Ostrava Concert Hall

The 1,300-seat concert hall for the city of Ostrava, Czech Republic, is the new home for the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, the leading Czech symphony orchestra. Established in 1954, the orchestra plays over fifty concerts in Ostrava annually, and frequently performs in international tours and festivals.

The new concert hall “jumps over” the existing House of Culture, preserving and renewing the original 20th-century, classical building. The new entrance hovers over a pedestrian esplanade. Its cantilevered steel structure invigorates the formerly vibrant industrial district and transports concert goers above the historic House of Culture into a new sky-lit lobby. The main concert hall is sited to face the existing park to the north, thereby minimizing noise from the boulevard to the south.

The concept of a “perfect acoustic instrument in its case” informs the new design. The main concert hall, organized in an extended vineyard type plan, is made of maple wood like a great violin and provides ideal acoustics. Architecture, like music, is an immersive experience. Therefore, this project showcases a 1:10 scale acoustic model of the future Ostrava Concert Hall, currently on display at the PLATO gallery. Built by Nagata Acoustics, the model was used for real-time acoustic testing. By emitting actual sounds into the model, acoustic specialists could simulate and fine-tune the reverberation, clarity, and spatial sound behavior before construction.

The model accurately replicates the geometry and materials of the future hall. It’s part of a long tradition of using physical acoustic models to ensure world-class acoustics in concert halls. The public can visit the model at PLATO and experience how the concert hall will sound.

Czech composer and namesake of the Philharmonic Leoš Janáček’s theories of time give order to the concert hall’s interior geometry. Acoustic wall panels are organized according to Scasovani, or rhythm, in three variants

1. Znící = sounding
2. Sčítací = counting
3. Sčelovací = summing

Sound-absorbing scratch coat plaster and raw crinkled concrete complement the sonic and haptic experience.

Efficient interconnections between the two structures allow the old and new to work in harmonic symbiosis. In addition to the new main hall of 1,300 seats, other venues include the theater hall (490 seats) and multifunctional chamber (515 seats). The education center (with a capacity of 200) and lecture multifunctional hall (120 seats) expand the Philharmonic’s educational and public programs. A recording studio, spaces for leisure activities and facilities, cafes, restaurants, and lounges further enrich visitor experience before and after the show.

Glass walls and skylights infuse the building with natural light and lessen reliance on nonrenewable energy. Visitors are embraced within a light-filled ambient environment that changes organically throughout the day and seasons. At night, the space casts soft light onto the esplanade and park.

The concert hall is geothermally heated and cooled via 120 wells. The new ecological architecture points to Ostrava’s future and is a driving force of the city’s strategic plan to revitalize public and cultural space in the city center while positioning Ostrava as a global music destination via a new iconic landmark for the Czech Republic.