Florence’s new Parco della Musica complex is an intricate programme ensemble: an urban architecture designed as a music venue for opera and all other kinds of musical performance, it is also a landmark building knitting together different parts of the city. Built to group the many, highly specific, requirements of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival in one location, the new complex also creates a physical and conceptual bridge between the historic town and the Parco delle Cascine area, a trait-d’union between the ancient stone gem that is the city centre and the surrounding landscaped countryside. ABDR’s programme is appropriately “monumental”, a solidified urban landscape fitting seamlessly into its setting. At the same time it is a highly functional technological unit with large halls for concerts and opera in which acoustic excellence is generated by architectural prowess. Accessory spaces include rehearsal rooms, prop-making workshops and accommodation for all the other activities of staged performances. The architecture comprises built volumes, ramps, terraces, staircases, semi-enclosed spaces and views. Although converging on the complex, external distribution pathways are an orderly continuation of public routes in the area. Boulder-like geometries form huge masses of different textures accessible from all sides by broad approach ramps and stairways. A paved public concourse rises to meet a sturdy leaning volume - a 1800-seat concert hall set at right angles to wide staircases on either side. Its sloping roof becomes the “cavea” of an open-air amphitheatre. The wide graduated steps are clad in porcelain stoneware tiles and can seat 2600 spectators. They flow like a great stone wave down towards the parallelepiped fly tower of the concert hall. A landmark, the tower stands alone, the highest point of the whole complex. Concert hall and fly tower differ not only in shape. The walls of the fly tower are clad in grey tiles whose staggered pattern...
Digital
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The Italian Side of International Style
Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV)
«...Let me reiterate: water equals time and provides beauty with its double. Part water, we serve beauty in the same fashion. By rubbing water, this ...Tom Kundig building for people and place
Tom Kundig
Tom Kundig grew up in the Big Sky country of Washington State, far removed in distance and character from Seattle where he and his partners at Olson K...Officina Vidre Negre
Duilio Damilano
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