Szczecin Philharmonic Hall
Barozzi Vega
Barozzi Vega
November 16.2015
Szczecin, Poland
The building emerges from its urban context, influenced by the steeply
pitched roofs and the verticality of the city's residential buildings, by the
monumentality of the upright ornaments of its neo-Gothic churches and the heavy
volumes of its Classicist buildings, by the towers that dot its entire skyline
and the cranes of its port."
The Philharmonic Hall of Szczecin is located on the historical site of the
"Konzerthaus," which was destroyed during the Second World War,
creating an urban corner in a neighborhood close to the historic city.
Mass, verticality and the shape of the rooflines are dominant, connecting
the hall with the rest of the city. The whole is wrapped in translucent glass
with protruding vertical strips of aluminum.
From the outside the building is perceived as a weightless volume in which
the glass facade, illuminated from the inside, allows for different perceptions
- sometimes translucent, sometimes opaque - depending on the building's use and
the time of day.
The building houses a symphony hall, a hall for chamber music, a
multifunctional space for exhibitions and conferences. The main entrance opens
to a spacious white foyer with a central staircase, a promenade, that connects
the different levels of the building. A spiral staircase, next to the café,
connects to the side entrance of the concert halls located on the first floor.
Skylights allow for daylight to enter the building.
The exterior austerity, and the simple composition of
the
interior circulation spaces, contrast with the
expressiveness of the main
hall and the concert hall, reminiscent of the classic European concert hall
designs with
its gold-leaf covering.
Both ornamental and functional the panels that protrude from the hall's ceilings and walls were composed following a Fibonacci sequence whose fragmentation, according to the architects, increases with the distance from the scene.
Both ornamental and functional the panels that protrude from the hall's ceilings and walls were composed following a Fibonacci sequence whose fragmentation, according to the architects, increases with the distance from the scene.
The idea was to materialize a building that is both a specific part of its
context, and independent from it at the same time. Accordingly, the point was
not to invent something, but fundamentally to discover what already exists and
reveal a new reality."
The Philharmonic Hall won the 2015 European Union Prize for Contemporary
Architecture - the Mies van der Rohe Award. This is the first time that a
project from behind the former iron curtain wins the prize.
