Music School in Warsaw
The design of the new headquarters of Music School Complex No. 1 in Warsaw combines the old, neo-Gothic building of the former Orphanage House from 1901 with a new facility featuring a round concert hall with over 300 seats, designed in collaboration with outstanding Japanese acousticians from Nagata Acoustics.
The existing building, which is listed as a historic monument, consists of five floors, including one underground. It is intended for general education. This is where the administrative section, the majority of the back offices, and the kitchen are located.
In the center of the new, also five-story building, the concert hall is situated. Spaces for circulation and relaxation arranged around it lead to smaller concert rooms such as those for piano, organ, harpsichord, or chamber music. The new section also houses a library, parking, a set of educational rooms, a gymnasium, and other technical rooms. An internal garden was designed between the library and the concert hall. Both buildings are connected by a glazed atrium.
Particular attention is deserved by the concert hall located in the new part of the facility, which can accommodate 307 seats in the audience area and 70 seats on the stage. The hall is equipped with acoustic structures made of glued ash wood and stage mechanics. To ensure proper sound reflection, the ceiling was designed at a height of 14 meters in the form of a ceiling panel, which was thoroughly analyzed to ensure an even distribution of early reflections for the audience.
Around the stage, overhangs forming a right angle with the walls were designed. This measure ensures appropriate reflections of direct sound. The overhangs located at the rear of the hall are intended to prevent the return of sound reflected from that part of the ceiling toward the stage. Some of the overhangs at the rear will be covered with sound-absorbing materials. Between and above the massive acoustic structures, so-called sails, gaps have been planned that allow the connection of the concert hall’s volume with the surrounding space. These gaps provide additional volume enabling acoustic tuning of the hall.
At level +1, a control room with an acoustic window was designed. This allows the acoustic use of the rear wall just behind the stage. It was made using an openwork technique. Behind the openwork wall, retractable acoustic curtains invisible to the audience will be located. The hall was designed with fixed absorbing structures to ensure appropriate reverberation, as well as a proper balance between early reflections and late sound decay, and to prevent echo. Such structures were designed inside the concert hall on the lower planes of the overhangs and in the space surrounding the main interior of the hall, behind the sails.
In the facility, besides the large concert hall, there will be four smaller rooms:
- organ chamber hall (91 seats),
- large chamber hall (86 seats),
- small chamber hall (63 seats),
- teaching room (36 seats).
The Warsaw facility was designed by the office KONIOR Studio in cooperation with outstanding acousticians from Nagata Acoustics in Japan.
