Archinect - News

Henning Larsen completes crystalline Opera in Hangzhou, China

2019-07-15T14:40:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has completed work on a new 750,000-square-foot opera house and cultural center in Hangzhou, China.

The opera-in-the-park-style complex is wrapped by a fractured metal panel and glass facade designed to reference the cracked ice that forms during the winter months along the surface of a lake adjacent to the complex. The opera is filled with a collection of performance and exhibition spaces, including a 1,400-seat concert hall with raked seating and a 500-seat black-box performance venue.

View of the new opera house at dusk. Image courtesy of Philippe Rualt.

In section, the complex is arranged as a trio of canted volumes organized on either side of a central elevated plaza. The plaza is designed to hold up to 10,000 people and can be used even when the multi-functional cultural center is closed down, according to a project press release. The arrangement is meant to allow the building to "dissolve into the city" while also allowing the complex to act as a large public ...

Daniel Libeskind turns 70; designs Musical Labyrinth for Frankfurt Opera

2016-05-12T13:29:00-04:00

Preparations are still running for various events around Daniel Libeskind's 70th birthday, among them the concert project "One Day in Life." Libeskind has designed the project for Frankfurt's Old Opera. A total of 75 concerts are to be given on May 21 and 22 at 18 different locations spread over the city of Frankfurt. Libeskind's idea was to bring music to places where hitherto no music had been played, for example hospitals, public baths or hidden bunkers.

Via @daniellibeskind on Instagram: "In Frankfurt installing the Musical Labyrinth for One Day in Life that opens May 20th. #onedayinlife"

Other recent Libeskind stories in the Archinect news:

Brunel’s Thames Tunnel transformed into an underground theatre

2016-04-14T11:00:00-04:00

Called the Grand Entrance Hall, the underground space – opening today – will be run by The Brunel Museum and is set to host plays, operas, concerts and even weddings. Architects Tate Harmer breathed new life into the 1843 Grade II*-listed shaft – originally designed by civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father Marc – adding a cantilevered staircase to make the 75ft-deep hall accessible.

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Frank Gehry to design stage set for Berlin State Opera

2015-04-27T18:34:00-04:00

Frank Gehry will be the stage designer of a new production of the Christoph Gluck opera "Orfeo ed Euridice" for Berlin's Staatsoper, the company announced on Monday in unveiling its 2015-2016 season. [...] Gehry, one of the world's foremost architects, has engaged in arts projects in the past [...] designed a set for a concert staging of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in Los Angeles in 2003.

At Disney Concert Hall, Hadid Picks Up on Gehry’s Tune

2014-05-30T13:18:00-04:00

It was an artistic collaboration delayed by some 25 years: The London architect Zaha Hadid responded as much to Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles as she did to “Così Fan Tutte” when she designed her undulating all-white set for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performance of Mozart’s opera this week (it closes on Saturday). “We were responding to the context, to Frank’s design,” Ms. Hadid said in a telephone interview from London.

Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs: The Opera

2014-04-24T16:27:00-04:00

It's the urban planning equivalent of Rinaldo. Except instead of the siege of Jerusalem, it's the battle for Greenwich Village. The legendary 1960s struggle pitted planning czar Robert Moses against neighborhood activist Jane Jacobs. Moses wanted to make the city easily navigable by car [...] But the powerful planner met his match when he proposed an expressway through Lower Manhattan. Though she had little institutional support, Jacobs built a citizen coalition that ultimately defeated Moses.

Opera adaptation for "Plan Of The City" film currently in the works

2013-11-18T13:29:00-05:00

Since our sister site Bustler first mentioned Joshua Frankel's "Plan Of The City" in 2011, a new project is now underway to bring the film to the stage as an opera. An official title for the production is yet to be decided.

Frankel, composer Judd Greenstein, and 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith wlll combine their artistic talents to tell the story of urban planner Robert Moses and journalist Jane Jacobs, who each influenced the New York City landscape and the field of urbanism.

Be on the lookout for some Plan Of The City events happening this week. The "indie classical" NOW Ensemble will give a live performance of the Plan Of The City on Nov. 19 at the Winter Garden in Brookfield Place. The event is free!

Frankel will then conduct his first animation study at the BAM Next Wave Festival on Nov. 23, as part of the 21c Liederabend program. As musical exploration, the animation will be presented with a music segment written by Greenstein set to Walt Whitman's M...

Paris Opera | Charles Garnier | Architecture as Allegory

2011-10-02T15:20:20-04:00

A design competition opened in December 1860 with a month's deadline; it drew 171 submissions. The winning architect, Garnier, was a blacksmith's son who had studied at the École des Beaux Arts, taking its Grand Prix de Rome for architecture in 1848.

Rafael Viñoly Takes The Opera Stage

2011-07-27T12:52:00-04:00

Last week the architect Rafael Viñoly was speaking—not kindly—about colleagues of his who think they can do things besides make buildings. “This is a profession,” he said dryly, “that generates an enormous amount of arrogance.”

“Architects feel empowered to give opinions about politics and sociology and philosophy without knowing much about it,” Mr. Viñoly said by phone from Beijing, where his firm is building an engineering school. “Kind of in the same way that they think they can design furniture or fashion or utensils for dining. I think architects tend to believe that they can almost do anything, which is a wonderful characteristic, but in some cases you just fall flat. Theatrical design is just a completely different vocabulary. It’s a very, very difficult thing to do well.”