Author: Jakob Steen Christensen, Jan Yoshiyuki Tanaka, Kathrin Susanna Gimmel
Cooperation person: Stephen Dietz-Hodgson, Connor Forecast, Julie Kongsbak, Alice Miller, Evita Marioglou, Magnus Tollnes Kjærnes, Tateo Nakajima, Matthew Atwood, Ed Arenius, Philip Wright, David Hegarty, Connor McGrath, Rory McGowan, Jens Linnet, Karolina Potoczniak, Zala Dimc, Dominika Misterka
From a traffic machine to an urban catalysator and center of musical life in Prague. We envision to create the next generation cultural meeting point where the Philharmonic Hall and urban life merges into one. The starting point for our proposal is creating a high-quality public place, creat- ing a natural meeting point for both music lovers and the broad public. Building upon a human centered and urban approach, we start molding the Philharmonic Hall creating a building with the highest ambition of public space and cultural experience, creating a unique setting for 24/7 ur- ban life and music along the Vltava.
The mere size of the plot is so big, our proposal is as much urban development as it’s a building. We see the plot as a catalyst in the urban transformation of Bubny and Holešovice. The plot marks a cornerstone in the Holešovice Bubny – Zátory transformation plan and should mark a characteristic building and meeting place, while connect- ing the Holešovice neighborhood to the waterfront. The Philharmonic is situated in the meeting of 2 axes, the be- ginning of the Magistral and the blue-green structure along Vltava River. We propose a hybrid building typology that meets the urban streets with a clear façade while stepping back offering the neighborhood and visitors a spectacular landscape and park overlooking the city of Prague.
Designed as a natural integrated public landscape in the city, the philharmonic’s rooftop landscape is accessible for pedestrians from all four corners of the building. The landscape consists of a series of plateaus, pockets, and openings providing a porous landscape and a vibrant life around the Philharmonic. Centrally on the roof, the land- scape rises, creating two monumental volumes shaped like a valley. The valley generates both a passage and a porous skyline and view corridor from the north. In the meeting of the landscape and volumes, the façade is programmed with an active program that provides both variation and activity on the roof.
The Philharmonic Landscape inscribes itself along the majestic Vltava River and its green and lush embankment and riverside. The embankment along the Philharmonic is a part of a green connection and park structure running from Letna Park along the green embankment and further towards the east to the planned pedestrian bridge, connecting the Rohansky Park. Seen from the historic center of Prague, the skyline of the Philharmonic is a part of the Vltava green blue structure giving a counterpart to the “City of Spires”.
The Vltava River is the biggest natural quality at the site. With the new traffic plan, the tram along Nábřeží Kapitána Jaroše is moved and frees up space to angle the eastern part of the road into the northern tunnel under the bridge, still allowing for 4 lanes – two in each direction. By adjusting the road, we gain ourselves the space to create a generous urban space and stretch the lobby all the way to the waterfront unfolding the full potential of Vltava River embankment.
Author:Charles Renfro, Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Benjamin Gilmartin
Cooperation person: 4CT, Siebert+Talaš, Tomáš Janeček, Michel Desvigne, Buro Happold, Stantec Prague, Fisher Dachs Associates, L’Observatoire, Nagata, AECOM, Transsolar, Mobility in Chain
1. Scaling down
To maintain the scale of the surrounding urban fabric, the site is divided into thirds from the Hlávka Bridge to the Negrelli Viaduct and into thirds again from Antonínská Street and the Vltava River. The resulting 9-square grid defines the location of building masses and public spaces. Shops, restaurants and a connection to the Prague Market and Bubny-Zátory neighborhoods are in the arcade of the new railway viaduct structure.
City to River, River to City
A stepped landscape spanning Kapitána Jaroše Road reconciles the steep river embankment and connects both the Vltava and a new riverfront promenade with the Philharmonic site and the surrounding urban context. Two urban plazas at the NE ad NW corners of the site link all programmed locations and the waterfront park. The public can pass directly between the city and waterfront without entering the building.
3. Individual and Shared Identity
Each of the three halls – the Main Hall, Small Hall, and Multipurpose Hall – has its individual address on the site and distinct physical identity. The three building masses form a shared, open-air courtyard and are interconnected via the infrastructural level below. The largely transparent central volume, housing the Creative Hub, converges all visitors into the Common Lobby and central ticketing. It leads directly to the Multipurpose Hall above, the flanking Concert Halls to the right and left, and to the courtyard beyond.
4. Hall
A fourth hall -- the Performance Court – is a shared asset for outdoor public concerts and events. Its location in the center of the site expands the Vltava Philharmonic’s reach to broader and more diverse audiences. Integrated infrastructure for sound and light will streamline performance set-ups. A fabric roof can be deployed for rain protection. A second open-air performance space at the river’s edge is terraced into the embankment, facing a riverfront barge.
5. Urban Layer
A barrier-free public level seamlessly integrates all parts of the site. This interconnected public realm spans the urban plazas to the North at street level, the common lobby that also houses the Creative Hub and Multi Hall, the orchestra levels of the Main Hall to the East and Small Hall to the West, and the Performance Court and waterfront park to the south.
6. Shared Envelope
A common skin of local sandstone and shaped glass binds the three building masses along shared edges. Reinterpreting Prague’s rich history of masonry structures and Modernist experiments with glass facades, these surfaces accommodate variable expressions of opacity, transparency and translucency, to reveal and conceal the hall volumes and behind-the-scenes activities within.
7. Horizon
The building masses are elevated to create a clear vista between the city and the waterfront roughly 7m above street level. This public level and visual connection welcomes everyone into the Vltava Philharmonic site with or without a ticket to a concert.
OFFICE KGDVS + CHRIST & GANTENBEIN
Author: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Christ & Gantenbein International AG
Cooperation person: AcousticsRD, Schnetzer Puskas, Inside Outside BV
The new philharmonic hall for the city of Kepler is a perfect cube. It is a concise Music Box. an elegant instrument solely developed for the mise en scene of music, professional and precise: Its big urban windows show the different foyers to the city and incorporate the city proper into the musical life visually unfolding inside its figure. By its prominent position right at the river board of Vltava above the high way this Big House for Music creates a park and a square. The square presents both building and city and intents to turn them into a metropolitan ensemble. the Park in the back provides an ecological beacon for the new neighbourhood currently in development.
By stacking the program for the Vltava Philharmonic hall vertically, we generate a minimal footprint. This small footprint allows us to radically rethink the open space around the building, between the river and the new city quarter, space that can be truly used for the public. A real park with big trees fills half of the project site in the northern part towards the new development, while in the west a big mineral public space with a water surface becomes the main plaza leading towards the Music Box. At the river edge, a full boardwalk continues along the Vltava. This riverfront permits the Vltava to become an integral part of the site and the surrounding city.
Despite its small footprint, the monumental volume of 72x72x72 meters of the Music Box dominates the site. Through its sheer size, it relates directly to the Vltava river and the city around it. Inside, the city continues vertically, with foyers and music halls on different levels. Generous windows open its interior up to incredible views to the entire city of Prague.
Mecanoo & CHYBIK + KRISTOF
Author: Francine Houben, Ondřej Chybík, Michal Krištof
Cooperation person: Nuno Fontarra, Rodrigo Bandini, Jiří Vala, Ingrid Spáčilová, Eliška Morysková, Ondrej Mičuda, Tomáš Wojtek, Vadim Shaptala, Tomáš Babka, Daniele Del Grosso, Victor Serbanescu, Isabella Banfi, Selin Gulsen, Omar El Hassan, Alessandro Luporino, Mattia Cavaglieri, Florian Foerster, Rob Buckley, Šárka Schneiderová, Petr Vlasák, John Henley, Jiří Petlach, Jaroslav Miklós, Martin Růžička, Motoo Komoda, Marc Quiquerez, Neža Kravanja
We designed the building of the new Vltava Philharmonic Orchestra as a contemporary representative of culture, urbanism and architecture, dignifiedly representing Czechia in an international context. The chosen expression follows the development of modern construction and top acoustic design of halls by analogy. This is combined with glass art articulated in the form of a glass facade. It directly refers to the tradition of the Czech glassmaking school, so famous and rediscovered by a global audience.
Author: Sou Fujimoto, Marie de France
Cooperation person: Jiří Fousek, Duncan Campbell, Marc Quiquerez, Aldo de Sousa, Laure Baretaud
Prague, the city of 100 spires stands in the Vltava, its water carries stories of this land. Music is always flowing here, when you follow the conductor’s hand, it begins to draw the 101st spire in Prague. The new philharmonic hall flows with movement, with an architectural design which echoes the flow of music, the flow of the Vltava and the flow of the people passing through. In the concert hall, we sit closely together as a whole, letting the flow of music fill up this volume.
Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos
Author: João Luís Carrilho da Graça
Cooperation person: Luís Cordeiro, João Freire Aragão, Eckhard Kahle, Yann Jurkiewicz, Jean Hugues Manoury, João Gomes da Silva, Vasco Appleton, Rui Delgado, Pavla Melková, Miroslav Cikán, André Ramos, Camila Carpinteiro, Rui Batista, Paulo Prata Ramos, Luca Martinucci, Anna Cavazzoni, Inês Doutel, Bernardo Pimentel
The objective of the Brief is to create in Prague a unique Philharmonic Hall that would be able to meet the most exquisite international Standards, our proposal follows an idea of simplicity assuming a vibrant and intense iconic building. By developing a design process that favors the simple over the complex, we seek to achieve a depurated solution, where architecture in its purest form, serves as a support for all realities of a contemporary cultural center.
Author: Juho Grönholm, Štěpán Valouch, Antti Nousjoki, Samuli Woolston, Jiří Opočenský, Ondřej Králík
Cooperation person: Ivana Adamcová, Chiraz Frih, David Gallo, Pauliina Rossi, Thomas Stevens, Aleksi Vuola, Jan Hájek, Františka Chaloupková, Barbora Juřičková, Ed Arenius, Philip Wright, Kelsey Habla, Rory McGowan, Cathan Quinn, Tatio Nakajima, Alan Duggan, Oto Melter, Luyao Han, Jinyuan Kang, Yongqiang Hou, Yonghao Wu, Xiaotong Shen, Mo Zhang
The new Vltava Philharmonic Hall is a total work of art. The architecture is born from the art of music, and together they form a unique experience. The dramatic shapes of the building are physical representations of the sound waves emerging from within the concert halls. The building complements the concerts by turning music into architecture. The result is a striking landmark, which invites people to visit and use the spaces, to learn, to experience and to perform to the highest standard.
Author: Jean Nouvel, Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Cooperation person: Nagata Acoustics International
Most of the world´s great music venues aim to create the presence of a single prestigious theater chamber revealed from both inside and out. Today the programs have evolved and several chambers compete with each other in a state of seduction and internal and external presences. Geography is there to inspire History, together they are present in order to seduce both the local officials and the architects. Competitions have always been, above all, a vision, a relevant idea, and in order to accomplish this one must always build, in this place, that which cannot be done elsewhere.
Author: Winy Maas, Stefan de Koning, Fokke Moerel
Cooperation person: AED: Aleš Marek, Thornton Tomasetti: Daniel Bosia, Topotek1: Martin Rein-Cano, RLB: Eddie Visscher, Transsolar: Stefan Holst, dUCKS: Pierre Jaubert de Beaujeu, Kahle: Cees Mulder, Nemec Polak: Ivan Nemec, Aveton: Tomas Hradek, Lasvit: Alena Trunečková, AED: Petr Vlasák , ETC: Jiří Souček
A culmination of Prague’s meander, the New Vltava Philharmonic Hall’s crystalline form casts a delicate figure against the formerly industrial Holešovice area and its upcoming neighbourhood. Every jewel requires a setting that reinforces the beauty of its gem, so the public space surrounding it frames its new connection to the Vltava River, while generating both a vibrant centre of cultural and social life in harmony with its natural surroundings, and multifaceted connections to the city.
Author: Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa
Cooperation person: MS architekti, Nagata Acoustics International, Inc, Paris, France , Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, Front, Inc., The Space Factory, Arup, Sheffield, Arup, Tokyo
Our proposal is a neighbourhood scale public space that folds inside out, creating a porous and animated new landscape. It is a one-room architecture with the atmosphere of a park: clusters of activity unfold side-by-side or together as one, visually and experientially. The design blurs any clear distinction between interior and exterior through a loose distribution of curved walls that frame each space softly, encouraging programmes to expand, contract and spill outside. The philharmonic hall sits at the heart of a design that dissolves river, street and sky into an animated total environment.
Author: Jan Šépka, Jan Bárta, Marek Fischer
Cooperation person: Carlos Pereda
The philosophy of the design proposal is the compact shapes of “stones”, which arise from the inspiration of the megalithic construction of Dolmen. The resulting geometry is defined by the inserted halls and connected operations. Each “stone” takes into account the embedded hall in its geometry. The main concert hall is situated on three supports. Thus, notionally, three smaller halls support a large hall on their shoulders, creating a covered square. The concept of Dolmen is to express the monumentality that we perceive primarily in its spiritual value.
David Chipperfield Architects + Jakub Cigler architekti
Author: David Chipperfield
Cooperation person: Alexander Schwarz, Annette Flohrschütz, Bernhard Danigel, Hubert Pawela, Eckhard Kahle, Jakub Cigler, Jan Šimek, Václav Malina, Petr Zajíc, Martin Elze, Stephen Jolly, Peter Wirtz
The site is transformed into a continuous topography, tying in with the surroundings and rising to a garden plateau with generous access to the Vltava River. The building enhances the public space into a layering of projecting terraces, reflecting both the near and distant urban and landscape setting. As a place celebrating the international communities donated by music the Philharmonic Hall, its topography and terraces form a counterpoint to Vyšehrad located opposite the city and Vltava River.
Cobe + Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects
Author: Dan Stubbergaard, Lene Tranberg
Cooperation person: Anders Christian Gade, Jan-Inge Gustafsson, Kayin Dawoodi, Peter Jackson, Jan Berglund
The 5 beating hearts of the building impact the surroundings, welcome all passers-by and send them through the city with good vibrations. Extrovert functions at street level promote urban life in the park. The design concept is inspired by musical vibrations and the ‘reflectors’ that refine them. The building is conceived as the ‘perfect instrument’ - architecture and landscape that distil the essence of music and share it with visitors across all scales. Seamless connections are created across the site from all adjoining areas, through the building and park towards the Vltava River.
