Nichtoffener Wettbewerb | 06/2014
Arvo Pärt Centre / Arvo Pärdi Keskuse
©OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
A house has many rooms
Sonderpreis
Preisgeld: 2.000 EUR
OFFICE KGDVS Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Architektur
Erläuterungstext
Architects: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Structural engineer: Bollinger + Grohmann
Technical engineer: Transsolar
Acoustical engineer: Daidalos Peutz
Landscape: Bureau Bas Smets
A HOUSE HAS MANY ROOMS
The new Arvo Pärt Centre is located in a marvellous place near Kellasalu.
This elegant, dense stretch of forest is a datum where the silence of nature presents itself to one who engages with it. The centre brings in a set of harmonies related to the site. Symmetrical and loose, it presents a compact way to inhabit this beautiful stretch of nature.
The Arvo Pärt Centre is conceived as a set of rooms of different sizes that are developed in a harmonic system of related measurements. The rooms have increasing length, width and height. The growing and developing plan thus creates a field of closely connected spaces, each with a unique relationship to the surrounding nature and the other rooms close by.
The incremental measuring system of the rooms give the possibility to define both enclosed and intimate spaces as grand rooms that allow good sound management and a clarity in performance. The relative measurements of the room sizes is related to their height, thus making spaces with precise proportions.
The enclosing wooden walls interrelate with each other and the landscape through a classic system of openings. On top of the walls a glass surface makes the roof, it relates each of the rooms directly to the sky under the trees. The little light which reaches the the centre is thus captured with maximum effect. Potentially all rooms look to the sky. In a framework this ethereal, it is important to measure tenderness and warmth and for that reason the layers between roof and room - beams, velum or also simply closed - creates intimate spaces where one can regress from the direct impact of nature and sky.
The rooms are connected to each other through enfillade openings. The openings connect rooms with radically different qualities. Small rooms can be warm and cosy, close to a fire place, while overall the bigger sizes make spaces of relentless rigour and power.
The Arvo Pärt Centre is both grand and intimate and seeks a pure and direct relationship with the forest and the trees. Hence the rooms are built from massive wood walls - a pure and simple construction method that makes an authentic and direct relationship with the field of pine trees. The wooden walls give each of the trees a frame for interrelation, a position. At the same time, the wooden walls make places of concentration; they define through their position and relative size a specific opportunity and function for each room.
The notion of relative lightness - of the wooden walls - is countered, one could say anchored, by the weight of chimneys. The set of chimneys define points of gravity in the developing plan. These anchor-points are crucial, as they give direction in the open system of the rooms. The chimneys and fireplaces give massivity, warmth and orientation to the rigour or the plan.
The set of developing rooms act as foyer spaces and shared spaces - the most common spaces of this small university. In the rooms that work as winter gardens the trees are kept to create an ambivalent set of spaces; half room, half garden, half enfillade. In other rooms the glass roof is omitted, creating patios of different sizes throughout the plan. These patios are important punctures of direct nature in the house of many rooms. They relate the Centre at the core with its direct environment, the forest.
The family of rooms of the new Arvo Pärt Centre is both experimental as it is highly traditional. It is our belief that only this way we can give tribute to a body of music that represents the same values. Architecture should never be too oppressive, but a gentle organiser of the space available. The Arvo Pärt Centre is a unique place; part university, part house of music, part place to work and life, part a place to visit. Only the simplest of plans is able to accommodate this all. For that reason the Arvo Pärt Centre is the most evident of places one can imagine. But it is precisely because of that, because of its gentle symmetry and repetitions, that it is possible for the cultural life to unfold. The Arvo Pärt Centre is a set of organising principles; a set of measurements, a gentle repetition of conditions, the Arvo Pärt Centre is a House of Many Rooms.
Structural engineer: Bollinger + Grohmann
Technical engineer: Transsolar
Acoustical engineer: Daidalos Peutz
Landscape: Bureau Bas Smets
A HOUSE HAS MANY ROOMS
The new Arvo Pärt Centre is located in a marvellous place near Kellasalu.
This elegant, dense stretch of forest is a datum where the silence of nature presents itself to one who engages with it. The centre brings in a set of harmonies related to the site. Symmetrical and loose, it presents a compact way to inhabit this beautiful stretch of nature.
The Arvo Pärt Centre is conceived as a set of rooms of different sizes that are developed in a harmonic system of related measurements. The rooms have increasing length, width and height. The growing and developing plan thus creates a field of closely connected spaces, each with a unique relationship to the surrounding nature and the other rooms close by.
The incremental measuring system of the rooms give the possibility to define both enclosed and intimate spaces as grand rooms that allow good sound management and a clarity in performance. The relative measurements of the room sizes is related to their height, thus making spaces with precise proportions.
The enclosing wooden walls interrelate with each other and the landscape through a classic system of openings. On top of the walls a glass surface makes the roof, it relates each of the rooms directly to the sky under the trees. The little light which reaches the the centre is thus captured with maximum effect. Potentially all rooms look to the sky. In a framework this ethereal, it is important to measure tenderness and warmth and for that reason the layers between roof and room - beams, velum or also simply closed - creates intimate spaces where one can regress from the direct impact of nature and sky.
The rooms are connected to each other through enfillade openings. The openings connect rooms with radically different qualities. Small rooms can be warm and cosy, close to a fire place, while overall the bigger sizes make spaces of relentless rigour and power.
The Arvo Pärt Centre is both grand and intimate and seeks a pure and direct relationship with the forest and the trees. Hence the rooms are built from massive wood walls - a pure and simple construction method that makes an authentic and direct relationship with the field of pine trees. The wooden walls give each of the trees a frame for interrelation, a position. At the same time, the wooden walls make places of concentration; they define through their position and relative size a specific opportunity and function for each room.
The notion of relative lightness - of the wooden walls - is countered, one could say anchored, by the weight of chimneys. The set of chimneys define points of gravity in the developing plan. These anchor-points are crucial, as they give direction in the open system of the rooms. The chimneys and fireplaces give massivity, warmth and orientation to the rigour or the plan.
The set of developing rooms act as foyer spaces and shared spaces - the most common spaces of this small university. In the rooms that work as winter gardens the trees are kept to create an ambivalent set of spaces; half room, half garden, half enfillade. In other rooms the glass roof is omitted, creating patios of different sizes throughout the plan. These patios are important punctures of direct nature in the house of many rooms. They relate the Centre at the core with its direct environment, the forest.
The family of rooms of the new Arvo Pärt Centre is both experimental as it is highly traditional. It is our belief that only this way we can give tribute to a body of music that represents the same values. Architecture should never be too oppressive, but a gentle organiser of the space available. The Arvo Pärt Centre is a unique place; part university, part house of music, part place to work and life, part a place to visit. Only the simplest of plans is able to accommodate this all. For that reason the Arvo Pärt Centre is the most evident of places one can imagine. But it is precisely because of that, because of its gentle symmetry and repetitions, that it is possible for the cultural life to unfold. The Arvo Pärt Centre is a set of organising principles; a set of measurements, a gentle repetition of conditions, the Arvo Pärt Centre is a House of Many Rooms.
Beurteilung durch das Preisgericht
A House Has Many Rooms charmed the jury with being the most unexpected solution for the room programme. At first sight it seemed purely conceptual and experimental - it then turned out to be very authentic and thought through functionally as well acoustically. The simple and geometrical room plan based on symmetry and repetitions gently organises the diverse functions of the centre, being a unique entity and modest background at the same time. The jury found that the room plan’s concept was also its Achilles’ heel - with many rooms being through-rooms, as well as only outside rooms having direct light sources. All internal rooms rely on light sources from the roof or from internal courtyard rooms. The glass roof is a beautiful idea overall but raises the question of heating practicalities as well as maintenance within the forest canopy and in the Estonian climate. The jury loves the idea of getting rid of all corridors and welcomes this bold idea as a kind of a critique of the specified room layout. There are also specific and interesting solutions to energy efficiency, such as using a biomass-based heating system.
©OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
©OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
©OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
©OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
©OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
©OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen