Tropicana Mar-Apr 2018 #117 Edge of Excitement

THE HOME
HAMBURG ELBPHILHARMONIE
Sat atop the Kaispeicher A, a 1960’s warehouse in the HafenCity quarter,
the ambitious Elbphilharmonie was, during its construction, the subject
of derision by Hamburg’s residents. Targeted to open in 2010, the Herzog
& De Meuron designed urban complex was four times over budget when
finally officiated in January 2017 six years behind schedule. But as proof
of the redemptive powers of art, design, culture and music, performances
at the Elbphi, as it’s now affectionately known, have been sold out since,
and its transformative space has attracted millions.
The building draws in its audience even from a distance. 108 metres
at its highest point, it is Hamburg’s tallest building, and has a rooftop of
surging waves that rise over the industrial waterfront like a charging
tsunami. Inside star architects Herzog & de Meuron apply a maze of
stairways, curved 80-metre escalator and dramatic foyer and curved glass
windows that frame the city to such impressive effect that it renders
the building’s residential complex and string of restaurants and cafes an
almost unnecessary diversion.
Not so Elbphi’s three performance spaces, which are are considered
to be among the world’s most acoustically advanced. Master acoustician
Yasuhisa Toyota (his Nagata Acoustics also worked on LA’s Walt Disney
Concert Hall) used 10,000 algorithmically designed gypsum fiber panels
to disperse sound waves in the 2,100 seater Great Concert Hall.
Combined with the hall’s vineyard arrangement, which puts performers
at the centre of attention and its audience no more than 100 feet away,
the result is not just parity in sounds and performance, but the kind of
precision engineered acoustics and clarity that could render a pin drop
audible.
47 MARCH/APRIL 2018 | TM