19 COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: HOUSE OF MUSIC Project: House of Music, Aalborg | Denmark Architect: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, Vienna | Austria Fabricator/Installer: AE Staalmontage A/S, Støvring | Denmark Year: 2014 Product: ALUCOBOND® NaturAL Brushed Pictures: Duccio Malagamba Plans: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU The “House of Music“ in Aalborg, Denmark, was designed by the Vienna based architectural studio Coop Himmelb(l)au as a dualpurpose school and concert hall: its open structure promotes the exchange between audience and artists, and between students and teachers. “The idea behind the building can already be read from the outer shape. The school embraces the concert hall, “ explained Wolf D. Prix, design principal and CEO of Coop Himmelb(l)au. U-shaped rehearsal and training rooms are arranged around the core of the ensemble, a concert hall for about 1,300 visitors. A generous foyer connects these spaces and opens out with a multi-storey window area onto an adjacent cultural space and a fjord. Under the foyer, three more rooms of various sizes complement the space: the intimate hall, the rhythmic hall, and the classic hall. Students and visitors can look into the concert hall from the foyer and the practice rooms through multiple observation windows and experience musical events, including concerts and rehearsals. The flowing shapes and curves of the auditorium inside stand in contrast to the strict, cubic outer shape. The materiality of concrete and ALUCOBOND® naturAL brushed continues from the exterior to the interior. The seats in the orchestra and curved balconies are arranged to provide the best possible acoustics and views of the stage. The foyer serves as a meeting place for students, artists, teachers and visitors. Five storeys high with stairs, observation balconies, and large windows with views of the fjord, it is a lively, dynamic space that can be used for a wide variety of activities. For Wolf D. Prix, the “House of Music” is a symbol of the unity between music and architecture: “Music is the art of striking a chord in people directly. Like the body of musical instruments this architecture serves as a resonance body for the creativity in the House of Music.”
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