Jean Nouvel - Concert Hall - Danish Broadcasting Corporation

Winning project
Jean Nouvel
Concert Hall
Danish Broadcasting Corporation
Copenhagen, Denmark

Image courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation

On March 20th the Danish Broadcasting Corporation announced Jean Nouvel as the winner of the International competition for their new 1600 seat Concert Hall. The 21,000 square meter complex, part of the TV-network’s new Headquarters in Copenhagen, will include all facilities for Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s music production. The first competition, for the 110,000 square meter Master Plan, was won in 2000 by Danish architects Vilhelm Lauritzen A/S.
The project is scheduled for completion in 2006.

Image courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation

Nouvel’s design encloses a series of volumes, housing a different program or function, in a 45 meter tall rectangular box with transparent “screen” walls. The building will be constantly changing depending on the lighting conditions and the time of day; both revealing and concealing the interior. At night the building will light up with images projected on the “screen”. The architecture dematerializes and becomes a matter of light and surface effects.

Image courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation

The Concert Hall is raised ten meters above street level, with the upper Foyer under its “belly”, giving the impression of a big wooden sculpture. Escalators and elevators in the upper Foyer lead to the different levels of the Concert Hall.

Photo courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation
Longitudinal Section

Photo courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation
Cross Section

The lower Foyer, with access to three smaller halls, is located four meters below street level. Offices and other functions are located around the halls in the northern part of the complex.

Photo: arcspace
Jean Nouvel and Christian S. Nissen
Director General Danish Broadcasting Corporation

This is the first time a major architect has been commissioned to design a building in Copenhagen since Nicolas-Henri Jardin 250 years ago introduced the latest architectural style, Neo-Classicism, to Denmark.

The other foreign architects who were invited to participate in the Concert Hall competition were José Rafael Moneo, Snöhetta and Rafael Viñoly.

With new projects in Prague, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Tokyo, Guadalajara, Madrid and now Copenhagen Jean Nouvel has joined the tiny number of architects who build across the world. In 2001 Nouvel was the recipient of the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the Borromini Prize and the Praemium Imperiale prize, awarded in Tokyo.

Last week Nouvel won the commission to design the $90 million expansion of the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, scheduled to open in 2008. The project will transform the gray, metal-clad building into a light-filled, transparent structure cantilevered over the Ohio River.

Photo courtesy Carnegie Science Center

Nouvel also recently won the competition for the new $125 million home for The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; one of the most important regional theaters in the United States. The drawings released by the Guthrie suggest a combination of materials and geometric shapes, softened by shiny steel cylinders that refer to the shape of grain silos.

Nouvel's architecture seeks to suppress the physical qualities of building, in favour of dematerialization and surface effects.

“Most architects want to make something exist.... my problem, my headache, is to eliminate all I can..... make things none existent....”
Jean Nouvel

For the Musée du Quai Branly, scheduled for completion in 2004, the main building in fact, rather than revealing itself, seeks cover behind a glass wall and a garden designed by Gilles Clément. “A sacred forest” of creepers and grand oak and maple trees with clematis and wisteria linking the trees together.

Photo: arcspace
Model of Musée du Quai Branly

To date the best known of Nouvel’s building is probably the Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris (1987). Sited on the south bank of the Seine, it comprises two intersecting blocks, one curved and facing the river, the other rectangular and facing south. In the south-facing wall, between sheets of glass, metal irises in traditional Islamic patterns, open and close to control the daylight entering the building.

The facade of the Fondation Cartier in Paris, a series of overlapping planes of glass, makes it difficult to see where the building begins and ends, and the 60 floors high Dentsu Tower in Tokyo, with its crescent shape and glass skin, seems to floating in mid-air. When approaching the Cultural and Congress Centre (1999) in Lucerne from the lake side one experiences the same sensation of transparency.

With the 1993 remodeling of the Lyon Opera House and the restoration (1999) of L’église Sainte-Marie de Sarlat Nouvel showed that he was quite able to work with the grain of a historic monument.

Photo: arcspace

The Centre Pompidou recently gave Nouvel a space usually reserved for major art shows and he responded with an exhibition as little like a conventional architectural event as possible.

Photo: arcspace

Photo: Georges Meguerditchian

Nouvel had the whole space painted black to dramatise a series of intense photographic images at every scale. The exhibition will be at La Triennale de Milano, Italy from March 26 - June 2, 2002 and will later travel to Spain, the United States and Japan.

Black seems to be a favourite trick of Nouvel's. He dresses in black, his Courthouse in Nantes is relentlessly black and his design for an exhibition of Brazilian art, at the Guggenheim New York, involved painting the whole of Frank Lloyd Wright's light-filled spiral black. Jean Nouvel is an architect of concept and context, of dematerialization and image. Indisputably original he continues to elaborate a body of work in synch with the spirit of the times.

P.S. And then there is Prague; The Golden Angel inaugurated in 2000 and a new project in collaboration with Frank Gehry.

Photo: arcspace

Danish Broadcasting Corporation

March 20, 2002

Jean Nouvel arcspace features





				Features
		Winning project Jean Nouvel Concert Hall Danish Broadcasting Corporation Copenhagen, Denmark Image courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation On March 20th the Danish Broadcasting Corporation announced Jean Nouvel as the winner of the International competition for their new 1600 seat Concert Hall. The 21,000 square meter complex, part of the TV-network’s new Headquarters in Copenhagen, will include all facilities for Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s music production. The first competition, for the 110,000 square meter Master Plan, was won in 2000 by Danish architects Vilhelm Lauritzen A/S. The project is scheduled for completion in 2006. Image courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation Nouvel’s design encloses a series of volumes, housing a different program or function, in a 45 meter tall rectangular box with transparent “screen” walls. The building will be constantly changing depending on the lighting conditions and the time of day; both revealing and concealing the interior. At night the building will light up with images projected on the “screen”. The architecture dematerializes and becomes a matter of light and surface effects. Image courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation The Concert Hall is raised ten meters above street level, with the upper Foyer under its “belly”, giving the impression of a big wooden sculpture. Escalators and elevators in the upper Foyer lead to the different levels of the Concert Hall. Photo courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation Longitudinal Section Photo courtesy the Danish Broadcasting Corporation Cross Section The lower Foyer, with access to three smaller halls, is located four meters below street level. Offices and other functions are located around the halls in the northern part of the complex. Photo: arcspace Jean Nouvel and Christian S. Nissen Director General Danish Broadcasting Corporation This is the first time a major architect has been commissioned to design a building in Copenhagen since Nicolas-Henri Jardin 250 years ago introduced the latest architectural style, Neo-Classicism, to Denmark. The other foreign architects who were invited to participate in the Concert Hall competition were José Rafael Moneo, Snöhetta and Rafael Viñoly. With new projects in Prague, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Tokyo, Guadalajara, Madrid and now Copenhagen Jean Nouvel has joined the tiny number of architects who build across the world. In 2001 Nouvel was the recipient of the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the Borromini Prize and the Praemium Imperiale prize, awarded in Tokyo. Last week Nouvel won the commission to design the $90 million expansion of the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, scheduled to open in 2008. The project will transform the gray, metal-clad building into a light-filled, transparent structure cantilevered over the Ohio River. Photo courtesy Carnegie Science Center Nouvel also recently won the competition for the new $125 million home for The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; one of the most important regional theaters in the United States. The drawings released by the Guthrie suggest a combination of materials and geometric shapes, softened by shiny steel cylinders that refer to the shape of grain silos. Nouvel's architecture seeks to suppress the physical qualities of building, in favour of dematerialization and surface effects. “Most architects want to make something exist.... my problem, my headache, is to eliminate all I can..... make things none existent....” Jean Nouvel For the Musée du Quai Branly, scheduled for completion in 2004, the main building in fact, rather than revealing itself, seeks cover behind a glass wall and a garden designed by Gilles Clément. “A sacred forest” of creepers and grand oak and maple trees with clematis and wisteria linking the trees together. Photo: arcspace Model of Musée du Quai Branly To date the best known of Nouvel’s building is probably the Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris (1987). Sited on the south bank of the Seine, it comprises two intersecting blocks, one curved and facing the river, the other rectangular and facing south. In the south-facing wall, between sheets of glass, metal irises in traditional Islamic patterns, open and close to control the daylight entering the building. The facade of the Fondation Cartier in Paris, a series of overlapping planes of glass, makes it difficult to see where the building begins and ends, and the 60 floors high Dentsu Tower in Tokyo, with its crescent shape and glass skin, seems to floating in mid-air. When approaching the Cultural and Congress Centre (1999) in Lucerne from the lake side one experiences the same sensation of transparency. With the 1993 remodeling of the Lyon Opera House and the restoration (1999) of L’église Sainte-Marie de Sarlat Nouvel showed that he was quite able to work with the grain of a historic monument. Photo: arcspace Photo: arcspace The Centre Pompidou recently gave Nouvel a space usually reserved for major art shows and he responded with an exhibition as little like a conventional architectural event as possible. Photo: arcspace Photo: Georges Meguerditchian Nouvel had the whole space painted black to dramatise a series of intense photographic images at every scale. The exhibition will be at La Triennale de Milano, Italy from March 26 - June 2, 2002 and will later travel to Spain, the United States and Japan. Black seems to be a favourite trick of Nouvel's. He dresses in black, his Courthouse in Nantes is relentlessly black and his design for an exhibition of Brazilian art, at the Guggenheim New York, involved painting the whole of Frank Lloyd Wright's light-filled spiral black. Jean Nouvel is an architect of concept and context, of dematerialization and image. Indisputably original he continues to elaborate a body of work in synch with the spirit of the times. P.S. And then there is Prague; The Golden Angel inaugurated in 2000 and a new project in collaboration with Frank Gehry. Photo: arcspace Danish Broadcasting Corporation March 20, 2002 Jean Nouvel arcspace features