Musical BinckCross

The project positions music making as a public event and how one can engage architecture with performing arts as an important part of civic life and urban milieu. A perceptual approach has been proposed to challenge the static image of present-day concert halls and the negative stereotype of Binckhorst, a former industrial suburb of The Hague.

Inspired by empiricist theories, the project acknowledges the role of sensation in shaping our spatial experiences and freeing architecture from its physical reading. It works with one’s movement in space to bring about variations in the perception of both architecture and the urban setting. It also reacts to the two historic heritage together with their greenscapes, which are currently subsumed under the homogeneous industrial fabrics of Binckhorst.\nThis drives the development of a series of processional sequences or programmatic splices stretching across two perpendicular axes in close proximity to a major trunk road. They serve to foster a explorative journey at the centre of Binckhorst along which residents, concertgoers, student and performing artists are exposed to different site-specific visual and auditory moments. They are expected to embark on a multi-sensorial adventure which radiates from a bustling pedestrian arcade to serene composition rooms, mysterious passageways, festive auditorium, intimate salon and playful roadside plazas. \nApart from the lines of movement ramifying across the building ground and corporealizing the architectural form, a multi-purpose artificial landscape is introduced to encourage an outward diffusion of internal events from the deconstructed concert hall volumes, blurring the boundaries between the exterior and the interior. It also augments and initiates a dialogue of the aforementioned green elements of Binckhorst. \nMost thematic segments are defined primarily by their skin of dyed extruded metal pipes, which not only bring about the dynamic atmospheric changes, but also improve the thermal and acoustical performance of the music venue without fully sacrificing its desired openness.\nUltimately, the proposal is meant to transcend its primary function as a niche event space and become a public node bridging the existing urban islands. In face of future residential development, it strives to add a tinge of color to the uniform streetscape and improves the accessibility of pedestrians in the area.