Type
education, public

Source
open international competition

Client
Zespół Szkół Muzycznych w Poznaniu

Address/Site
Poznan, Poland

Site area
3.280 m2

Building area
2.180 m2

Total floor area
10.561 m2

Storeys
6

Program
concert hall, chamber hall, music classrooms

Structure
reinforced concrete

Cladding
glass with vertical and diagonal bars

Architect
SADAR+VUGA (Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Mirjam Milić, Jure Sadar, Gregor Turnšek, Aleš Iskra, Jan Žiher) & PEPES (Łukasz Sterzyński, Marcin Sucharski, Anna Brudzyńska, Magdalena Majewska, Aleksandra Jung), Acoustic consultant: David T. Staples; Theatre Projects Counsultants – London

Our proposal for the MSP aims to set up a new type of a music studyscape, where teaching and learning music is interwoven with a public music performance. A clear spatial organization of four main levels of the school provides attractive and stimulating learning and study environment, two fully equipped performing halls satisfy the highest standards of a wide range of music events and a large round spectating staircase connects a foyer on the entrance level with lobbies and waiting areas on each floor. From here, an 8-like shaped circulation develops which surrounds the two halls on the lower floors and the two atriums on the upper ones.

The MSP is developed from the interior. Two solid enclosed volumes of performing halls define two parts of the entire building. As their spatial counterpart, two light open atriums are developed on top of them. A circulation space around the atriums is shaped as an echo of the round volumes of the halls. The perimeter of a slab of each floor continues the principle of echoing and offsetting, leading to the a distinctive appearance of two parts on all floors, the northern part with the small hall and the small atrium and the southern one, with the large hall and the large atrium, connected with interstitial lobbies. The floors seem to be freely stacked one on top the other. Stacking of the floors allows for affiliation with the immediate context: namely, each floor adapts to different conditions of the surroundings, such as enhancing the ‘open corner’ at the top of 28 Czerwca 1956 street providing a canopy above the entrance plaza, or simply touching the MSP building with the existing blind walls on the southern part.

The MSP’s interior is organized in a way that the public character of the building smoothly transits to more private or individual throughout the height of the building. There are big public performances in the concert hall on the entrance level, combined with exhibition front of the chamber hall. The canteen is open during the day for students and teachers and in the evening for public concerts. The first level is where the school actually starts, and continues up to the 2nd and the 3rd level. But what makes the MSP interior unique are spatial situations, a little surprises, which trigger our will to explore the school. There are little niches around the concert hall on the first floor, from which one can take a peak to see the performers. In walls of the corridors benches and lockers for instruments are embedded. The big atrium can open through one of the rehearsals room and connects to the lobby on the 2nd floor. In warmer days, the music atrium can host small concerts, poetry recitals and presentations. It is a paraphrase of the courtyards of traditional music conservatoriums. The small atrium is on the other hand a quieter place, a garden for studying. The lobby on each floor is opened to the east and the west side defining entrances bays on both sides of the building.

The new MSP volume is conceived as an almost self-standing, a particular building which smoothly negotiates with its own urban context. Along the street, a wide platform extends from the corner, emphasizing the importance of the building in the urban environment. The volume is structured and stacked and therefore it appears lighter, dynamic and almost abstract. The envelope of each level is a continuous belt, articulating the structuration of the volume. The levels appear as being sawn with a set of coloured shading bars, which in the rhythm of dense and scarce zones wrapped around the entire building. They are positioned in front of the reflective glazed windows. The colour diversity, the rhythm of the wooden bars, together with a reflection of the windows creates a joyful, fresh and attractive appearance of the school in this part of Poznan. Due to the coloured bars of the envelope the building appearance is constantly changing, depending on our distance and viewing angle, creating a strong visual reference to music. The stacked slabs of the building seem like as suspended by coloured strings.