The House of Hungarian Music is taking shape within Budapest's City Park. With the structure and the design's distinctive roof completed, construction work is underway for the interior of the music hall. Nestled within the park's trees, the project designed by Sou Fujimoto features an extensive, horizontally uninterrupted glass volume topped by a perforated roof which allows natural light to penetrate all levels of the building.
Featuring concert halls, exhibition spaces and an open-air stage, the project is set to become the centre of Hungary's music scene while also highlighting the country's important history and legacy in the field. Dedicated to a young audience, the project is conceived as a musical initiation facility that "makes it possible to experience first hand the foundations of musical harmony and the physiology of perceiving sound".
The defining architectural feature of the building is its white roof punctured by almost 100 different holes that allow the trees of the park to grow through or are used as lightwells illuminating the interior. The ground floor will contain two performance venues, while the upper floor will house classrooms, a library and office spaces. A spiral staircase will connect the two overground levels. The underground levels will contain the exhibition spaces highlighting European music history, with a particular focus on Hungarian legacy. The building will use renewable energy sources.
The 9.000 square-metre project is part of the Liget Budapest project, a comprehensive plan to redevelop the 200-year old City Park into a leisure and cultural destination. Set to become one of Europe's most significant museum developments, the project will also encompass a Museum of Ethnography designed by Hungarian firm NAPUR Architect and the New National Gallery designed by SANAA. The House of Hungarian Music will open its doors at the end of 2021.
