The House of Music and Musical Theater plays the role of one of the educational buildings, as well as the main stage of the city University of Music and Performing Arts.
For the head of the bureau, Ben van Berkel, this project, which took 10 years to complete, was especially important: the architect himself is a wonderful pianist and deeply involved in the musical environment, therefore it was a key task for him to reflect the musical "content" of the building in its formal solution.
In doing so, he relied on both the tradition of theatrical structures and the modern experience of Le Corbusier and Janis Xenakis. From the first design stage, the entire structure of the building was united by a “spring” - a horizontally located spiral, partly compressed, partly stretched, onto which separate functional spaces were “strung”. Later, it turned into a structural element that is not visible to the visitor. At the same time, this idea was formally continued by a "spiral" staircase leading from the foyer to the main hall with 450 seats and even higher to the music classes. The red color makes it stand out as a central element against the restrained colors of the building's interiors. From a technical point of view, this concrete volume is more complex than even the two spiral ramps of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart of the same UN Studio. The sculptural shape of the staircase is emphasized by favorable lighting - through the opening in the ceilings above it, taken away by wooden plates also arranged in a spiral.
Functionally, the "house of music" is divided into two zones: "box" and "blob". The first, on the right, is occupied by the theater space - a laconic black box-type hall, the second, the “movement zone”, is on the left and covers the foyer and other public spaces.
Also important for the project was the theme of repetition, "rehearsal". It is reflected in the design of the facade: behind the glass curtain walls, silk screens with stylized musical notes are stretched.
