Casa Da Musica

North facade

The Building

"This century has seen an architecturally frantic attempt to escape from the tyranny of the notorious "shoe-box" shaped concert hall. However, after researching the acoustic quality of existing concert halls we had to conclude together with our acoustic specialist that the best halls in the world have a shoe box shape.

This left us with the following points to consider:

• Where to innovate in a case of a traditional typology like the concert hall?
• Most cultural institutions serve only part of a population. A majority knows their exterior shape, only a minority knows what happens inside." says, OMA.

So when OMA won the restricted competition for a new concert hall to be positioned in the historical centre of Porto, Portugal - "the Rotunda da Boavista"; they addressed the relationship between the Concert Hall and the public inside, as well as outside the building, by considering the building as a solid mass from which were eliminated the two shoe-box-shaped concert halls and all other public program creating a hollowed out block.

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