The House of Music, Hungary

This January, the House of Music, Hungary willopen in Budapest: a brand-new cultural landmark for the city, which isdedicated to the creation of music and sound. The House will provide a uniqueartistic experience combining landscape, architecture and exhibition design tooffer its visitors new perspectives on music making and its impact on ourlives. The ambitious architectural project is led by star Japanese designer,Sou Fujimoto Architects and is part of Europe’s largest cultural development,the Liget Budapest Project, which will transform the experience of culture inBudapest including the creation and renovation of several culturalinstitutions, while establishing new leisure opportunities and green areaswithin the city’s central City Park. The vision for the project is to bring theexperience of music to life through the interaction of nature, sound and light. Situated in Budapest, Hungary, which is a historic centre of music in Europefor both classical music repertoire and Hungarian folk traditions, the Housewill host a range of live music from classical to folk, pop to jazz, alongsideexhibitions and education and learning programmes designed to createopportunities for anyone to play and experience music. "Music making is at the heart ofhuman experience. The House is a one-of-a-kind institution created to introducethe beauty of sound and music, alongside the important role it plays in everyaspect of our life. " - András Batta, Managing Director of the House of Music. The impressive 9,000m2 (total floorarea) building nestled amongst the trees of the City Park, is designed byJapanese practice Sou Fujimoto Architects. The designers have taken inspirationfrom the synergy between sound and nature; presenting the building as acontinuation of its park context and an ambitious rethinking of a 21st centurymuseum space. The House’s facade is panelled in a curtain of glass to create acompletely translucent building that blurs boundaries between indoor and outdoorspace. The glass facade is made up of 94 custom-manufactured, heat-insulated,horizontally undivided panels and its height reaches almost 12 metres in someareas of the House. Consistent with its naturalistic setting, the House is equipped with an innovative heating and cooling system; mainly geothermal energy and other renewable sources covering the House’s energy requirements. The feeling of being in nature is furtherenhanced by a canopy of over 30,000 decorative tree leaves set in the suspendedceiling and secured in place by a steel structure made out of 1,000honeycomb-shaped elements. The building's unique roof structure is alsoinspired by the varying form of sound waves. The vast undulating roof structurechanges depth and remains below the City Park’s foliage. The roof has beendesigned with nearly 100 unique, crater-like holes in the surface, which allowthe trees to slip through whilst channelling light into the depths of thebuilding, lighting the interiors and creating a special atmosphere, as ifvisitors are walking under the trees. ” Sou Fujimoto, leadarchitect, says: “We were enchanted by the multitude of trees in the City Parkand inspired by the space created by them. Whilst the thick and rich canopycovers and protects its surroundings, it also allows the sun’s rays to reachthe ground. I envisaged the open floor plan, where boundaries between insideand outside blur, as a continuation of the natural environment. ” The layout of the House is set across three distinctive levelsreflecting the three movements of a musical score and interweaving nature andmusic. The subterranean level will provide a space for permanent and temporaryexhibitions and a unique sound dome, the park level will be home to theglass-walled concert hall and open-air stage and the top level will bededicated to educational spaces. One of the most notable features of the House –regarded as a rarity across the globe - is the hemispherical sound dome. Theconcept was inspired by the 20th century composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, whocreated the first 3D aural experience in the form of a spherical concert hall,which debuted at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan. Designed as a fullyimmersive experience, up to 60 visitors can be accommodated to experience 360degree surround sound emitted from every direction from more than 31loudspeakers, creating ‘hologram-like’ walls of sound. Enhanced visually by aprojector, during the day visitors can experience the permanent soundinstallation composed of sounds of Hungary and from the Carpathian Basin. Inthe evenings, the dome will act as a venue for DJ sets, screenings andsmaller-scale concerts. The institution brings Hungary’s rich musictraditions and landmark role in the history of European music to domestic andforeign visitors alike with its interactive exhibitions, both permanent andtemporary, utilising 21st-century technology, music education workshops as wellas music events and open-air concerts. The permanent exhibition, titled ‘SoundDimensions – Musical Journeys in Space and Time’, will provide an immersivemusical journey through two thousand years of music making in Europe - from themusical exploits of primeval man, the historic turning points in music’shistory such as musical notation and polyphony, to the wide spectrum of avantgarde and popular music driven by the technological revolution of the 20th and21st centuries. Through six main themes, visitors will discover the contrastingsounds and styles of each era through the life and work of iconic composersincluding Monteverdi, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Liszt. The audio-visualexperience of the show will be accompanied by an instrument lab and a plethoraof sounds which can be heard within the sound dome. The first temporaryexhibition will showcase the history of Hungarian pop music from 1957-1990,with a focus on the performers and music scene of the Socialist – so calledKádár - era. At the park level, the ground floorhouses two indoor concert halls; the smaller hall primarily functions as alecture and workshop space, alongside acting as a concert venue and anauditorium. The open-air stage located on the level of the building’s entrancewill host daytime and evening concert events, allowing visitors sitting on thehillside opposite the stage and in the adjacent garden terrace toobserve. The glass-walled concert hall has a capacity of320 seats and is equipped with a sinkable stage and suitable for musicalexperimentation. Undertaken by Japanese firm Nagata Acoustics, known for theacoustic design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, andElbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Nagata and Sou Fujimoto navigated the challenges ofthis unique glass design by creating a zigzag-shaped wall that allows incomingsound to reverberate and disperse from the glass indirectly, producinghomogeneous sound. Music education is another important part ofthe House’s mission to support and enhance learning. The Multimedia Library andClub will house a large number of important written, audio, visual and filmdocumentation on the history of Hungarian music for researchers and thoseinterested in music to discover. Inspired by the philosophy of Hungarian musicpsychologist Klára Kokas and composer Zoltán Kodály, the House will also offermusic education, workshops for schools and groups of children, alongside anopen university programme of courses and short lectures in which all threefunctions of the institution play their part: teaching, exhibition discoveryand collaborating in a concert hall workshop. The January to June 2022 programme encompassesthe overall philosophy of the House: building connections, promoting young talentand discovering sound experiences. Among some of the most exciting programmesis Bartók 1914, which celebrates the work of Béla Bartók, regarded as one ofHungary’s greatest composers. The host band of the concert is the Magosensemble, focusing on the folk music of the region, and special guests includeTransylvanian musicians, Ágnes Langer and Balázs Fülei. Making her Hungariandebut, the Greek singer and songwriter Marina Satti will be performing hersignature blend of Greek traditional music and contemporary sounds. Germancomputer music artist and co-creator of the music software Ableton Live, RobertHenke will be performing a special show live using only Commodore CBM 8032computers from the early 1980s. Former lead singer of the band The Czars, JohnGrant and Grammy award winner Aoife O’Donovan will both showcase their latestsolo records, playing in Hungary for the first time. Traditional tuvan bandHuun-Huur-Tu will create a unique show, especially put together for the Houseof Music, in collaboration with the Hungarian band Kerekes, combining folkmusic of both nations. More information about the 2022 programme of events,exhibitions and workshops at the House of Music can be found on their channels. Project Name: The House of Music, Hungary Architect: Sou Fujimoto Architects Year: 2021