The EMPAC, designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, is dedicated to “experimental media and art”. It is both a concert hall and a scientific laboratory: in this complex, musicians and scientists will interact and exchange experience in the use of experimental technologies.
The building stands on a high hill above the city, on the edge of the institute campus. The main task for the architects was to provide ideal acoustic conditions and maximum sound insulation in the numerous (more than 20) halls and studios of the complex, so that these premises could be used simultaneously. For this purpose, all large spaces from this number are located inside the building in a "cascade", and each has its own separate foundation and sector of the structure.
The lobby of the Center leads to a three-story atrium, which is crossed by narrow bridges connecting the different levels and leading to the cedar-clad “frame” of the main concert hall for 1200 spectators, as if suspended inside the glass block of the building. Below there is a theater hall with 400 seats and two black box halls.
Among the innovative elements of the building's infrastructure are the heating system with hot water passed through the profiles of the curtain walls of the building and the provision of ventilation of the building using the displacement flow method through pipes laid in the floor of the halls: this negates the noise typical of air conditioning devices. Also, the EMPAC Center has more than 8,000 nodes connected to CCNI - the world's largest university supercomputer.
