Casa da Musica, Portugal

摘要

Like an ungainly barge or lopsided spaceship, the abstract sculptural form of Rem Koolhaas's Casa da Musica has made a splashy landing in Porto, Portugal's second-largest city, overturning conventional ideas of concert-hall decorum with the Dutch architects' characteristically edgy sense of style. Designed to attract audiences of many different musical persuasions-from acid jazz and samba to classical symphonies-the project aims to be an international landmark that gives Porto a boost amid Portugal's current economic malaise. Posed in its own plaza beside a circular park that interrupts a grand avenue connecting the old city to the nearby Atlantic, the Casa da Musica starts upsetting conventions at the front door, offering a new take on the art of making a dramatic entrance. Located midway up the building's hull-like volume, at the top of a theatrically backlit stair with balustrades of frameless glass, the entry is a glass slot tilted at a rakish 45 degrees that slides open to let concertgoers inside. In the warped space of the hull, twisting runs of stairs and decks climb the outward-leaning walls past soaring angled structural elements to the concert hall, the building's calm center.