Source: http://archide.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/mumuth-music-theatre-in-graz-by-unstudio/
On March 1st, the MUMUTH faculty building at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz by
UNstudio will officially be open. The new music theatre design by UN studio principal architect
Ben Van Berkel is described as ‘classical with a twist’. The studio was selected from 212 entries in an
architectural design competition to design the building. Construction of the building cost 19 million
euro and first began in March 2006.
Source: http://archide.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/mumuth-music-theatre-in-graz-by-unstudio/
Van Berkel’s main focus was to design a building that is as much
about music as a building can be. This concept took the form of a ‘spring-structure’ that gave form to
the building and its layout. This structure was envisaged as an elongated spring, which would be
stretched, suppressed and folded up inside it to offer structure to the various volumes through one
continuous line. This line slowly embedded itself in the final design, no longer appearing visibly.
The studio also used the idea of a blob-to-box model, altering the form of the building from movement
based at one end and unit-based at the other end. This concept provided further structure to the spring
model. The design also features a sticking concrete staircase and a glittering outer facade that makes
use of repetition.
Source: http://www.architectour.net
The first of these two themes is the so-called ‘spring structure’ which bears the most direct relationship to music. In the first stage of the competition, the design was still very conceptual and was envisaged as an elongated spring of varying diameter size, which would alternately be stretched, suppressed and folded up inside itself to offer structure to the various volumes that together make up the theatrical, audience, rehearsal and utility spaces. We saw the spiral as the organising element of the MUMUTH in much the same way as Serialism works in contemporary music; the continuous line absorbs and regulates intervals and interruptions, changes of direction and leaps of scale without losing its continuity. Things hang on this line like laundry: glass, concrete and installations. In many ways this principle still holds, although in the building as it stands today the coil motif is no longer prominently displayed on the facades, as it was in that first conceptual design, but is now invisibly absorbed in the construction.
Source: http://www.architectour.net
In fact, the legibility of the spring was dissolved only gradually. The design that was made for the second stage of the competition shows a refined spiral concept, which, like an octopus, is simple, orthogonal and horizontally orientated on one side and turns into a complex, smaller-scaled principle on the opposite side. This principle of a spiral that divides itself into a number of interconnected smaller spirals that take on a vertical and diagonal direction became an important design model for us which we called the blob-to-box model.
Source: http://www.architectour.net
Source: http://www.architectour.net
Source: http://www.architectour.net
Source: http://www.architectour.net
Source: http://www.architectour.net
Reference:
http://archide.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/mumuth-music-theatre-in-graz-by-unstudio/
http://blog.livedesignonline.com/briefingroom/?author=25&paged=2
http://www.unstudio.com/projects/recent/1/279
http://www.architectour.net/opere/opera.php?id_opera=5928&language=1
