House of Music

Rem Koolhaas / OMA – Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal, 2006

Casa da Música is the main concert hall in the city of Porto in Portugal.
For the development of the project idea, Rem Koolhaas, recovers a project from 1998, the “Y2K” house, a study brought only to a conceptual level for a private residence in Rotterdam. The starting concept is therefore closely linked to the shape of the building, whose function and size have been completely revisited. The building appears isolated, within a clearing. The completely pedestrian travertine street level deforms as it rises near Avenida de Boavista and Rua 5 de Outubro, producing internal spaces for shops or for access to the underground floors.
Rising eight floors above street level and three underground, the building reaches a height of about 40 m at the top, supported by sturdy white reinforced concrete walls about 40 cm thick that form the external shell. Internally, the structure is designed with a hybrid structural system, which sees firstly a load-bearing structure in reinforced concrete that runs vertically from the foundations up to the Sala Suggia and secondly a steel reticular structure that, resting on the concrete partitions, extends up to the roof. The complexity of the structure is undoubtedly linked to the singular shape of the building, from which an articulated composition in plan also derives.

While on the ground floor there are music laboratories, a study room and a refreshment area, from the square you can access the main part of the building via a long aluminum and glass staircase that allows entry into a foyer. The foyer develops vertically for the entire height of the building until it reaches the roof and the VIP Terrace. This space is characterized, in addition to the exposed structural concrete, by long structural elements that literally “pierce” the space like pins. In addition to the numerous accessory and service spaces, it is possible to highlight the characterizing internal spaces.  See full description on Wikipedia