OMA

Casa da Música . Porto

OMA . Photos: © Clement Guillaume

The past thirty years have seen frantic attempts by architects to escape the domination of the "shoe-box" concert hall.

Rather than struggle with the inescapable acoustic superiority of this traditional shape, the Casa da Musica attempts to reinvigorate the traditional concert hall in another way: by redefining the relationship between the hallowed interior and the general public outside. The Casa da Musica, the new home of the National Orchestra of Porto, stands on a new public square in the historic Rotunda da Boavista. It has a distinctive faceted form, made of white concrete, which remains solid and believable in an age of too many icons. Inside, the elevated 1,300-seat (shoe box-shaped) Grand Auditorium has corrugated glass facades at either end that open the hall to the city and offer Porto itself as a dramatic backdrop for performances. Casa da Musica reveals its contents without being didactic; at the same time, it casts the city in a new light.

Locating the Casa da Musica was key in the development of OMA's thinking; we chose not to build the new concert hall in the ring of old buildings defining the Rotunda but to create a solitary building standing on a travertine-paved plateau in front of the Rotunda's park, neighbouring a working class area. With this concept, issues of symbolism, visibility, and access were resolved in one gesture.
As well as the Grand Auditorium, conceived as a simple mass hollowed out end-to-end from the solid form of the building, the Casa da Musica also contains a smaller, more flexible performance space with no fixed seating, ten rehearsal rooms, recording studios, an educational area, a restaurant, terrace, bars, a VIP room, administration areas, and an underground car park for 600 vehicles.
Innovative use of materials and colour throughout was another imperative: as well as the unique curtain-like glass walls at either end of the Grand Auditorium, the walls are clad in plywood with enlarged wood patterns embossed in gold, giving a dramatic jolt in perspective; the VIP area has hand-painted tiles picturing a traditional pastoral scene, while the roof terrace is patterned with geometric black and white tiles; floors in public areas are sometimes paved in aluminium.
There is deliberately no large central foyer; instead, a continuous public route connects the spaces around the Grand Auditorium by means of stairs, platforms and escalators. The building becomes an architectural adventure.

Partners in charge:
Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon
Team:
Adrianne Fisher, Michelle Howard, Isabel Silva, Nuno Rosado, Robert Choeff, Barbara Wolff, Stephan Griek, Govert Gerritsen, Saskia Simon, Thomas Duda, Christian von der Muelde, Rita Amado, Philip Koenen, Peter Müller, Krystian Keck, Eduarda Lima, Christoff Scholl, Alex de Jong, Catarina Canas, Shadi Rahbaran, Chris van Duijn, Anna Little, Alois Baptista, André Cardoso, Paulo Costa, Ana Jacinto, Fabienne Louyot, Christina Beaumont, João Prates Ruivo
Competition Team:
Rem Koolhaas, Fernando Romero Havaux, Isabel Silva, Barbara Wolff, Uwe Herlyn

COLLABORATORS
Local Architect:
ANC Architects, Jorge Carvalho
Structure: Arup / AFA Lda
Cecil Balmond, Rory McGowan, Asim Gaba, Toby Maclean, Andrew Minson, Rui Furtado, Rui Oliveira, Pedro Moas
Services: Arup / AFA Lda/RGA
Tim Thornton, Stefan Waldhauser, Dane Green, Rodrigues Gomes, Joaquim Viseu, Luís Graça, Paulo Silva, Marco Carvalho, Pedro Albuqüerque
Fire engineering: Arup Fire
George Faller
Code Consultancy:
OHM /Gerisco
Acoustics: TNO Eindhoven / DHV
Renz van Luxembourg, Theo Raijmakers
Interiors, Curtains: Inside Outside
Petra Blaisse, Peter Niessen, Marieke van den Heuvel, Mathias Lehner
Scenography: dUCKS scéno
Michel Cova, Stephan Abromeit, Aldo de Sousa
Facade:
Robert Jan van Santen, Rob Nijsse (ABT), Arup Facades
Auditorium chairs:
Maarten van Severen, Loose Furniture Foyers: Daciano da Costa, António Sena da Silva, Leonor Álveres de Oliveira