Immersive spaces are heavily sensorial environments meant to create impactful experiences crafted through intentionally curated architecture, light, imagery, sound, and sometimes even smell. To "immerse" oneself is to be wholly enveloped in a world shaped solely by immediate sensory input. Using digital tools to craft these environments to showcase art, create compelling exhibitions, and feature performance events has become increasingly popular. Evocative experiences like these can offer a respite from the inundation of personalized digital content and foster shared, grounding encounters. The design of these can exist at the intersection of architecture, graphic design, visual art, lighting design, music, and performance. They underscore the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to craft memorable moments. So, what role does architecture play in shaping these?
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.
Once a year, in the vast and unforgiving Black Rock Desert of Nevada, a city arises. Thousands of people unite to form a temporary metropolis with a collective spirit. Burning Man 2023 removes all restrictions on expressing oneself, allowing forms to be unexpected. This year, Burning Man Festival’s theme was Anamilia, transforming The Black Rock Desert into a blank canvas for creation, a playground for self-discovery, and a haven for radical self-expression.
The topic "ANIMALIA," encouraged participants to set off on a voyage that blurred the line between reality and fantasy. ANIMALIA pays tribute to the animal kingdom's diversity, from the animals that live in the transitional areas of the desert to the mythical and fictitious animals that appear in our dreams. Inspired by the sea, the sand, the sky, and the imaginative, this year’s installations and pavilions range from a fish installation representing fresh waters to a living knit work pavilion that takes form with textiles, to a geometric structure showcasing a cube’s potential.
Metropolitans take pride in their storied cultural venues, the chroniclers of intellectual acumen and architectural achievement. While these icons revel in their ornate design, immersive grandiosity, and dramatic acoustics, the pandemic has introduced numerous challenges to the rules of assembly.
Recognizing changes in the rituals of attending a show—from procession and gathering to engagement—architects and cultural leaders are designing the next generation of performance venues while asking the question: How does architecture solve issues raised by a building’s inherent purpose? Is it possible to maintain the essence of a venue through gentle yet effective changes in people’s habits? The answers seem to rely on updating the auditorium culture (which dates as far back as the Colosseum) with contemporary design solutions rooted in new technologies.
https://www.archdaily.com/976581/what-will-post-pandemic-performance-venues-look-likeOsman Can Yerebakan
Reflecting on the future of shopping centres and addressing their decline in visitors, MVRDV's Heuvelkwartier design proposes converting Eindhoven's Heuvel shopping venue into a green cultural quarter. The project brings together retail, culture and recreation, expanding the existing buildings while transforming the roofs into a park. The proposal also expands the Muziekgebouw with a stacked cultural building encased in a "glass mountain", creating a new landmark for Heuvel.
OMA New York / Jason Long has revealed the design for The Terminal, a new performance venue serving as a cultural anchor for POST Houston, the office's redevelopment of the historic Barbara Jordan Post Office in downtown Houston. Integrated within the eastern wing of the mixed-use design, the 5,000 capacity music venue makes use of industrial materials and lighting effects to create a performative space on and off the stage.
The House of Hungarian Music, part of the Liget Budapest Project, has won the World's Best Use of Music in Property Development at the Music Cities Awards. Also selected as one of the top three Best European Development category, the intervention, designed by Sou Fujimoto is under construction on the former site of the demolished Hungexpo office buildings in Budapest, Hungary. Scheduled to open in 2021, the structure of the building is complete, and the iconic roof is taking shape, as well as the monumental glass walls, the largest of their kind in Europe.
Designed by Iotti + Pavarani Architetti, Tassoni & Partners, Lauro Sacchetti Associati, the RCF Arena, currently under construction, is set to become Europe’s largest events and concerts venue. Located in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna, the structure can host up to 100 000 people.
When we think about a perfect match between acoustics and good design it may not be as easy as it seems. A number of technical decisions in order to make an interior space acoustically efficient -and to achieve its programmatic purpose correctly- can make some of the architect's design intentions fade and be replaced by standard and prefabricated panels.
In this article, we present a selection of architecture projects that are able to create a memorable visual impact as well as an impeccable interior solution for acoustics. These are our favorite 14 music venues that fascinate inside and out.
In their video series for the November 2017 World Architecture Festival, PLANE—SITE delves into contemporary concert hall design. The five films highlight major themes in today’s musical architecture through an interactive, multimedia panel. Using Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Wroclaw’s National Forum of Music, and the Philharmonie de Paris as examples, the videos show how contemporary concert halls are more technological and multi-functional than ever before, demonstrating how architecture redefines the modern-day musical performance experience.
The series acted as a starting point for a conversation between the WAF audience and panelists, moderated by PLANE—SITE’s Andres Ramirez. Panelists included Michel Cova of dUCKS scéno, Tateo Nakajima of Arup, and Jacob Kurek of Henning Larsen.
What do Frederic Chopin, Alexander Calder and Montana's Bear Tooth Mountains have in common? A long summer day at Tippet Rise Art Center seeks to make the connections audible, visible, tangible.
Founded by philanthropists and artists Cathy and Peter Halstead and inaugurated in June 2016, Tippet Rise began as—and largely remains—a working ranch. It sprawls across 11,500 acres of rolling hills and alluvial mesas of southwestern. To the west rise the snowy heights of the Bear Tooth Mountains. Off to the east, hills give way to golden prairies that stretch out to the horizon.
Into this privileged landscape, the Halsteads and team have strategically inserted massive outdoor sculptures by Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, Stephen Talasnik, plus three specially commissioned works by the Spanish architectural firm Ensamble Studio. And hidden in a small depression near the entrance of the massive ranch, the LEED Platinum-certified Olivier Barn serves as both base camp for visitors and a state-of-the-art concert hall.
Ennead Architects has released plans for a new 40,000 square meter (430,550 square foot) Music Center in the Chinese city of Xiamen. The design, produced for a six-week design competition held by Xiamen City Municipal Planning, draws inspiration from the island city’s dramatic topography and history to create a new public institution along the harbor. To provide the beachfront with a new public gathering place, the project’s feature element will be a grand stair likened by Ennead to Rome’s timeless Spanish Steps.
Text description provided by the architects. Held over seven days and visited by over 350,000 people, Fleadh Cheoil na h Éireann is the world’s largest traditional Irish music festival, and was hosted in Sligo, Ireland during the 2015 version. NósWorkshop was invited to build a temporary stage for the festival, sheltering performances and providing a giant notice board to promote the festival events.
The expandable multi-use cultural venue dubbed "Culture Shed" is one of the most radical proposals to come out of New York'sHudson Yards Development Project. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro - the New York-based interdisciplinary practice that played a major role in designing the High Line - in collaboration with the Rockwell Group, this 170,000 square foot cultural center will be located at the south end of the Hudson Yards, with the main entrance located near the conclusion of the High Line at West 30th Street.
More information on the Culture Shed after the break...
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