Auditorium Padova
A place of music excavated in the presence of Giotto
When designing this Auditorium in Padua, a multipurpose centre of regional and national importance to host any type of musical performance, we were aware that this also meant creating a space for the city, a space for listening to and producing music throughout the year. There was no doubt this was a theme of great complexity. The Auditorium attracts both specialists and music lovers, but it is also a space for experimenting with new languages and encounter diverse cultures though social and recreational activities. Our design expresses a full understanding of the identity of the site and the surrounding urban landscape: it pays homage to Padua and to Giotto on the other side of the Piovego canal.
The new volumes are immersed in a water park created along the canal.
An artificial hill hosts the large 1,400-seat hall, surrounded by cycle paths, footpaths and mooring points for docks and floating vessels, transforming the site into a summer music park.
The large hall, the changing rooms, the rehearsal halls and technical spaces are thus partially below ground and accessible from the hall via stairs and ramps situated along the perimeter of the new building. The hall is finished in acoustic canvas panels, whose angles and thickness can be modified to provide ideal conditions for different types of performances. This “virtual” architecture dialogues with the “physicality” of the historic buildings. It respects the values of their scale, their rhythms and the rules of their composition.
Drawings
