Earlier this month, during the award ceremony for the 2015 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture-Mies van der Rohe Award, we had the opportunity to speak with winners Barozzi / Veiga, who won for their Philharmonic Hall Szczecin. We asked Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga, founders of the eponymous, Barcelon-based firm, about their project and their office.
The architects describe the process of incorporating and filtering many influences to arrive at the final design for the Philharmonic Hall, emphasizing that they strove to "create a quality" that transforms from day to night. Learn more about the project by watching the video above, and see what the jury had to say after the break.
Below is the jury’s statement regarding the Philharmonic Hall:
“The winning project, the Philharmonic Hall Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland, Barozzi/Veiga (Studio A4 collaborator) is the winning entry of an international open competition for the design of a new complex on the site of the old one. Public expectations charged the program not only with a number of integrated functions – a large hall for symphonic music and a smaller one for chamber music, a grand foyer with upper level exposition spaces – but also with a new symbolic role. The series of pitched gables which crowns the rectangular complex of the new building dialogues well with the silhouette of the nearby Castle. The main symphony hall one is clad by triangular wooden acoustic panels gilded with gold leaf. A large hall with the cafeteria and two grand open stairs take the role of a new covered square in the cold seasons, while multi-functional rooms wrap around the concert halls, offering new chances for cultural and leisure events.
This winning project finds a convincing formal and spatial strategy for a city which strives for a better future in a fast changing economy and social patterns, delivering a dignity to urban life and the same time enhancing the city’s specific historical identity with a contemporary “monument”.”
