La Cité de la Musique in Paris

Abstract

Fifteen years have been necessary to program, design, and build the Cité de la Musique in Paris. The author has been personally involved in all phases of the project and has assumed the principal acoustical responsibilities, with assistance from many acousticians. This music complex has two parts: the National Conservatory of Music and Dance, with some 250 music rooms, and the concert hall wing. The main concert hall, which has been in service for a few years, has a capacity of 900 to 1200 only, but it is designed in such a way that it can be used for various orchestral configurations: classical, in the round, central, etc. This means, of course, that acoustical reciprocity is a must: hearing conditions and musicality must be adequate for any pairs of points, in spite of the elliptical shape of the concert hall. The present paper will describe the means used to achieve a correct acoustical result in the concert hall and will give some insight into the characteristics of some of the other rooms.