CONCEPT STUDY FOR A NEW AUDITORIUM
2011 – 2011, BOLOGNA, ITALY
The Auditorium delle Arti is a 1,800-seat concert hall located in central Bologna’s Manifattura delle Arti neighbourhood. The project is also a proposal for a comprehensive regeneration strategy for the area, to further enhance and improve the site’s urban identity.
The auditorium is conceived like a finely tuned musical instrument, whose geometry and form are determined by the natural principles of sound diffusion. As a result, the volume of the auditorium rises vertically above the centrally located orchestra, which the audience encircles to enjoy a uniform quality of sound. By these means a closer relationship to music is established, allowing spectators to engage both physically and psychologically with the performing musicians. The auditorium itself is a single volume, clad in wood, sitting above a transparent ground floor which houses facilities such as the foyer and a restaurant.
All supporting functions are accommodated in the adjacent 18th-century Palazzina Magnani. Access to the auditorium is from the Cavaticcio Gardens, a highly permeable landscaped piazza intended to become the focus for the neighbourhood’s cultural spaces: MAMbo (Bologna Museum of Modern Art), Salara (former salt warehouse), and the Cineteca (Bologna’s film institute). Pedestrian circulation across the concert hall site connects the existing arts facilities, tying the urban fabric of the area together.
