Along with our friend Jonas Hz, Karl and I were recently invited to the Copenhagen Concert Hall by Lars Skovgaard who is Events Manager there. I´ve been wanting to see the inside of this fascinating building ever since it opened in early 2009, so I was happy to finally get the opportunity.
Jean Nouvel´s Copenhagen Concert Hall is part of ‘DR Byen’, the home of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. It´s a remarkable building; From far away it’s this big monumental blue cube, but as you approach you begin to see structures behind the surface. It looks like scaffolding covered by translucent blue skin. The building changes depending on the light of the day and at night video and images are (sometimes) projected onto the exterior. All this makes you very curious as to what’s inside.
Train view.
The building houses the main concert hall and 3 smaller studios, which sounds quite simple, but in reality is a layered maze of foyers, hallways, tech rooms, office spaces and, of course, studios. The glass and steel, fragmented layers of sound panels, plywood staircases and concrete work well together to make you feel lost. The massive concrete walls were added wrinkles in the casting process and later polished with olive oil to make them feel soft. Contrasts all over.
The most impressive of all is Studio 1 – the main concert hall. It’s really hard to describe this space. It’s quite large but feels oddly small, there are sharp geometric shapes everywhere but everything feels soft and warm. As Lars said “I come here almost every day but it´s still almost a religious experience when i enter this room”. Everything in here is so well done, and you get the feeling it all looks exactly as it does for a reason.
The 60 ton light & sound platform usually hovers above the orchestra.
Delta INC meets M. C . Escher
Lars explaining / Karl in awe.
Ceiling.
Wave walls.
Surfaces have been milled to spread the highest audio frequencies.
Notice the colour nuances on the chairs.
The wooden backs of all 1800 chairs have been sanded by hand revealing the layers of the wood and making each one unique.
Sound.
The 6000 pipe organ.
During the building process of the Copenhagen Concert Hall the budget was expanded several times, making this the most expensive concert hall in the world. This resulted in drastic cutback in DR staff and funding, and understandably many people have mixed emotions about the building.
However it is truly a masterpiece, and the main concert hall is one of the most beautiful spaces i have ever been in.
Brian SS
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