Warsaw Concert Hall Design Competition, Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, Poland Architectural Contest, Architect

Warsaw Concert Hall Architecture Competition Winner

Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra Competition – Warsaw Concert Hall Design Contest

8 Dec 2010

Location: Warsaw, Poland

ATELIER THOMAS PUCHER wins competition for the new Sinfonia Varsovia Concert Hall

Sinfonia Varsovia Concert Hall

ATELIER THOMAS PUCHER has won the international competition for the new seat of the world renowned Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra in Warsaw. The 20.000m² cultural centre is housed on the site of a former Veterinary Institute with existing – yet asleep – buildings and a fairy tale park. The centre inhabits a 1.800 seat symphonic hall with world class acoustic properties, large rehearsal areas, merchandise facilities, musical workshops and a small hotel for artists in residence and music lovers on vacation.

Warsaw Concert Hall Competition Winner:

The project gives a precise answer on the demands of the orchestra as well as the given site with its historical buildings. By enveloping the whole site with a floating wall it indicates the park as its new centre and creates a distinctive place of silence – the basic principle for an orchestra to perform – full of atmosphere and drama. The park becomes an open public place and the wall becomes the building to serve it.

The floating wall inhabits the symphonic hall and all rehearsal areas. It floats above the foyer – thus a seamless extension of the park into the building – and holds several mysteries and miracles: hidden rooms and stairs, a narrow surveillance path at its top, all technical infrastructures and a span of 140m without any column.

The Concert Hall is a fusion of Shoebox Hall and Arena. While the traditional shoe box hall is known for its excellent acoustics but much too often offers poor visibility conditions, the Arena has its advantages in the visibility but is hardly applicable when it comes to its acoustic conditions.

The hall for the Sinfonia Varsovia combines the advantages of both by choosing the main shape of a rectangular room with ideal acoustic dimensions and inserting seemingly free formed bands of balconies with perfect angles for visitors into this volume. The three dimensional flow of the balconies and the specific relation to the rectangular volume allow the acoustic properties to be developed on a world class level.

Compared to the second popular type – the vineyard – the hall provides the benefit of compactness, short distances and a volume that is also suited for smaller symphony orchestras and chamber orchestras. For the audience that means that each listener is situated as near to the orchestra as possible thus creating an immense impression of being “in midst the music”.

The new Sinfonia Varsovia Centre has a budget of approx. € 110 million and is expected to be completed in 2016.

Sinfonia Varsovia Concert Hall Warsaw – Building Information

Architect: ATELIER THOMAS PUCHER Graz, Austria
Acoustical Engineering: BBM MÜLLER Munich, Germany
Structural Engineering: PETER MANDL Graz, Austria
Mechanical Engineering: KCE Wels, Austria
Green Building Certification GOBLI BAUENGINEERING Graz, Austria
Client: The Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra in Warsaw
Area: 20,000 m² Net Floor Area
Construction sum: € 110 million
Competition: 2010, 1st prize in open international competition
Status: Completion 2016

Sinfonia Varsovia Concert Hall Warsaw images / information from ATELIER THOMAS PUCHER

Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra Concert Hall – Design Contest

Location: Warsaw, Poland

30 Jul 2010 – registration closing date

The Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra architectural competition for a conceptual design of the main municipal concert hall for 1800 seats as well as an adaptation of the ex-Veterinary Institute’s historical buildings located at Grochowska 272 Street In Warsaw.

All regulations and details about competition are fully available on the competition website www.sinfoniavarsovia.org/konkurs. Registration of the Competition Participants through a special electronic form placed on the Competition website, will be finished on Friday 30.07.2010 at 15:30.

Warsaw Concert Hall Design Competition images / information from Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra

Polish Architecture

picture © Aldinger & Wolf