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MAD Architects' new China Philharmonic Concert Hall project nears completion in Beijing

2023-06-13T13:47:00-04:00

MAD Architects has shared an update on its nearly-complete China Philharmonic Concert Hall in Beijing.

The project encompasses almost 280,000 square feet of total building area and features an organic two-story volume sheathed in a translucent membrane-like facade the firm says is reminiscent of a piece of jade, a gemstone that has, for millennia, played a significant role in Chinese ethnography.

Photo by CreatAR

Located next to the 64-year-old Workers’ Stadium Complex, the 1,600-seat venue includes a 350-seat rehearsal space and was developed alongside world-renowned acoustics expert Yasuhisa Toyota to serve as the new home of the equally well-regarded China Philharmonic Orchestra.

Rendering courtesy MAD Architects

Nestled in its interior, a sloping “vineyard style” serried seating arrangement defines the concert space that also takes advantage of the influx of natural light provided by the structure’s unique façade system.

Photo by Zhengdong Li

Concertgoers can take in their performa...

'LET IT RIP!': Photos of Frank Gehry’s new LA Phil Youth Orchestra Center opening ceremony

2021-10-22T08:00:00-04:00

The wait is over for one of Frank Gehry’s most highly-anticipated projects in the past few years.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on Saturday for the newly-opened Youth Orchestra Los Angeles Center in Los Angeles. Gehry was joined by LA Philharmonic director Gustavo Dudamel at the Inglewood ceremony, which included performances by both of the 102-year-old institution’s orchestral ensembles.

Image by Mathew Imaging courtesy of LA Phil

Speaking about the new Center, the 92-year-old architect stated simply: “To the kids of Inglewood, I say, 'LET IT RIP!' This is your building, and I hope you use every inch of it to experiment and to further your creative explorations. It was a joy for me to make, and I hope that it is a joy for you to use.”

Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts was also on hand, saying the community has “looked forward to this day for so long,” and expressing the relief that the schoolchildren and their parents felt after not being able to attend classes in person during...

Frank Gehry's new Youth Orchestra Los Angeles facility gets a first sound check

2021-06-01T17:45:00-04:00

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and its Youth Orchestra Los Angeles recently tried out the nearly completed Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center. That is the dilapidated former bank building and Burger King in downtown Inglewood that architect Frank Gehry has transformed into a fabulous performance space and teaching facility for young musicians.

Plans for a Gehry Partners-envisioned permanent home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Youth Orchestra first appeared on Archinect in 2017, followed by more concrete designs for the future Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in LA's Inglewood neighborhood a year later.

Previously on Archinect: Gehry Partners reveal new design for the LA Phil Youth Orchestra. Aerial model view of the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center @ Inglewood, concert configuration. Photo courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP.

As with its other Gehry-designed flagship facility, the Walt Disney Concert Hall which opened in Downtown Los Angeles in 2003, LA Phil worked with the team of acclaimed acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota again.

The Frank Gehry-designed Pierre Boulez Saal to open this weekend

2017-03-02T18:21:00-05:00

The Pierre Boulez Saal, a concert hall in Berlin designed by Frank Gehry, will open this weekend with an inaugural concert that will be live streamed. The concert hall, which is more quiet than most of Gehry’s other work, was designed in collaboration with the renowned acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata. Gehry donated his services to the project.

The concert hall will serve as the “public face” of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, which trains young musicians from the Middle East. The school was created “in the spirit of” the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which was founded in 1999 by Daniel Barenboim and the late American-Palestinian scholar Edward Said.

For more information on the concert hall, the Akademie or to watch the live stream, head over here.

Plans revealed for the new China Philharmonic Hall designed by MAD Architects

2016-10-18T14:03:00-04:00

The China Philharmonic Orchestra has revealed designs by MAD Architects for a new concert hall in Beijing. The 26,587 square meter concert hall will contain 1,600 seats laid out on a series of “terraces”. Developed with acclaimed acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, who also worked on the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the China Philharmonic Hall will serve as the first permanent residency of the the China Philharmonic Orchestra, considered one of the world’s finest symphony orchestras.

The press release describes the designs with heavily organicist language:

"The 1,600-seat main concert hall is laid out in a vineyard style, with the seating surrounding the stage; rising up in serried rows in the manner of the sloping terraces. Its wooden lakes organically surround the stage while the white sound reflection petals on the ceiling are designed to resemble the segments of a lotus flower. The natural light coming from above will make audience members feel as if they are in the center of...

Have you listened to your building?

2016-01-20T14:46:00-05:00

Derek Sugden, the dean of acoustic engineers, who has died at the age of 91, remained perpetually surprised that architects could be so concerned with every aspect of the building they were designing ‘but not really with what it sounded like’. According to Sugden, ‘the sound is as important as the surface and the feel. It’s important because our ears define for me the nature of space.’

So not everyone can be Yasuhisa Toyota, but still: paying attention to the acoustics of a space should be a vital component of the architectural design process, yeah?

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