A new landmark on the European cultural scene is now on view in Hungary. Sou Fujimoto’s House of Music has now officially opened in the country’s capital city after almost six years of construction.

The 97,000-square-foot performance venue is the centerpiece of the Liget Budapest Project, a €1 billion ($1.13 billion) development billed to be one of the biggest in recent European history that includes the music hall, new national art gallery, cultural building, and landscaped areas situated a the center of one of the continent’s historic capitals of music.

Fujimoto’s design distributes the interactive program of education, exhibition, and performance spaces across three levels with a variety of plant life springing up from its core to create a naturalistic environment that significantly enhances the experience of the visitor. The building’s paneled glass facade presents a seamless transition between exterior park and interior museum spaces, which is uniquely lit thanks to a roof canopy perforated with 100 openings that channel light deep into its cavernous open floor plan. 

“We were enchanted by the multitude of trees in the City Park and inspired by the space created by them,” Fujimoto explains. “Whilst the thick and rich canopy covers and protects its surroundings, it also allows the sun’s rays to reach the ground. I envisaged the open floor plan, where boundaries between inside and outside blur, as a continuation of the natural environment.”

The House’s subterranean exhibition spaces will host permanent and temporary exhibitions in addition to a sound dome that creates a “hologram-like” aural environment and takes its inspiration from a concept developed by the famed composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. The ground level is thus meant for performances and includes the concert hall and open-air stage. The building is then completed with top-level spaces geared toward educational initiatives that will promote the history of the country's important musical culture as inspired by the philosophies of Hungarian intellectuals Klára Kokas and Zoltán Kodály. 

“Music-making is at the heart of human experience,” The House’s Managing Director András Batta said finally. “The House is a one-of-a-kind institution created to introduce the beauty of sound and music, alongside the important role it plays in every aspect of our life.” 

The House of Music’s first season will run until June and opens with performances by a range of artists, including Grammy winner Aoife O’Donovan and traditional Greek music singer Marina Satti. The exhibition program will begin with an examination of Hungarian pop music between 1957 and 1993. Museum projects from Napur and SANAA will follow The House of Music closely to complete the development in the next few years.