Herzog & de Meuron
Project
2000-2001
Construction
2001

Two concert halls were designed and constructed as a temporary location for New Music – right in the middle of Hall 5 of the Basel Trade Fair. Several works a day by contemporary composers could be heard throughout November, performed by some of the most renowned ensembles and orchestras in Europe. Contemporary artistic creation peaked at an international level slap bang in the middle of Kleinbasel – almost non-stop around the clock! The doors of the Paul Sacher-Halle were open during the day as well, to see rehearsals, workshops and other opportunities to communicate music. And of course the hall was intended as a meeting point for musicians, music-lovers and those who wanted to become aficionados.

The concert-hall was a magical creation, built of light – its function was to conjure an atmosphere in which the audience was attuned to the coming concert, to transport them to another world in the minutes preceding the first note and to focus all concentration at precisely the right moment and to the exclusion of all else onto the musicians. And then to sound good.

The other part of the Paul Sacher-Halle remained one unbroken space. Several layers of coloured, semi-transparent curtains separated the bar and the foyer from the “salle modulable” – this part of the hall and the materials employed in it were designed for performances of electronic music. The configuration of musicians and audience changed with each event. All in all, a place where contemporary music and architecture combined to strengthen each other, in which maybe some visitors discovered this music as a constant companion to their future lives. And that was the goal of the European Month of Music, to bring New Music closer to us, during November 2001.

Herzog & de Meuron, 2001

188_CP_0112_709_RW
188_CP_0112_709_RW
188_CP_0112_714_RW
188_CP_0112_714_RW
188_CP_0112_712_RW
188_CP_0112_712_RW
188_CP_0112_727_RW
188_CP_0112_727_RW

Drawings

188_DR_0112_500
188_DR_0112_500
188_DR_0110_501
188_DR_0110_501
188_DR_0109_500_hall
188_DR_0109_500_hall
188_DR_0109_501
188_DR_0109_501
188_DR_0109_502
188_DR_0109_502

Team

Project Team
JĂĽrgen Johner (Associate, Project Architect)
Diana Garay (Project Architect)
Matthieu Brutsaert
Peter Taylor

Facts

Client
European Month of Music
Planning
Architect Planning: Herzog & de Meuron, Basel, Switzerland
Construction Management: Stahl – & Traumfabrik, Zurich, Switzerland
HVAC Engineering: Waldhauser Haustechnik, MĂĽnchenstein, Switzerland
General Contractor: Stahl – & Traumfabrik, Zurich, Switzerland
Specialist / Consulting
Acoustics Consulting: BBM MĂĽller, Munich, Germany
Building Data
Gross floor area (GFA): 40'902 sqft, 3'800 sqm

Bibliography

“Herzog & de Meuron. Natural History.” Edited by: Philip Ursprung. Exh. Cat. “Herzog & de Meuron. Archaeology of the Mind.” Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. 23 October 2002 – 6 April 2003. 2nd ed. Baden, Lars MĂĽller, 2005.

Fernando Márquez Cecilia, Richard Levene (Eds.): “El Croquis. Herzog & de Meuron 1998-2002. La Naturaleza del Artificio. The Nature of Artifice.” Vol. No. 109/110, Madrid, El Croquis, 2002.