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Harmony
between people, music and space
During the last decade, the ensembles of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation,
better known as Danmarks Radio (DR), have experienced a period of intense
artistic development. The Radiosymphony is now among the elite of our
generations leading symphony orchestras; the Radiochoir is an ensemble
much in demand internationally; and the Radio Big Band, one of the world's
best big bands, has an almost legendary status in the jazz world. But
no band or orchestra sounds better than the concert hall they play in.
And French architect Jean Nouvel's new state of the art concert hall will
help to ensure DR's continued success.
Arrival
and ritual
Every concert goer knows that the meeting between the building and the
public is a ritual that plays an important role in one's mental preparation
on the way to the concert hall. Architecturally, Jean Nouvel has striven
to celebrate the public's arrival to the concert hall the way up a long
stair ascending through the expressionistic foyer. Here the public is
introduced to the richly faceted architecture of the concert hall itself.
In this way, Jean Nouvel subtly intones the sacred sense of community
surrounding the classical concert.
Monumental
Sculpture
With its expressionistic structure, the main auditorium appears as a gigantic
and richly faceted wooden sculpture; a jewel hidden within a glass crystal.
With its dynamic yet highly controlled composition, the concert hall as
a whole enters into a strong interplay with the rest of DR's media building
complex and the surrounding buildings in the area.
Gigantic
and flexible screen
One of the most unconventional elements in Jean Nouvel's project is an
immense, semi-transparent screen that envelops the entire concert hall.
In daylight, the auditorium appears as a silhouette, in that the screen
with poetic subtlety blurs the substantial forms inside. As night falls,
the screen can be illuminated with living images. Animation of the building's
immense surfaces hold unimagined possibilities for the promotion and illustration
of the activities inside the concert hall, just as the visual power in
the images, light, and fluctuating animation will pique the
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interest
of the public passing by. The screen facades are also well suited to the
projection of popular and festive arrangements like gala concerts with
well known opera stars, jazz concerts, and the popular thursday concerts.
With this facade screen, the concert hall will become an animated building,
a living and communicating corpus, that round the clock will change expression
and information. In this way, the building in symbolic form, becomes an
image of music's dynamic and variable essence. Functionally, the screen
facades fulfil their necessary role in controlling daylight, views, and
climate.
Inspiration,
and intimacy
The inspiration for the auditorium comes from the Berlin Philharmonic,
a building from 1963 by the German architect, Hans Scharoun. The Philharmonic
is world renown for its unique "terraced seating" and the resulting
acoustics. Almost like an amphitheatre, the public is placed on concentric
terraces which are staggered in height around the central stage, allowing
an exceptional closeness and intimacy to build between the public and
the artists. This physical proximity intensifies the sense of concentration
and communion around the artistic experience during the performance. These
principles are gracefully reinterpreted by Jean Nouvel. Another source
of inspiration, according to the architect, can be found in the original
concert hall for Danmarks Radio from 1941 designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen,
which represented an architecturally well executed and harmonious solution.
In the current concert hall, the architect has subjected all of the architectural
details to the same rigorous design process and created with a similar
palette of wood on the interior. At the same time the Jean Nouvel has
vastly improved the acoustics and viewing qualities within the concert
hall.
Temple
of Music
The interplay between details, form, space, and proportions give a rhythm,
resonance, and melody to the experience of the architectural composition.
Here architecture becomes music which gives rise to pleasure and affects
our senses and thoughts. With this concert hall, Copenhagen receives a
unique temple for music, a place for reflection and spiritual immersion
in one of western culture's most important traditions, music.
© JAN ANDERSEN 2002
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