Philharmonic Hall Szczecin / Estudio Barozzi Veiga

Text description provided by the architects. The building emerges from its urban context, influenced
by the steeply pitched roofs and the verticality of the city’s residential buildings, by the
monumentality of the upright ornaments of its neo-Gothic churches and the heavy volumes of its
Classicist buildings, by the towers that dot its entire skyline and the cranes of its port.

With an expressionist mindset, we have aimed to use geometry to give shape to a new rhythmic
composition that conveys feelings by balancing massiveness and verticality.

The use of glass as the exterior cladding material highlights how the building contrasts with the
conditions of its surrounding environment. It creates a bright, transparent and upstanding object.

The building’s interiors are simple, large skylights being their utmost defining trait. The great
symphonic hall differs from these in that it is a sculpted object, embedded into a barely outlined
mineral-like space.

ArchDaily

The Philharmonic Concert Hall is located in the heart of Szczecin, close to the river that shaped the
history of this city. After decades of difficulties, Szczecin is now in an important moment of
transition. With its great historical background in mind, the city is now looking with an open view
towards the future. The project was awarded in 2015 with the European Union Prize for
Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2015

With an expressionist mindset, we have aimed to use

geometry to give shape to a new rhythmic composition that
conveys feelings by balancing massiveness and verticality.

– Barozzi Veiga Architects

The building emerges from its urban context, influenced by the steeply pitched roofs and the
verticality of the city’s residential buildings, by the monumentality of the upright ornaments of its
neo-Gothic churches and the heavy volumes of its Classicist buildings, by the towers that dot its
entire skyline and the cranes of its port.

With an expressionist mindset, we have aimed to use geometry to give shape to a new rhythmic
composition that conveys feelings by balancing massiveness and verticality.

The use of glass as the exterior cladding material highlights how the building contrasts with the
conditions of its surrounding environment. It creates a bright, transparent and upstanding object.

Material and Technology

The façade of the Philharmonic Hall is designed to achieve a homogeneous appearance, both by day
as by night. The vertical shapes defines the structure of the entire volume of the building and is
reflected in the silhouette of the building as a whole. The double skin façade gives an intelligent
answer on the question how to enclose the building with a uniform appearance, even with a very
complex program inside. The double skin provides an improved global acoustic insulation, and has a
natural ventilation to avoid overheating. All around the perimeter of the building a innovative
system of LED lighting is designed and turns the building in a glowing light box by night.

The roof continuous the same language of colour and pattern as the façade. A multilayered pack
with a white corrugated aluminium finish clad the big steel trusses. For sustainable reasons different
roof packages have been designed with the same exterior appearance and thermal insulation but
with different acoustic performances.

In contrast to the progressive exterior envelope, the focus of the interiors is the use of traditional
craftsman’s techniques and materials: handmade hydraulic floor tiles, the use of gold leaves gilding
for the symphonic hall.

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https://www.tvarchitect.com/en/video/philharmonic-hall-in-szczecin-poland-from-barozzi-veiga/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fdHf7Jv8Fc

Dissociative effect: Philharmonic hall in Szczecin

Dozens of white peaks crown the new structure representing one of 13 buildings in the final round
of the renowned Mies van der Rohe Award. Throughout Poland, this building is already considered
an iconic work of contemporary architecture.

Architect: Estudio Barozzi Veiga, Barcelona

Location: ul. Malopolska 48, 70-515 Szczecin, Poland

Text: Emilia Margaretha

published 01.05.2015

In the centre of Szczecin, the new building has been erected on the exact location where another
concert hall was inaugurated 130 years ago. The old hall, irreparably damaged in the Second World
War, was torn down in the 1960s. After that time, the city’s philharmonic orchestra had to use the
municipal administration building for its purposes. In 2004, a citizens’ action program took up the
cause of building a new philharmonic hall. Their efforts led to an international architecture
competition announced in 2007. As winner of the 44 submissions, Spanish-Italian studio Barozzi
Veiga have created an expressive white-and-glass construction that has made waves on the
architecture scene.

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz - Philharmonie in Szczecin, Estudio Barozzi Veiga from PARA Baron-Baron on
Vimeo.

This philharmonic hall, which is named after the Polish composer Mieczys?aw Kar?owicz, comprises
two smaller concert halls; the Sun Hall offers seating for 951 guests, while the chamber music hall
accommodates 192. The designers see the larger hall as the heart of the building. The excellent
acoustics, planned by Prof. Higini Arau, have been compared with those of Vienna’s Musikverein hall
in that they achieve the highest standards. The ceiling and walls are ornamented with triangular
panelling covered in gold leaf. These panels create favourable sound mixtures with a clear radiation
of all frequencies.

The chamber music hall, clad primarily in black, was conceptualized as a suspended box and juts
dramatically into the foyer. Other multifunctional spaces are available for exhibitions and other
cultural events.

The façade and roofing material consist of translucent glass sheets which, by day, are white and
nearly opaque. The building’s appearance changes according to the season. At dusk and after
nightfall, the hall glows from within; it can also be lit up in many colours thanks to an integrated LED
lighting system.

The volume of this new construction, which cost a mere 30 million euros, emerges from the
verticality of the adjacent houses and the imposing character of the nearby neo-Gothic church.
Despite its generous dimensions of about 60 X 55 metres of floor area, this hall – unobstructed on
three sides - fits alongside the more slender neighbouring row houses with the same ridge height.

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