legendary Cardiff grassroots music venue Clwb Ifor Bach has submitted ambitious expansion plans, designed by RIBA Award-winning architects Nissen Richards Studio, that will see its current site expanded and upgraded. The new vision for the venue - which has helped launch the careers of many big-name Welsh bands, from Stereophonics to Super Furry Animals is for a contemporary and fully accessible space that will increase engagement and broaden Clwb Ifor Bach’s activities in line with its charitable objectives.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on November 02, 2023.
