Shovels broke ground this week on an addition by Steven Holl Architects (SHA) in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The venue by SHA will host Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Republic’s leading symphony orchestra.
SHA won an international competition to design the building in 2019. Upon completion, Ostrava Concert Hall will be a new structure that runs perpendicular to the Ostrava House of Culture, a socialist realist building completed in 1961 by Jaroslav Fragner. The new building by SHA “jumps over” the Fragner structure, architects from SHA said.
The architects designed a cantilevered steel element that hovers out over Ostrava Concert Hall’s entrance. Intricate corridors will stitch the old and new buildings together, allowing it to “work in harmonic symbiosis,” designers shared. The addition’s namesake is Leoš Janáček, a legendary Czech composer and music theorist.
Today, the 215,000-square-foot Ostrava House of Culture has a main hall with 1,300 seats. The new 140,000-square-foot addition by SHA will have a theater hall where 490 people can be seated and a multifunctional chamber with 515 seats.
Ostrava Concert Hall will also have a 200-seat education center, and a 120-seat lecture hall. A recording studio, spaces for leisure activities, cafes, restaurants, and lounges supplement the performance and theater spaces.
Conceptually, the addition by SHA aims to be a “perfect acoustic instrument in its case,” designers elaborated. The concert hall’s interiors will be lined with maple wood, like a violin. This feature should provide ideal acoustics for Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra to perform.
On the exterior, Ostrava Concert Hall will have a steel “case” that’s clad in lightweight blue-grey zinc. This is meant to provide complementary contrast to the ceramic tile and travertine base of Fragner’s House of Culture. SHA further noted that the pre-patina zinc is totally recyclable and can easily conform to the structure’s curvature.
Construction is slated for completion in 2028.
