Interposed with the existing building of the House of Culture in Ostrava, Czech Republic, is a 1,300-seat metal-clad concert hall designed by Steven Holl Architects for the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra. The Ostrava Concert Hall, an orchestration of material lightness and hulking form, inserts itself into its context—formerly a lively industrial district—"jumping over" the original 20th-century building. Interconnections between the two graft the new design to the original edifice is, as the architects state, a “harmonic symbiosis”.

Detailed drawings depict the entrance for the cultural centre by the New York-based architects hovering over a pedestrian esplanade, with its cantilevered steel structure creating a dialogue between the street, the 20th-century building, and the new design. The transparent glass façade of this extending arm constructs a play between the historic and contemporary, with pedestrians able to see through the lobby of the concert hall to the modernist block it is inserted into. The glass volume, which defines the new lobby, not only provides access to visitors but also to the House of Culture. Meanwhile, the new concert hall for performances is oriented to face the park to the north, to minimise noise from the busy boulevard.

Resembling a “perfect acoustic instrument in its case,” the concert hall is clad in lightweight zinc. As the architects note, the luminous grey of the “case” contrasts the solidness of the House of Culture’s ceramic tile and travertine facade. A theatre, multifunctional chamber, education centre and lecture hall have also been planned to enhance the programme offered by the cultural architecture. Additionally, a recording studio, and recreational spaces such as cafes, restaurants and lounges add to the amenities available to the visitors.

Public spaces in the building such as the lobby and café are bathed in natural light through glass walls and skylights; the atmosphere within the spaces changing with the time of day and subsequently, the seasons. At night, the transparent glass transforms these volumes into a lantern, casting a soft glow onto the park and boulevard beyond the site. An exploration of the relationship between spaces and natural light characterises Steven Holl’s evolving body of work. The experience of the tangible through the way light moves through a space and brings it alive forms a central tenet to Holl’s design approach.

“Space is oblivion without light. A building speaks through the silence of perception orchestrated by light,” the American architect writes in his book Luminosity/Porosity. As music conducts sound into a harmonious, tangible form, for Holl, architecture manipulates light, with him often noting similarities between the two. Music is, after all, a house to inhabit according to John Cage. This distinctly phenomenological approach to architecture allows Holl to connect the material with the emotional.

Holl’s tactile approach to architecture further manifests through a priority on watercolour paintings in the early stages of design. Holl has previously spoken about how the iterative process and unpredictability of the medium allows for a greater sense of experimentation, and the generation of novel forms in his work. The watercolours for Ostrava animate the existing landscape, with Holl’s design sitting staidly within it. The soft yellow of the House of Culture draws one’s eyes to it while allowing the bulky form of the concert hall to easily slip into the recesses of the original’s plan. Similarly, another drawing renders the thought process behind the hall’s interior design geometries.

As the architects elaborate in an official release, the arrangement of acoustic panels is inspired by ‘musical time’, specifically by Czech composer and namesake of the Philharmonic, Leoš Janáček’s theories. Fascinated by the rhythms of speech in his works, Janáček’s principle of Scasovani—used by the architects in the geometric arrangement of panels—incorporates repetitive motifs to render the music with a minimalistic ambience. Three variants of repeating patterns are used for the interiors, Znící (sounding), Sčítací (counting), and Sčelovací (summing). Further, the use of sound-absorbing scratch coat plaster and raw crinkled concrete gives the space a textural dimension in the realm of the tactile.

The main concert hall, which the architects note is organised in an extended vineyard-type plan, is made of maple wood—a material that provides an ideal acoustic environment—drawing comparisons to a great violin, adding to the musical metaphors employed for the design. Apart from the stringent acoustic considerations in the project, conceived in collaboration with Nagata Acoustics, the concert hall is geothermally heated and cooled via 120 wells, ensuring that the design is formally pleasing and sustainably sound. SHA’s design, which won the competition for a new cultural landmark in the city of Ostrava, also hopes to significantly revitalise the cultural spaces in the city, notes the Director of the Janáček Philharmonic.

“Architecture, like music, is an immersive experience,” Holl reiterates, speaking about the project. While the restored structure of the House of Culture imposes its presence through a form that searches for a balance between an austere modernist yet classical language, the concert hall presents an atmospheric gesture, solid yet jaunty. If architecture is the orchestration of space and more importantly to Holl, of light, the architectural insert of the new Ostrava Concert Hall acts like the soloist in a symphony, adding emotional heft to and bringing together an otherwise restrained melody.

Project Details

Name: Ostrava Concert Hall
Location: Ostrava, Czech Republic
Client: City of Ostrava for the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra
Architect: Steven Holl Architects
Design Team:
Steven Holl (principal); Olaf Schmidt (partner in charge); Lirong Tan, Dimitra Tsachrelia (project architect); Filipe Taboada, Sarah Schlegelmilch, Paul Hazelet, Maxwell Funk, Apostolos Gredis (design team)
Associate architects: Architecture Acts
Hana Petrikova, Martin Kropac (principal); Klara Zugarova, Miarianna Antoniadoi, Hana Hucikova, Tiziana Tasca, David Lasek (design team)
Consultants:
Acoustical consultant: Nagata Acoustics
Structural engineer: TYLin | Silman Structural Solutions
Sustainability: Transsolar KlimaEngineering
Theatre consultant: Theatre Consultants Collaborative
Traffic: Jan Fiala
Fire protection: Petr Havlicek
Area: 19,800 sqm