Luxembourg Philharmonie
2005
Photo · Photo by Wade Zimmerman
A precedent for civic and cultural facades utilizing a dense, screen-like colonnade of slender white columns to wrap an elliptical volume, creating a porous threshold between the public plaza and the interior foyer.
- What we like about this project
- A faceted glass structure emerges like a crystalline landform from the base of the main elliptical volume.
Materials
- steel
- glass
- concrete
- stone-paving
Visual identifiers
- vertical-colonnade
- elliptical-facade
- cantilevered-canopy
- monumental-stairs
- white-columns
Style tags
- expressive-modernism
- monumental
- structural-expressionism
Visual tags
- civic-architecture
- concert-hall
- porous-facade
- monumental
- curvilinear
- urban-plaza
- Geometry
- An elliptical, curved building envelope wrapped in a dense screen of slender vertical columns. The roof forms a sweeping, cantilevered canopy that tapers at the edges, while a faceted, triangular glazed volume emerges from the base.
- Facade system
- Colonnade screen facade with a recessed glass curtain wall behind.
- Structural guess
- Steel-framed columns supporting a cantilevered steel-truss roof canopy.
- Spatial scale
- Grand civic scale, with the main colonnade rising several stories high above a wide, low-rise monumental staircase.
- Lighting
- Overcast, foggy daylight that diffuses the sky, softening the shadows and highlighting the pure white surfaces of the colonnade and canopy.
- Atmosphere
- A serene, ethereal atmosphere created by the combination of pure white architecture and dense, soft fog.
- Environmental context
- Set on an elevated stone-paved plaza, flanked by modern mid-to-high-rise office blocks in a dense urban district.
- Spatial experience
- The building presents a monumental yet porous screen to the public plaza, where the dense colonnade filters views of the interior foyer, creating a sense of anticipation and layered depth.
- Composition rhythm
- A rapid, repeating vertical rhythm of white columns that curves across the horizontal field of view.
- Style reading
- Late-twentieth-century expressive modernism
- Program
- Concert hall or philharmonic building
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- steel, glass, concrete, stone-paving
- Visual identifiers
- vertical-colonnade, elliptical-facade, cantilevered-canopy, monumental-stairs, white-columns
- Style tags
- expressive-modernism, monumental, structural-expressionism
- Visual tags
- civic-architecture, concert-hall, porous-facade, monumental, curvilinear, urban-plaza
- Geometry
- An elliptical, curved building envelope wrapped in a dense screen of slender vertical columns. The roof forms a sweeping, cantilevered canopy that tapers at the edges, while a faceted, triangular glazed volume emerges from the base.
- Facade system
- Colonnade screen facade with a recessed glass curtain wall behind.
- Structural guess
- Steel-framed columns supporting a cantilevered steel-truss roof canopy.
- Spatial scale
- Grand civic scale, with the main colonnade rising several stories high above a wide, low-rise monumental staircase.
- Lighting
- Overcast, foggy daylight that diffuses the sky, softening the shadows and highlighting the pure white surfaces of the colonnade and canopy.
- Atmosphere
- A serene, ethereal atmosphere created by the combination of pure white architecture and dense, soft fog.
- Environmental context
- Set on an elevated stone-paved plaza, flanked by modern mid-to-high-rise office blocks in a dense urban district.
- Spatial experience
- The building presents a monumental yet porous screen to the public plaza, where the dense colonnade filters views of the interior foyer, creating a sense of anticipation and layered depth.
- Composition rhythm
- A rapid, repeating vertical rhythm of white columns that curves across the horizontal field of view.
- Style reading
- Late-twentieth-century expressive modernism
- Program
- Concert hall or philharmonic building
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture