The Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall is a significant landmark project for the City of Belgrade and Serbia. The project is the biggest cultural investment in the region for decades, positioned on an important site with an incredibly rich history – next to the Palace of Serbia, at the confluence of two great European rivers and overlooking the wilderness of Great War Island. It is an extraordinary demonstration of Belgrade’s ambitious vision for its future.
The landscape of the River Danube and the parkland setting is our starting point. Using water to reflect the building and surrounding nature evokes the marshland that originally allowed the Serbian people to flourish here. Re-wilding the park as a setting for the new Concert Hall sends a progressive message about the need to transform our cities and make them greener, cleaner and more beautiful. Now more than ever, the tensions between nature and cities must be reconciled. We do this here by imagining the Belgrade Concert Hall as an expression of harmony. Harmony between building and landscape, between east and west, between old and new, between generations and between cultures.
The Concert Hall comprises four main venues – a large performance hall, recital hall, creative hub and podium stage – each with a different character, celebrating different musical genres, attracting different audiences and encouraging diverse activities. The four venues encircle a social space that forms the heart of the Belgrade Concert Hall, with shared back of house facilities positioned below the newly created town square. Through this arrangement, we create a building with no front and no back resulting in an architectural panorama. The building and the new shared social space at its heart gather under a draping canopy that spans each venue, resting softly in between. Through this expressive form, the building speaks of the movement of music. The materiality of this envelope will create a rippling effect that mirrors the dappled waters of the River Danube, reflecting the changing landscape through the seasons, and signalling a new monument of culture.
