Future Philharmonie de Paris

Early this year, almost a 100 architectural firms were competing to win the commission for the state-of-the-art Philharmonie de Paris: a $260 million project in Paris, France, scheduled to open in 2012. Finally, last week, a jury chose the design of French architect Jean Nouvel, over those of Zaha Hadid, and the Dutch firm MVRDV (one of my favorite architecture firms).
Mr. Nouvel already has major buildings not only in Paris, but in different parts of the world, including Abu Dhabi and the US. He also has a vast experience in designing concert halls around Europe.
In his designs, Nouvel places massive importance on designing a building that’s in tune with its site and surroundings. He constantly presents a relationship between transparency, shadow, and light in almost all his designs.

Photo Credit: New York Times

As you can see in the model and 3D computer images, the aluminum-clad building resembles a mass of freely stacked plates topped by sort of a gigantic sail. Once completed, the Philharmonie could become one of Europe’s best concert halls, standing out as an architectural monument.
The acoustic requirements are strict to the point that no member of the audience should be more than 100 feet from the conductor. Having a 2,400-seat capacity, the hall is planned to be built in a “vineyard” style, in which the audience sits in a circle with the stage at the center, offering a 360-degree view. This arrangement makes the audience feel as if they could hear the musicians closely, therefore producing a sense of togetherness between performers and the audience.
Mr. Nouvel said at the design presentation, that the novelty of his auditorium was to “suspend” balconies, attached to the building by access passages in a way that allows sound waves to circulate around and behind them. “The idea is that the audience will be in the middle of the music.”