Casa da Música in Porto
Published on: 5th of January 2012
Current city: Lisbon
There are two Pritzker Portuguese winners based in Porto, the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira awarded in 1992 and architect Eduardo Souto de Moura in 2011. They have quite a vast and diverse work so without having the chance to cover everything (I would need another Light tour just for this) I decided to pick Casa da Música (House of Music), a project by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas that has won the Pritzker Award in 2000.
Casa da Música is a multi-purpose music and arts space comprising two main auditoriums, rehearsal rooms and recording studios for the Porto National Opera which was built in the context of the Porto 2001 – European Capital of Culture. Nevertheless it was only finished in 2005 but immediately became an architectural icon for the city and in 2007 received its first award, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) European Award.
Structurally challenging, it is very irregular in shape and from a distance it resembles a gem on a flat surface. The building itself promotes a very interesting relationship between interior and exterior: several glazed surfaces allow views from and to the inside of the building. In some areas I was able to have a perspective of the city towards the river and the sea.
The interiors of Casa da Música reveal Rem Koolhaas’ controversial architectural style but very much well integrated and appealing. The architect combined the old and new in various occasions, as an example he put side by side traditional Portuguese and Dutch architectural elements such as tiling styles.
The main concert hall is the ex-libris of the building and it is located at the core of the construction. The acoustics of the concert halls are outstanding and were on the basis of the concept of the building too. Even though, Rem Koolhaas known for its provocative style initially tried to get away from the shoe-box shape for the concert hall, with further research it was concluded that for acoustic reasons this was the best shape. All the materials and elements inside the main hall were taken into account for the acoustics too.
Nevertheless, the main auditorium is bathed with daylight from the two walls made entirely of glass, an oddity in the music world as glass scatters sound in random directions. However, the problem was solved by making the glass ripple in tightly curved folds, and setting two glass sheets a metre apart to insulate the hall from exterior noise.
The artificial lighting on the other side is quite ‘raw’ in concept. Except for the concert hall, all the light sources are exposed and bare lamps provide general lighting to the different spaces. If at the beginning this felt strange, when the tour guide explained me the reasons, I understood and approved the logic behind it. One of the main features of this building is its openness to the community.
The architect intended to design a building that was clear and understood by everyone. After all, this is the house of Music, and it is where interchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge should happen. With this in mind everything was exposed and revealed in quite a subtle way and the amount of windows and glazed surfaces were already examples of this. A metal grid on the walls and ceilings protects lighting and all the infrastructures but still allowing for people to see them. Addressing the idea that most cultural institutions only benefit a minority of people in any given place, the building reveals its contents to the city!
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