Frank Gehry completes intimate 360 degree concert hall in Berlin
– Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry, the classical music-loving architect behind the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles has completed his latest concert hall: the intimate oval Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.
The single-room facility, which took four years to build and opened on 4 March, is housed within a four-storey building designed by architect Richard Paulick in the 1950s to store sets for the Berlin State Opera.
Designed as a modular 360-degree space in which the musicians and concertgoers can be moved around without impacting the acoustic quality, the venue will host performances of different types – from jazz recitals to orchestral concerts and shows held by the newly-formed Boulez Ensemble.
For the Pierre Boulez Saal, Gehry re-teamed with his Disney collaborator Yasuhisa Toyota, the renowned Japanese acoustician who recently worked on Herzog and de Meuron's Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Both have waived their fees to work on the project.
To ensure the best possible sound quality, the floor slabs and shear walls of the existing building have been removed, with only the façade and roof maintained. Panels of Douglas fir line the walls and ceiling and on the east and south sides four bays of three windows each connect the hall visually to the surrounding neighbourhood. As intention was to “make the space feel like a room in the city, with an interior that reflects the Berlin sky.”
Flexibility and intimacy are central to the design, with the audience surrounding the musicians on all sides. The maximum distance between the conductor and the farthest seat is around 14m. There are two column-free sloping balconies on the upper level, which are rotated slightly against the axis of the oval stage to enhance sight lines.
“The Pierre Boulez Saal’s unique architecture offers an ideal setting for artists and audiences to share musical expression and sensual impression,” said Ole Bækhøj, the venue’s director.
“It’s a space that almost symbolically brings people together around a common experience rather than dividing them into performers and listeners.”
Describing his design, Gehry said: “It feels like a connection to the city, which is right because this is not an exterior concert hall like the Philharmonic or Disney Hall. It’s part of the city because the interior of the old building has history and has memories and there is something about that that appeals to me.”
The hall is named after Pierre Boulez, the French composer and conductor who died In January 2016.
The venue is run by the Barenboim–Said Academy, which was established in 1999 by Argentine-Israeli pianist Daniel Barenboim and the late American?Palestinian literary scholar Edward W. Said "to bring together as equals young Arab and Israeli musicians."
Gehry recently announced he is to teach an online masterclass for budding architects, delivering at least 15 video lessons sharing his design philosophy using case studies, sketches and models.
Frank Gehry Berlin Pierre Boulez Saal Yasuhisa Toyota Barenboim–Said Academy Daniel Barenboim Edward W. Said
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