The results of the work of the jury of the open competition were announced on September 25, the projects of eight participants in the first stage of the competition, including the works of the winner and two prize-winners, were published on the website of the Ministry of Culture of the Sverdlovsk Region. The competition was open, international, 47 consortia participated in it. As a result, the top three were British bureau Zaha Hadid Architects, Italians Alvisi Kirimoto Partners S. R. L. and the Hungarian studio Robert Gutowsky Architects. For the construction, which is planned to be completed within 5 years, it is promised to allocate 300 million rubles from the regional budget.
Now the concert hall of the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic is located in a 1910 building with large windows and columns on Karl Liebknecht Street in the center of the historic city. Behind it there is a miniature park called Weiner's Garden, which is almost uncomfortable. In the same quarter with a total area of 4.5 hectares there is also the educational theater of YSTU and the Agrarian Academy. The new building should include the old one, located to the north, including on the site of a 5-storey residential building and part of Weiner's garden. Of course, the entire site will require improvement - underground passages and parking lots with exploited roofs will have to appear, it is also planned to reconstruct roads and recreate the facades of two old mansions.
It is worth noting that the final choice of the project for implementation, despite the fact that the winner has been named, has yet to be made - a special competitive commission takes a month to thoroughly analyze the projects-winners for their feasibility and suitability for operation in the Ural climate. In the meantime, we show all three options.
First place
Zaha Hadid Architects, SPEECH, theater projects, OVI, Optimize, Marshall Day Acoustics, atelier ten, Arteza, akt II
Philharmonic
consortium Zaha Hadid looks like a blue whale, whose giant "muzzle" is turned towards Liebknecht Street. The building occupies a significant part of the Weiner's garden, "embraces" the historical buildings of the Philharmonic Society and ESTU. The flat horizontal roof swells in two places: above the main hall and above the second, smaller one. The second hall is interesting in that the authors envisioned a glass wall behind its stage, facing towards Weiner's garden.
Of course, the main association with this project is wave, sound. And the jury praised the metaphor. The architects did not pursue the goal of visually merging with the existing environment. On the contrary, they aimed to create a building that draws all the attention to itself. However, the new philharmonic society does not live on its own - it actively interacts with the city and, which is typical for ZHA projects, mathematically precisely fits into the context.
Second place
Alvisi Kirimoto Partners S. R. L., TA. R. I-Architects
The pathos of the project lies in the urbanistic integration of the new building, “turning no-place into place”. The authors, according to them, offer the city an opportunity to "enter the project", moreover, involving the historic building of the Philharmonic. To make the park public and accessible to pedestrians, “to return the natural essence of the site” and “to give Yekaterinburg a new city landmark” - these were the tasks set by the Italian architects.
The building of the concert hall itself is located far into the depths of the site, in front of it from the street side is a covered public square - it occupies about the same spot as the theater.
The architects paid the closest attention to acoustics. The work with forms was subordinated to the goal of achieving the effect of complete immersion of the listeners in sound.
Third place
Robert Gutowski Architects, Gade & Mortensen Acoustics, Arato Acoustics
The project is built on the principle of "beauty in simplicity" - not only because simple and clear forms are elegant and always relevant, but also because the project implementation budget does not imply pretentiousness. However, the building cannot be called boring. You can look into it without going inside - through the transparent golden fabric of the facade.
The shoe box shape chosen by the architects is traditional for concert halls and provides good acoustics and is also economical compared to, for example, arena halls. The box usually has drawbacks, such as poor visibility from the side balconies or poor audibility in the back rows - here, according to the authors, these problems have been taken into account and resolved (not in vain there are two acoustic companies in the consortium).