Aside from the provision of music concerts, a concert hall — as was the case with Wroclaw’s National Forum of Music — also catalyzes urban changes. Culture goes beyond entertainment: it is woven into the fabric of a city’s identity, providing opportunities for social transformation. Can thoughtful and high-quality scenography play a role in a city’s social or educational evolution? And how can the design of an interior space spill out into the city at-large?
In November 2017, PLANE—SITE was invited to contribute to the World Architecture Festival. Our response was to create a multimedia, interactive panel drawing on our ongoing research into concert halls — beginning with Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal in 2015. The resulting four films, outlined below, were created to highlight what we see as major themes in contemporary music architecture. First presented as part of a main-stage panel at the 2017 World Architecture Festival, these videos provided the jumping off point for an intriguing conversation between panelists, the WAF audience and the videos themselves. Panelists included Michel Cova of dUCKS scéno, Tateo Nakajima of Arup, and Jakob Kurek of Henning Larsen. The panel was moderated by Andres Ramirez of PLANE—SITE.
