The Judges Awards

06.2 Koncerthuset, Denmark,
by Ateliers
Jean Nouvel

A giant blue cube located in an otherwise underdeveloped area of Copenhagen, Jean Nouvel's Koncerthuset (Concert House) is one of the Pritzker Prize-winning architect’s most complex projects to date. Commissioned by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, the 50m-high blue volume appears opaque from the outside during the day, but is transparent from within, drawing in the urban surroundings. At night, in a reference to blue-screen technology used in film and TV, the skin comes to life with abstract projections of the activity within. Inside, each of the building’s four performance spaces has a distinct character. Set at the heart of the structure, the 1,800-seat primary concert hall consists of a central stage surrounded by 'vineyard' terraces of hardwood seating. Above them, swathes if undulating plaster are designed to make the best of the sound (Nouvel worked with Tokyo-based Nagata Acoustics). Of the other studios, one is a grand piano-inspired space, decked out in dense sheets of black lacquer; another is clad in plywood panels, screen-printed with portraits of notable musicians; and the last is clad in adjustable, Toblerone-shaped panels with different levels of absorbency, so the 'sound size' can be turned up or down.

Location: Copenhagen
Architect’s previous projects: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1999; Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, 2006

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www.jeannouvel.com
www.dr.dk/koncerthuset

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