Platinum Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2021
Concert Hall in Warsaw Music School
- A' Design Award 2021 Platinum Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: Konior Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 256,891
- Verification code 271A1FCF20 · Verify this award
About Concert Hall in Warsaw Music School
Concert Hall in Warsaw is a music school built around a round concert hall. The project adapts decaying existing buildings and extends them, giving the complex a new function and greater usability. The concert hall has a circular plan of 24 metres in diameter and holds 70 musicians and 300 listeners. The last row is only 8 metres from the stage, which keeps the space intimate. Ash wood sails and a milled wooden ceiling shape the sound. Concrete, steel and wood are the main materials. A new public square in front of the school connects the site with the city.
Tomasz Konior's Concert Hall for the Music School represents a distinguished achievement in contemporary educational and cultural architecture, demonstrating how spatial design can elevate the experience of musical pedagogy and performance through thoughtful integration of acoustic science, material expression, and atmospheric poetry. The architect appears to have drawn upon the vineyard-style concert hall traditions pioneered in mid-twentieth-century European music venues while translating these principles through a contemporary lens that emphasizes warmth, intimacy, and the primacy of the performer-audience relationship. The suspended acoustic panels, which curve outward like the petals of an opening flower or pages of an unfurling book, serve the dual function of directing sound energy while creating visual drama that transforms the room into a spatial instrument in its own right. The choice of perforated timber for these monumental elements speaks to a sophisticated understanding of how material texture affects both acoustic diffusion and visual perception, with the thousands of small apertures breaking up sound reflections while creating a surface that appears to breathe and shimmer under theatrical illumination. The warm chromatic environment, achieved through careful selection of wood species and finishes, establishes a psychological temperature that puts both performer and listener at ease while honoring the organic origins of musical instruments themselves. Particularly notable is the relationship between the circular ceiling drum, which reads as an oculus opening to some celestial realm, and the embracing curve of the audience seating that wraps around the stage in supportive communion rather than confrontational observation. This design suggests that music education flourishes best in environments that dignify the act of performance while nurturing the vulnerability inherent in artistic expression. How might such carefully considered spaces shape the musicians who learn and perform within them, and what does architectural embrace communicate about a culture's values regarding artistic cultivation?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- At a time when building new architecture has never been easier than today, special attention should be paid to the desire to use the existing urban fabric. With the principles of sustainable development, the new music school in Warsaw has adapted the decaying buildings by giving them a new function. By extending them, it increased the quality and functionality of the entire complex. Thanks to the unique concert hall, the new object will become an important place on the cultural map of Warsaw.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Usable floor area: 10 138 m2
Total area: 12 942 m2
Area of the plot: 8 454 m2
Building area: 3 341 m2 - Tags
- Architecture, education, school, music, city, heritage, concert hall, wood, concrete, design, interior, round, circular, innovation, Poland, koniorstudio
- Production Technology
- The main materials in the design are concrete, steel and wood. A unique solution is the round plan of the concert hall with a diameter of 24 m. The internal reinforced concrete walls are made of rubber formwork in a specially designed and tested shape. The ash sails and the ceiling are the most important acoustically surfaces obtained from individually milled and joined wooden blocks. The whole structure is suspended by steel brackets mounted to reinforced concrete walls.
- Design Challenge
- The acoustic qualities developed with Nagata Acoustics, as well as the form and proportions of the interior makes it comparable to the best concert halls in the world. Wooden, ash sails and a ceiling hanging over the stage and the audience gave it a characteristic and memorable architectural
- Project Duration
- The project started in 2015, construction started in 2017 and finished in October 2020 in Warsaw, Poland.
- Operation Flow
- The primary design decision was to define the entrance zone. The fence was reduced in order to establish a stronger relationship with the city by creating a new public space in front of the school. In the place of the former bunker, a safe square was designed. By penetrating the foundation walls, a spacious entrance to the atrium under the body of the historic building was formed. The internal, multifunctional foyer, lit by a daylight, is the keystone of the old and the new.
- Research
- The heart of the complex in this building is the concert hall. Its unusual circular plan comes from the desire to integrate around the music. The area divided in half between audience and the stage, allowed to create a comfortable place for 70 musicians and 300 music lovers. The last row is only 8 meters from the stage, which gives the impression of an intimate space to a young artist. The amphitheater arch of the audience surrounds the performers, giving a sense of community.
- Inspiration
- The architectural competition for the music school did not include the historic building of the former orphanage. It fills almost the entire front elevation from Rakowiecka Street, hence the decision was to locate the new building with a concert hall deep within the plot. The existing context inspired us to create a background architecture with the continuation of the, scale and rhythms of the existing building, while inside a world full of acoustic details subordinated to music and silence
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Bartek Barczyk, Concert Hall in Warsaw, 2020
Image #2: Photographer Bartek Barczyk, Concert Hall in Warsaw, 2020
Image #3: Photographer Bartek Barczyk, Concert Hall in Warsaw, 2020
Image #4: Photographer Piotr Krajewski, Concert Hall in Warsaw, 2020
Image #5: Photographer Piotr Krajewski, Concert Hall in Warsaw, 2020 - Patents
- Konior Studio
Colors of Concert Hall in Warsaw Music School
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