The city, badly damaged by the earthquake in the spring of 2009, is known for its developed musical culture. The idea to build a new - temporary - concert hall there so that these traditions would not be interrupted came to the Japanese government shortly after the natural disaster.
The design was entrusted to Shigeru Ban, one of the world's largest experts in "disaster architecture". Having refused the fee, the architect not only designed the new hall, but also thought over the project implementation process so that the Italian state did not have to allocate either money or workers (architecture students had to build, funding was provided by benefactors and the Japanese authorities).
But the confusion characteristic of Italy forced the construction to be postponed and the project scaled down. But last month the Paper Concert Hall did open with a festive concert; the conductor was Tomomi Nishimoto.
The building is a rectangular volume, the roof of which rests on cardboard formwork - Ban's favorite material (they form 44 pillars placed around the perimeter). Inside there is an oval hall for 230 seats; its walls are made of sacks of ballast. Occupying an area of 700 m2, the structure can be easily disassembled and moved to another location: this will be done as soon as a new, already permanent concert hall appears in L'Aquila.
