100 millions well spent

[Lauren Hynde]

The new Casa da Música (House of Music) here in Porto, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, opened tonight with a Lou Reed concert, 5 years after the construction started, and with a cost 6 times higher than it had been initially announced. But damn, it's good.

Here is what The New York Times had to say about it. Note the "sensual beauty" part. And don't forget to click the Audio Slide Show to see the building and get an interesting commentary to go with the tour.

 

[CharleyH]

The new Casa da Música (House of Music) here in Porto, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, opened tonight with a Lou Reed concert, 5 years after the construction started, and with a cost 6 times higher than it had been initially announced. But damn, it's good.

Here is what The New York Times had to say about it. Note the "sensual beauty" part. And don't forget to click the Audio Slide Show to see the building and get an interesting commentary to go with the tour.

I, personally, would rather discuss your sensual beauty parts, but ok. There is something uniquely postmodern in this written work

First off: "Mr. Koolhaas's creation is a more self-contained experience - one that vibrates with emotional and psychological tensions." I look at the stairs and immediately thing contained - certainly, but, and I am not beyond contradition, can emotion or psychological tensions be contained once in the open as a piece of art, reflection, critique?

Off topic: "it ranks with Mr. Gehry's 2003 Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Hans Scharoun's 1960's-era Berlin Philharmonic." What?!! SHOCK!!! Something Disney is original? Disney and elegance. NOW THERE is a feat f postmodernism

The stairway, I see it, and yet do't feel it sweep. Got other pics?

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Whenever I see a new building designed by a Signature Architect I always wonder what people will think of it in 20 years.

There are hundreds of building out there designed by these top dollar archeitcts that looked very modern and cutting edge when they were built, but many start looking very old and dated very quickly. There are some right here in Boston that were supposed to be something extrordinary and enduring when they were built but now look far shabbier and older than the ordinary buildings that were built at the same time.

Time will tell.

 

[Liar]

The architect also made the new Seattle public library that got a lot of international attention, and that had a similar "wrong" shaped exterior. As standalone pieces those two are interresting, but what mr Koolhaas seems to either be ignorant of or intentionally disregard (I guess at the latter) is the effect his creations have on it's surroundings. They simply doesn't play well with the neighborhood. Much moreso in Seattle than here, though.

Anyway, since we're talking concert hall, I don't give a toss about the looks. I just hope that for that kind of money, the acoustics are beyond impeccable.

 

[CharleyH]

The architect also made the new Seattle public library that got a lot of international attention, and that had a similar "wrong" shaped exterior. As standalone pieces those two are interresting, but what mr Koolhaas seems to either be ignorant of or intentionally disregard (I guess at the latter) is the effect his creations have on it's surroundings. They simply doesn't play well with the neighborhood. Much moreso in Seattle than here, though.

Anyway, since we're talking concert hall, I don't give a toss about the looks. I just hope that for that kind of money, the acoustics are beyond impeccable.

LOL, I was thinking the same. Dolby, you think? :|

 

[ishtat]

Anyway, since we're talking concert hall, I don't give a toss about the looks. I just hope that for that kind of money, the acoustics are beyond impeccable.

I suppose the Sydney Opera House was the best example of that. The interior has had to be completely rebuilt in the last few years because the acoustics were so poor.That was not the fault of the original architect but the politicians who stuffed up his original plans for the interior.

 

[ishtat]

Whenever I see a new building designed by a Signature Architect I always wonder what people will think of it in 20 years.

Time will tell.

In 20 years time they'll think it is so so passee my dear but in 50 years it will probably be back. Think Art Deco ?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The new Casa da Música (House of Music) here in Porto, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, opened tonight with a Lou Reed concert, 5 years after the construction started, and with a cost 6 times higher than it had been initially announced. But damn, it's good.

Lou Reed, huh? Strange choice to debut a concert hall.

I love Lou, but it's about time he learned a second note. That one he's been using for the last 35 years os getting kind of worn out by now.

 

[CharleyH]

Lou Reed, huh? Strange choice to debut a concert hall.

I love Lou, but it's about time he learned a second note. That one he's been using for the last 35 years os getting kind of worn out by now.

He should have stuck with the Velvet (and is that not every vocalist. Where are Lionel Richie, Phil Collins and David Lee now? )

 

[elsol]

100 million dollars for a concert hall...

I guess the school system must be doing better than the news reports.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Off topic: "it ranks with Mr. Gehry's 2003 Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Hans Scharoun's 1960's-era Berlin Philharmonic." What?!! SHOCK!!! Something Disney is original? Disney and elegance. NOW THERE is a feat f postmodernism

Charley, just so you won't go around being culturally deprived (depraved maybe, deprived, not at Lit) here is a photo of the Disney band hall in LA.

http://you-are-here.com/theatre/walt_disney.jpg

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Lauren Hynde]

First off: "Mr. Koolhaas's creation is a more self-contained experience - one that vibrates with emotional and psychological tensions." I look at the stairs and immediately thing contained - certainly, but, and I am not beyond contradition, can emotion or psychological tensions be contained once in the open as a piece of art, reflection, critique?

Absolutely. The term was "self-contained" emotional and psychological tensions, not repressed or hidden.

In this building, those tensions - in space, surfaces, in the way it connects with its environment and with the people that traverse it - are very strong, very visible, but controlled. Think of a dancer in an opening stance - muscles tense, breath on hold, energy building up just under the skin. That is this building.

The counterpoint that that image, Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, would be that same dancer on an explosive routine of pirouettes and leaps.

Off topic: "it ranks with Mr. Gehry's 2003 Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Hans Scharoun's 1960's-era Berlin Philharmonic." What?!! SHOCK!!! Something Disney is original? Disney and elegance. NOW THERE is a feat f postmodernism

It defies common sense, I know, but it's true. See Rumple's post above.

The stairway, I see it, and yet do't feel it sweep. Got other pics?

Yes. Go back to the article and, as I said on my first post, don't forget to click the Audio Slide Show link.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Whenever I see a new building designed by a Signature Architect I always wonder what people will think of it in 20 years.

There are hundreds of building out there designed by these top dollar archeitcts that looked very modern and cutting edge when they were built, but many start looking very old and dated very quickly. There are some right here in Boston that were supposed to be something extrordinary and enduring when they were built but now look far shabbier and older than the ordinary buildings that were built at the same time.

Time will tell.

You know, I was talking about this with some of my coleagues, and I really can't agree with that.

Great architecture is great architecture no matter how much time goes by. Its qualities go far beyond the surface, and don't change with fashion trends. Bad architecture is bad architecture always.

What happens is that what politicians, real-estate developers and opinion-makers tell you is great architecture, extrordinary and enduring, is not necessarily any of those things. And if you understand the qualities that turn a building into a masterpiece of architecture, you're not fooled by it.

The only buildings made by top-dollar architects that I can think of that couldn't withstand the test of time were (post-modern façade crap) designed by just that: top-dollar architects. Not top architects. And they never fooled anyone.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

The architect also made the new Seattle public library that got a lot of international attention, and that had a similar "wrong" shaped exterior. As standalone pieces those two are interresting, but what mr Koolhaas seems to either be ignorant of or intentionally disregard (I guess at the latter) is the effect his creations have on it's surroundings. They simply doesn't play well with the neighborhood. Much moreso in Seattle than here, though.

I can't say anything about Seattle, because I have never been there, and one simply cannot appreciate how these tensions are solved by looking at photographs, but I can guarantee that as far as this project goes, Koolhaas was certainly not ignorant or disregarded the effect it would have on its surroundings. I understand that misconception, but in reality, it's quite the contrary.

These are anchor buildings, one of the purposes of which are to redefine the city-structure around them - not letting themselves be absorbed by it. While they may appear on a strictly formal level to refuse to connect with the neighbourhood, what they do is reshuffle the tensions and redirect the spaces around them.

I have known the site of the Casa da Musica all my life, and walk by almost every day for the past 6 years, and I can tell you that the 19th century garden in front of it, for example, has never been more focused, more controlled, more comfortable to be in than it is today. The avenue that ends there has never felt more dignified, simply by the explosion of space and by the shift in scale.

During the day, the city is sees it self reflected by the crystal-shaped building, by its surfaces. It becomes aware of itself. When you're inside, in any of its spaces, various aspects of the surrounding city rush into the building and integrate with it.

During the night, there's a reversal of roles. The building spills onto the streets and spaces outside. You're walking by and you can see the dressing-rooms, the lounges, the concert halls. It completely changes the character of those surrounding spaces.

So you see, not submitting, not fading into the background, are not synonyms of not playing well with the neighbourhood.

Anyway, since we're talking concert hall, I don't give a toss about the looks. I just hope that for that kind of money, the acoustics are beyond impeccable.

People that were there on Friday night and yesterday tell me that the acoustics are fabulous.

The only problem that is talked of is that for all it cost, the main concert hall cannot house a fully-staged opera, but people that have designed concert and opera halls tell me you cannot have the two things without compromising the acoustics. And there are other halls in the city that are capable of hosting an opera, so all is well.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Lou Reed, huh? Strange choice to debut a concert hall.

I love Lou, but it's about time he learned a second note. That one he's been using for the last 35 years os getting kind of worn out by now.

On Friday night, when he played, was the opening night, the first concert. Yesterday was the official inauguration, with all the speeches and VIPs, and the premier of a dodecaphonic symphony composed especially for the occasion.

I think the idea was to get the message across that this is a concert hall for all sorts of music, not only for the cultural elites.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

100 million dollars for a concert hall...

I guess the school system must be doing better than the news reports.

Sincerely,
ElSol

100 million euros. So, that's about 130 million dollars.

And I don't know. What do your news report on the school systems in our socialist states where public school actually do work?

 

[Liar]

I can't say anything about Seattle, because I have never been there, and one simply cannot appreciate how these tensions are solved by looking at photographs, but I can guarantee that as far as this project goes, Koolhaas was certainly not ignorant or disregarded the effect it would have on its surroundings. I understand that misconception, but in reality, it's quite the contrary.

These are anchor buildings, one of the purposes of which are to redefine the city-structure around them - not letting themselves be absorbed by it. While they may appear on a strictly formal level to refuse to connect with the neighbourhood, what they do is reshuffle the tensions and redirect the spaces around them.

Not saying that it's a by default bad thing. And from the little I've seen, I can't say what the effect of it is. But nevertheless, a building that this intentionally and forcefully radiates it's design into it's surroundings extends far beyond it's own bricks and morsel. And that means that the intentions and ideas behind other pieces of surrounding architecture and lansdcape planning nearby are redefined to fit it's purpose.

Good or bad? I'm no judge on that. The result may be a marvel. But all I say is that it is de facto taking liberties with other peoples' creations.

The only problem that is talked of is that for all it cost, the main concert hall cannot house a fully-staged opera, but people that have designed concert and opera halls tell me you cannot have the two things without compromising the acoustics. And there are other halls in the city that are capable of hosting an opera, so all is well.

Funky thing is, you can't even room one. I read about a composer, think it was Haydn, that complained about how the sheer size of a symphonic orchestra, and the room needed to house them as well as a decent audience, redefined the acoustics of the room they played in to the extent that the audial damage was irreparable. So basically, the perfect auditorium would have bodyless msicians, mass-less instruents and no audience.

I'll bet Lou Reed doesn't have those issues.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Good or bad? I'm no judge on that. The result may be a marvel. But all I say is that it is de facto taking liberties with other peoples' creations.

Oh, no doubt.

That's what it was always supposed to do: revitalise its surroundings, change the structure of city. If the idea were simply to build an acoustic shoebox isolated from all else, I'm sure there would be a lot of money left from those 100 millions.

 

[Liar]

That's what it was always supposed to do: revitalise its surroundings, change the structure of city.

Yeah, but you especially gatta know that that can be done in more or less agressive ways.

I dunno, I tend to think of architecture like this as very classy gonzo artistry.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

LOL

I'm not saying it's the only way, or even the best, but it's not the monster some people make of it. It's a bold approach - one that either works and it's amazing or doesn't and it's a disaster - but it's at this level of play, it's a calculated risk.