ARATA ISOZAKI: KYOTO CONCERT HALL

VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL

The Kyoto Concert Hall is adjacent to the Tadao Ando's Garden of Fine Arts. The Kyoto Concert Hall is the work of another internationally renowned Japanese figure, Arata Isozaki.

Isozaki, (1931 -) was a disciple of a Kenzo Tange, a master of the architecture in the 60s. Arata Isozaki has designed buildings in Asia, Europe and America, and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Yale. His work skillfully combines the sensibility of traditional Japanese architecture with Western postmodernism, innovating in the use and juxtaposition of materials, using eclectic details and blending elements of the past with technologically sophisticated details.


The Kyoto Concert Hall is a sample of his professional quality. It's a 5-storey building, planned to commemorate the 1200 anniversary of the founding of Kyoto city, opened in 1995 and since then dedicated to the dissemination of classical music, either instumental or choral.

Photo courtesy of D'Arne & Ming

The building houses two concert halls. The Main Hall, has a capacity of 1833 seats and the small hexagonal ensemble -designed for small concerts- contains 500 seats. In addition, it contains offices and large and spacious waiting rooms.

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Isozaki se plantea la difícil tarea de lograr una armónica fusión entre pasado y presente, en una ciudad de un patrimonio histórico tan rico como Kioto, ero lo hace sin adherirse a réplicas del pasado tradicional Japonés, ni mucho menos impostando una arquitectura occidental extraña. Isozaki faces the difficult task of achieving a harmonious fusion between past and present, in a city of rich historical heritage such as Kyoto. However, he does not literally copy traditional Japanese elements from the past, nor impose a strange Western architecture.

Plants of the Concert Hall

As Paul Goldberger,a critic from the New York Times, mentioned:

"the real fusion is not between cultures but between eras, between the acceptance of forms transmitted to us and those to come."

Isozaki's scheme, courtesy arcspace.com

La original combinación de Isozaki en la que amalgama ambos estilos, le permite hacer uso de un juego de volúmenes que le da gracia y elegancia a la obra, en la que la masividad ortogonal de la sala de conciertos se ve tamizada por el juego lúdico de unas pantallas curvas de cristal, que coquetean serpenteantes dando lugar a la fachada principal del edificio, el cual tiene la deferencia de retirarse del lindero de la calle, generando un atrio que permite su mejor contemplación. The original combination of amalgam Isozaki in which both styles, allows you to use a series of volumes that gives grace and elegance to the work, in which the massive orthogonal concert hall is screened by the playful game a curved glass screen, that flirt winding resulting in the building's main facade, which has the courtesy to leave the edge of the street, creating an atrium that allows better contemplation.

Llama la atención que el ingreso al recinto no se da por la fachada principal, sino por la lateral. It is noteworthy that entrance to campus is not given by the main facade, but by the side. Como recuerda el propio Isozaki, "hice la aproximación al edificio espacialmente compleja y difícil de entender espacialmente... la forma en que el Salón se alarga, doblándose en varias formas y ascendiendo en espiral. La aproximación a un templo de Kioto nunca es directa. Se dobla y curva. Esa es la técnica que usé para hacer que un pequño espacio parezca más extenso. Usé una técnica tridimensional, no bidimensional." As Isozaki himself recalls, "I made the approach to building spatially complex and difficult to understand spatially ... the way the room is extended, bent into various shapes and spiral upwards. The approach to a temple in Kyoto is never directly . It bends and curls. This is the technique I used to make a space seem larger small tarball. I used a three-dimensional, not two-dimensional. "

At the corner, a stunning sheer volume of conical shape is placed surrounded by clear, calm water. In its first floor the cone houses a French food restaurant (I do not recommend the Japanese style crepes), which can be accessed by a bridge over the water, designed by Isozaki as a remembrance to Japan's tradition. A few blocks of natural stone limit the pool, whose rough surface contrasts with the fine finishing details of the structure.

But the main function of this great black drum is hosting the Ensemble and ramps that lead to higher areas.Frank L. Wright had a similar idea at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Richard Meier did the same in his museum in Frankfurt: both developed their circulations as helical ramps that allow the access to the various levels. At its core, the helicoid houses a spectacular interior design.Its walls are not vertical, but tilted in the opposite direction to the generatrix of the cone, containing a series of twelve columns that evoke the Zodiac signs, symbols of ancient astrology.Its ceiling is a triangular net of cambered beams, while the design of the floor creates an optical illusion reminiscent of Escher's impossible perspectives.

There are large foyers, a prelude to the main hall and the Ensemble, ideal for post-concert gatherings.Here, Isozaki locates a series of suspended translucent glass partitions that protect the interior from the direct sunlight without interfering with its spectacular view of the nearby botanical garden and evoke the shoji or traditional Japanese screen made of paper and wood.


The main concert hall is a rectangular box, such as the one in the theaters in Boston or Vienna.

This space is the most exquisite one in the building, every detail in his wooden interior has been taken into account to provide comfort, lighting, acoustics during the performances.

It is sober, precise, and serene as a Japanese temple. The interior hosts an impressive organ of over 7000 tubes, which is the visual spot, perpendicular to the room's longitudinal axis.
The hexagonal Ensemble is designed for small concerts or chamber music and can accommodate 500 spectators.The entire lighting system is mounted on a triangular grid, arranged within an metallic ellipse, which Isozaki called a stellar constellation, and it appears to float as a spacecraft on top of the stage.


Here, in brief, polyphonic chorus will execute the soft notes of a traditional Japanese song. In time, the notes of aStrauss minuet coming from the flutes will float among the fine wooden lattice slats, which adorn the bottom of the space so delicately and graciously.

Click here to read the impressions on my visit to Kyoto Concert Hall

SEE ALSO:

CONCERT HALLS, ARENAS

• Kyoto Concert Hall. Arata Isozaki.
• Richmond Olympic Oval, Vancouver

"I made the approach complex and difficult to understand spatially... the way the Hall is long, bending in various ways and then spiralling upwards. the approach to a temple in Kyoto is never straight. It bends and turns. That is the technique used to make a small place seem more extensive. I use that technique three-dimensionally, not two-dimensionally."

Arata Isozaki. From arcspace.com