Casa da Música - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Casa da Música is a major concert hall space in Porto

Porto

Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

which houses the cultural institution of the same name with its three orchestras Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Orquestra Barroca and Remix Ensemble. It was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas

Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...

with Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Office for Metropolitan Architecture

OMA , is a Rotterdam based architecture firm of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.The firm was founded in 1975 by Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis.-History:...

and Arup-AFA

Arup

Arup is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment. The firm is present in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the...

, and was built as part of Porto's project for European Culture Capital in 2001 but was only finished in the first half of 2005 and immediately became an icon in the city. The Building engineers were Arup

Arup

(London) together with Afassociados (Porto). Inside Outside (Petra Blaisse)

Inside Outside (Petra Blaisse)

Inside Outside was founded by dutch designer Petra Blaisse in 1991. Unique in its genre, the firm combine expertise in various fields including landscape architecture, textile design and interior design....

designed the large 13 curtains, ranging from 22mx15m to 65mx8m, and the gold leaf wood grain pattern on the large auditorium.

Although the opening day concert took place on the April 14 with Clã

Clã

Clã is a Portuguese pop-rock band of a mixed nature in terms of style, ranging from moments of pure balladry, through jazzy details, to enthusiastic pop songs. They are currently regarded as one of the best Portuguese bands...

and Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

, the building was inaugurated on April 15, 2005 by the Portuguese president. The Prime-minister and many other notable politicians and Porto

Porto

society were present for the concert by the Orquestra Nacional do Porto.

Construction

Casa da Música was built just across from one of the main traffic and business centers of the city, Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque , known as Rotunda da Boavista

Rotunda da Boavista

Rotunda da Boavista is the nickname for the Praça de Mouzinho de Albuquerque, a large roundabout in Porto, Portugal. Its official name honours Joaquim Augusto Mouzinho de Albuquerque, a Portuguese soldier that fought in Africa during 19th century....

. The place where the building now sits used to be a holding place for the trams that ran in Porto. Although construction ran over four years over schedule and cost roughly €100M, the building process brought new engineering challenges in order to create its unusual configuration.

Critical reactions

The building's design has been highly acclaimed worldwide. Nicolai Ouroussoff, architecture critic from the New York Times, classified it as the "most attractive project the architect Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas

has ever built" and saying it's "a building whose intellectual ardor is matched by its sensual beauty". He also compares it to the "exuberant design" in Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

's Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The...

in Bilbao

Bilbao

Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...

, Spain. "Only looking into the original aspect of the building, this is one of the most important concert halls built in the last 100 years". He compares it to the Walt Disney Concert Hall

Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the...

, in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, and the Berliner Philharmonie

Berliner Philharmonie

The Berliner Philharmonie is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany. Home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the building is acclaimed for both its acoustics and its architecture....

Performance and other facilities

Casa da Música has two main auditoriums, though many other areas of the building can very easily be adapted for concerts and other musical activity (workshops, educational activities, etc.).

The large auditorium has an initial capacity of 1,238 people, but can vary according to the occasion.
The small auditorium is tremendously flexible, and has no definite number in relation to the capacity. On average the room has capacity for 300 people sitting down, and 650 people standing, though these can drastically change depending on the size of the stage, its location, the arrangement of the chairs, the presence and size of sound and recording equipment, etc.
The restaurant at the top of the building was opened far later than was originally planned. Functioning since August 2006, the restaurant's original planned capacity for 250 people was decreased to space for some 150.

September 2008 Casa da Musica hosted the Orquestra Nacional do Porto taking part in explorative public presentations where performed music was captured alongside musician's and conductor's expressive gestures. Various sensor networks sourced and translated musical expressions into computer driven visual interpretations of lighting, projected images, and real-time improvisations for the audience to experience added nuance of performance. A scientific article informs on the concept.

Scientific articles are also published on special needs performances/workshops in Casa da Musica 2007 & 2008.

External links

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