Helsinki Music Center
Design of a concert hall.
Addressing the topic of local history, alternative relationship between man and nature, combination of biotope and open-space concept
The Helsinki Music Center is a concert hall in Töölönlahti, Helsinki. The building is home to Sibelius Academy and two symphony orchestras. The Music Centre is located on a site between the Finlandia Hall (Alvar Aalto) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Steven Holl) just across the street from the Parliament of Finland. The main concert hall seats 1,700 people. The building contains five smaller rooms for 140–400 listeners. These include a chamber music hall, a chamber opera hall, an organ hall, a ‘black box’ room for electrically amplified music and a rehearsal hall. The smaller rooms are used regularly by the students of Sibelius Academy for their training and student concerts.
A large part of the Music Centre’s volume is placed underground in order to keep the roof of the building in line with its neighbours. A wide terrace covers the underground structure and forms a part of an open park in front of the Parliament House.
Urd carved from driftwood, Photography, 41.1 x 54.6 cm, 1997
Site
Skin
Foyer
Bar
Terrace
Open park
Floor plan basement
Floor plan ground floor
Floor plan first floor
Floor plan second floor
| Program | Concert hall with practice/classrooms, library, radio station, restaurant and shops |
| Status | International realization competition |
| Location | Parliament district, Helsinki, Finland |
| Client | Municipality of Helsinki |
| Area | Competition area 324200 m2, TSA 24000 m2 , USA 19200 m2 |
| Construction | Wood frame construction with solid wood infill, sheets of casting glass |
| Services | Program and location analyses, strategic development, artistic concept, technical concept, design planning, visualisation |
| Date | 1999 |
