Sound Waterfall

CTU in Prague - Faculty of Civil Engineering

Project idea

The goal was to design a concert hall for classical and modern music in the heart of the Czech Republic's capital - Prague.
Located within the historical centre, between St Agnes convent and hospital na Františku, the design respects it's surroundings and connects the convent gardens with the park of the concert hall.
The form refers the surrounding buildings as well. Divided into three parts (Public, Hall and Backstage) each form represents its place:
Public Foyer – balances the difference between hospital verticality and convent horizontality
Backstage – fits with its simple shape to the block urbanism planning of neighborhood
The Hall – sticks up verticallly being the most flashy part
Setting of the buildings forms an unique space of the park nearby with the dominant of two waterfalls which ‚hide‘ two huge columns bearing the Hall that seems to be flying over the Public part.

Project description

How does each part work?

Public Foyer
The visitors come either by public transport (Bus station 50m from the entrance) or by cars to the 2-storey underground parking accesible by a tunnel from the Dvořák's banks. They enter the main foyer where a ticket office and a cloak room is situated. Then they go up by the lift or can linger around spacy platforms enjoying many views to the park or within the foyer or can have a meal in the restaurant on the second floor. As the concert time comes they go through one of two glass-made aerial bridges depending on the location of their seats. (Up or down in the hall.)

The Hall
In the highest part of the hall there is a bufet with a viewpoint on the Vltava River and Letenské gardens. The bufet hall stunns with its almost 15m height divided in three arcades with restrooms and technician backstage. The Hall itself is simply minimalistic with a capacity of 450 spectators with a balcony and tunable acoustics.

Backstage
Being the ‚simplest‘ part of the design it comprises artist cloakrooms on the ground floor, administrator’s and technician offices on the second, rehersal and tuning rooms on the third (which is also the stage level) and a separated musical studio on the fourth. There are also two dance rooms available for public to rent, separated from the Hall. Everything is accesible by the backstage entry hall (also a spectacular space with a four-storey height and interwined staircase as the main dominant).

Technical information

Each part differs with its construction system. Overall unity is achieved by the curtain wall made from steel sheet panels and glass panels divided with LED light ledges representing a sinus curve as a basic physics element of the sound.

Public Foyer
combines an architectural conrete and glass load bering structures. For example glass curtain wall, glued glass girder and glued glass waterfall columns on the main facade.

The Hall
is supported only by two (waterfall) concrete columns below the bufet and by concrete walls below the stage. The 30m span is bridged with a 3d truss girder hidden in the gap below the audience seats and within the walls.

Backstage
is made of simple concrete skeleton with rigid cores and walls.

The two bridges are made completely from glued load bearing glass.

Co-authors

Ing. arch. Vladimír Gleich
Ing. arch. Miroslav Němeček

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