Final design phase
Coop Himmelb(l)au
North Jutland House of Music
Aalborg, Denmark

Coop Himmelb(l)au envisions the House of Music as a cultural hub and as a center of communication and interaction for the region of North Jutland.

Image courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU won the International Competition for the design of the "North Jutland House of Music" in 2001.

Oriented towards Limfjorden, a large fjord, the Concert Hall floats over the banks where the city and the fjord flow into each other.

The House will be divided into  three parts; Concert Halls, a Research and  Educational facility, connected to the North Jutland Music Conservatory, and the University of lborg's Departments for the Education in Music, Architecture and Design.
The three parts will be connected by an angled foyer, covered by an organically shaped glass roof, floating six floors above the terrain.

Image courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au

The building complex consists of the Concert Hall "Flying Hall", two institute buildings "Loft Beams" and the "Golden Crystal Cloud".
The Concert Hall with seating for 1,800 is designed to have the acoustic properties of the great hall of the Vienna Musikverein.

The University's Music and Architecture institutes are located in two bar-shaped buildings.  A Library spans between them like a bridge.

The "Golden Crystal Cloud", a partly glassed-in metal structure, encloses the foyers and the public spaces of the building, allowing a flowing transition between publicly and privately used areas, and between the hard and the soft geometry's of the design.

Image courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au
Building elements

Image courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au
Site Plan

Image courtesy Coop Himmelb(l)au
Ground Floor Plan

Construction start: 2004
Estimated completion: Fall 2006

Site Area: 37,500 square meters
Floor Area: 26,500 square meters
Built-up Area: 12,200 square meters

Client:
North Jutland House of Music Foundation &
Danish National Research and Education Buildings

Architect: Coop Himmelb(l)au
Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky + Partner

Project Architect: Michael Volk
Project Partner: Karolin Schmidbaur, Michael Volk

Project Team:
Jesper Bork
Sophie Grell
Bo Stjerne Hansen
Joseph Chang
Ian Collins
Gavin Farley
James Lowder
Eric Young
Georg Kolmayr
Matthias Ecker

Users:
Aalborg Symphony Orchestra
Academy of Music, Aalborg
Department of Music and Music Therapy (Aalborg University)
Department of Architecture and Design (Aalborg University)

September 8, 2003