The Houses for music - concept and place. Modern tendencies, author’s own experience

Abstract

The subjects of this dissertation are buildings intended for music and their role in urban space. Houses for music – that is how we can briefly name buildings whose basic function is listening to music in the form of a concert - Philharmonic buildings. Also in the form of a show or performance fused with music. The third function of such buildings is to ensure the possibility for people to meet, adding certain nobility to the event in question, and therefore, added nobility to the venue itself. This last function is gaining significance. It is accompanied by the phenomenon of identifying the event as the function itself and simultaneously identifying the site. The growing value of such places stems from the oldest concept of urban planning, in search for that ‘modernity’ of the 20th century, an idea which has been forgotten and is now going through its revival. As Jan Gehl, an urban expert and humanist, reminds us, referring to the ‘city for people’. He reminds us that the number and the quality of the places are of utmost importance – places which create the occasion to participate in the urban membrane. The need for meeting builds the identity of a place, connecting cultural ideas with concepts which create culture and put architecture and music in the centre. The sound of the music itself becomes an element of the identity, the sound – however invisible, is very important for the place – on equal rights with the architecture of the designed buildings. The sound facilitated in the designs of these buildings creates the final quality of the architecture of the opera house or the Philharmonic. The dualism of the architectural and musical thought in the creation of the concept played a decisive role in creating the functionality of the venue, creating the true value of the place. It becomes a highly significant element of the quality of urban space. This short musing shows us that architecture and music are linked inter-disciplinarily as an important or perhaps even basic material for these buildings. The increasing significance of the relation between the buildings intended for music with the social strata of the city is very much visible in contemporary architectural concepts. The subject of this dissertation is the architectural concept and the context of buildings intended for music in urban space. This topical question has been presented on the basis of the following: The majority of the presented examples have been researched in situ by the author of the article. Historical thoughts presented based on the venues in Milan and New York, namely the La Scala and Carnegie Hall. Modern buildings: the Berlin Philharmonic, the Hamburg Philharmonic and the Philharmonic in Paris. The author’s own experiences related with the design of the seat of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice, Poland. The majority of the presented examples have been researched in situ by the author of the article.