ALEPPO OPERA HOUSE - Promontorio
ALEPPO OPERA HOUSE - Promontorio
ALEPPO OPERA HOUSE - Promontorio
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<strong>ALEPPO</strong><br />
<strong>OPERA</strong> <strong>HOUSE</strong><br />
Aleppo city centre, Syria, 2010<br />
CULTURAL AND CIVIC<br />
Location Aleppo city centre, Syria<br />
Client Municipality of Aleppo<br />
Programme 1,600-seats opera, 500-seats theatre and city library<br />
Gross Construction Area 65,000 sq.m<br />
Plot Size 21,000 sq.m<br />
Estimated Investment USD 250M<br />
Project Status 2010 (shortlist competition/ pending results)<br />
Main entrance<br />
Presentation model<br />
www.promontorio.net
<strong>ALEPPO</strong> <strong>OPERA</strong> <strong>HOUSE</strong><br />
Aleppo city centre, Syria, 2010<br />
Presentation model<br />
Main foyer<br />
Theatre<br />
Opera Hall foyer<br />
Opera Hall<br />
Opera Hall audience<br />
Library reading hall<br />
Index/ Cafeteria hall facing Citadel<br />
www.promontorio.net
<strong>ALEPPO</strong> <strong>OPERA</strong> <strong>HOUSE</strong><br />
Aleppo city centre, Syria, 2010<br />
Library<br />
Theatre<br />
Opera Hall<br />
5th floor<br />
Open Portico<br />
Plot<br />
2nd floor<br />
Programatic<br />
diagram<br />
1st floor<br />
Presentation model<br />
Ground floor<br />
North facade<br />
Long section through Opera Hall<br />
www.promontorio.net
<strong>ALEPPO</strong> <strong>OPERA</strong> <strong>HOUSE</strong><br />
Aleppo city centre, Syria, 2010<br />
VOLUME<br />
Volume<br />
CARVED<br />
DOMES<br />
PORTICO<br />
VOLUME<br />
Portico<br />
volume<br />
SURFACE<br />
ENVELOPE<br />
CARVED<br />
PORTICO<br />
Carved<br />
portico<br />
TEXTURED<br />
SKIN<br />
CARVED<br />
PATIO<br />
Carved<br />
patio<br />
Opera Hall<br />
Theatre<br />
CARVED<br />
DOMES<br />
Carved<br />
domes<br />
SURFACE<br />
ENVELOPE<br />
Surface<br />
envelope<br />
FACADE PERSPECTIVE<br />
TEXTURED<br />
SKIN<br />
Textured<br />
skin<br />
GLASS<br />
SURFACE<br />
INTERIOR<br />
CLADDING<br />
FACADE CLOSE UP<br />
OUTER<br />
LAYER<br />
INNER LAYER<br />
(TILED WALL)<br />
REINFORCED<br />
CERAMIC TILES<br />
STEEL SUPPORT<br />
STRUCTURE<br />
G.R.C. PRE-CAST<br />
CONCRETE MODULE<br />
Formal diagram<br />
Facade diagram<br />
www.promontorio.net
<strong>ALEPPO</strong> <strong>OPERA</strong> <strong>HOUSE</strong><br />
Aleppo city centre, Syria, 2010<br />
Future Aleppo night view from the Citadel<br />
Under the portico<br />
General view<br />
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and<br />
regional capital of the most populous<br />
constituency (pop. 2,3M) in the Levant.<br />
For centuries, Aleppo was the 3rdlargest<br />
city of Ottoman Empire, after<br />
Constantinople and Cairo. Although<br />
relatively close to Damascus, it is<br />
distinct in identity, architecture and<br />
culture, shaped by a markedly different<br />
history and geography. The competition<br />
programme for the Opera House and<br />
City Library of the Municipality aims to<br />
celebrate the city as a unique canvas of the<br />
cultural, economic, religions and political<br />
interactions across centuries between the<br />
east of the Mediterranean, the Middle East<br />
and Europe.<br />
With more than 2 hectares and located<br />
in a major junction of Aleppo’s centre,<br />
–between the Great Mosque and the<br />
Fountain Square–, the plot has severe<br />
building restrictions. The massing follows<br />
almost mechanically the compliance with<br />
the planning constrains and programme<br />
requirements, namely the limitation of<br />
the building footprint to 45% of the plot.<br />
All this led to a simple and compact<br />
built form. In essence, a rectangular<br />
box within which the various functions<br />
share the same hall. A semi-transparent<br />
drapery of lace, or wickerwork, envelops<br />
the “box” behind the structural façade,<br />
using an evocative pattern of Aleppo’s<br />
historically celebrated motif of pistachio<br />
leaves and flower; a pattern whose<br />
intricate combinations recurrently migrate<br />
from the tradition of tapestry, ceramics<br />
and metal work into architecture. The idea<br />
of lightness and transparency behind this<br />
veiled box is further reinforced by the<br />
archway that evolves in a rising sequence<br />
touching the ground and finally merging<br />
with the dressing theme.<br />
Geometrically conceived as a structural<br />
grid of squares and cylinders intersected<br />
by arches and spherical domes, a vast<br />
open-air portico or pronaos, announces<br />
the entry to the building.<br />
The latter, conveying the ceremonial<br />
pathos and symbolic solemnity in<br />
accordance with the magnitude of<br />
this civic structure, is also spatially<br />
reminiscent of ambiance of Aleppo’s<br />
Souk, imparting the place a sense of being,<br />
rather that just passing through.<br />
The same principle of intersected<br />
archways follows through into the foyers<br />
in a unified sequence. The whole public<br />
space is therefore based in a threedimensional<br />
architectural grammar of<br />
Arab and Levantine influence, such as<br />
the transition from a monochromatic<br />
external surface in stone, to the white<br />
concrete and gold-leafed interior space.<br />
Inside, the Opera is an all-time classic<br />
auditorium with stalls, boxes and multilevel<br />
balconies, with its bulkheads in an<br />
acoustic gold-leafed pattern and a large<br />
central chandelier. The library seats on<br />
top of this theatre box, thereby concealing<br />
part of the volume of the stage tower and<br />
technical areas, simultaneously offering<br />
the opportunity for a landscaped rooftop<br />
courtyard.<br />
www.promontorio.net
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