Join us in Paris on September 22nd at 5pm !
English architectural writer Michael Webb will present an illustrated lecture on recently completed European concert halls and opera houses. Large or small, each is designed to delight the eyes and ears. In these halls, architecture and music are fused in a harmonious, mutually reinforcing way. Michael is currently co-authoring a book on this subject with a music critic and has been exploring halls all over Europe and talking with architects and artistic directors.
The lecture will sketch the historic roots of these halls in court theaters and salons, their exponential growth in the 19thcentury, and the radical departures from convention of Hans Scharoun in Berlin and Alvar Aalto in Essen. Michael will explore a dozen 21st-century theaters that push the boundaries in their plans, material palette and civic role, bringing concert-goers and performers closer together, and broadening the audience for opera and classical music.
Examples will include Snohetta’s Oslo Opera, Jean Nouvel’s KKL in Lucerne, Renzo Piano’s Parco della Musica in Rome and Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center in Athens, Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Henning Larsen’s Harpa in Reykjavik, Frank Gehry’s Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Shigeru Ban’s La Seine Musicale in Paris, Barozzi-Veiga’s Filharmonie in Szczecin, Peter Haimerl’s Blaibach Konzerthaus and DeLugan Meissl’s Tyrolean Concert Hall in Erl. Each is a powerful architectural statement that reinforces the sense of place and intensifies the experience of a live performance. A discussion will follow the lecture.
Michael Webb Hon. AIA/LA has authored 30 books on architecture and design, most recently California Houses: Creativity in Context and Building Community: New Apartment Architecture, while editing and contributing essays to a score of monographs. He is also a regular contributor to leading journals in the United States, Asia and Europe. Growing up in London, he was an editor at The Times and Country Life, before moving to the U.S., where he directed film programs for the American Film Institute and curated a Smithsonian exhibition on the history of the American cinema. He now lives in Los Angeles in the Richard Neutra apartment that was once home to Charles and Ray Eames.
Photo : Didier Boy de la Tour / Architecture : Shigeru Ban
