The city of Brno has closed the qualifying round for a designer for the Janáček Cultural Centre. They are selecting a team made up of an acoustician – architect – designer, who will design the internal disposition of the building, an in particular the concert hall itself. Two out the four applicants to the competition qualified. The first of these is a trio made up of Nagata Acoustic America, Konior Studio and Architekti Hrůša & spol., Atelier Brno. The second grouping is the pair of Ove Arup Partners International Limited and ArchDesign.
There are not many people in the Czech Republic with experience in building a hall for symphonic music with a capacity of more than a thousand people. No such specific space has been built here in more than a century. Therefore in the competition conditions the city required that each team could show that they had built at least three halls for symphonic music with the required capacity and natural acoustics, length of experience and similar experience of building similar size projects in heritage-protected zones. “I am glad that as part of the building of the new hall we have managed to come closer to the moment when a new musical venue with top-notch parameters will stand in Veselá street. Today the qualification round for the designer who should breathe life into the new hall was completed. I am very pleased that companies that are among the best in the world have applied meaning that we will have something to choose from,” commented Brno’s mayor Petr Vokřál on the applications to the qualification round.
Since 1971 the company Nagata Acoustic, led by Yasuhisa Toyota, has designed a little less than 60 concert all around the world. In the qualification round they presented their latest projects from Paris, Shanghai and Katowice in Poland. They are also known for the building of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The second member of the team is the architect Tomasz Konior, who with Nagata designed the mentioned hall in Katowice. The trio is completed with the Brno architect Petr Hrůša who with his studio will be arranging for the authorisations and qualifications which will be required by Czech legislation.
The core of the second group is the American company Ove Arup Partners (known earlier as Artec) led by Tateo Nakajima. This company also has to its name dozens of concert halls around the world. In the competition among others they presented halls in Poland’s Wroclaw, Denmark’s Aalborg and in Quebec in Canada. Their award-winning hall in Switzerland’s Lucerne is fondly recalled by the mezzosoprano and patroness of the Hall for Brno Magdalena Kožená. His company is supplemented by the Brno architectural and design office ArchDesign.
“It really is no exaggeration when I say that now we cannot make a bad choice. The acoustician is the key person on the whole team and no-one better could have applied to us. At the same time I hope that these world aces that we have attracted will be a certain guarantee that we will really complete this project,” revealed the Brno deputy mayor Matěj Hollan.
At the head of the qualification commission is the Brno City Architect Michal Sedláček. By a happy coincidence he is one of the few experts in the Czech Republic who has participated in the design of a concert hall of the required parameters. Sedláček worked in the team of Frank Gehry on the project for the building of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. “It was a wonderful experience for me and so I am truly glad that I can utilise this in my native Brno,” stated Sedláček.
After the qualification round there will be the competition round. The organisers will supply all existing documentation on the project and on this basis will receive quotations from the candidates for producing documentation for a building permit and project documentation for the construction. “We, as the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra have for example prepared requirements for all the facilities for the orchestra including dressing rooms and practice rooms as well as for the technical equipment of the podium and the recording studio,” the Director of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra Marie Kučerová informed us.
