September 21st, 2008

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Architects Future Systems have been commissioned to design a new concert and congress centre at České Budějovice in the Czech Republic.

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The centre is named after Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.

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Here’s some info from Future Systems:

Just out side of Prague in the town of Ceske Budejovice a new Concert and Congress Centre has been designed by the Future Systems team headed by Jan Kaplicky. The new centre is named after one of the Czech Republic’s most famous composers Antonin Dvorak, and is to be built on an old military site, showing the Czech commitment to a cultural agenda.

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The unique design will be the centrepiece for a new development and will encompass both cultural and commercial spaces. The cultural space and grand entrance is a wonderfully light and open space constituted from restaurant areas, café lounges, dancing floors and the music halls.

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The two concert halls, seating a 1000 people in the philharmonic music hall and 400 in the chamber music hall, are of a completely new breed in architecture. For the first time in musical design a large and elegant rear window behind the musicians will be carved out to allow for spectacular views in to the park behind the building. Each hall is formed of sensual free form curves that manage to combine aesthetic beauty with outstanding acoustic quality that is only enhanced by the ‘eye’ window concept.

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As the home of the Ceske Budejovice philharmonic orchestra the design will achieve an exquisite blend between and culture and music with the utmost sensitivity and understanding of every user and does so while maintaining a thrilling narrative, as is true of all one off Future Systems projects.

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Posted by Marcus Fairs

60 Responses to “Antonín Dvořák Concert and Congress Centre
by Future Systems”

  1. giraffet Says:

    Great architecture and section plans are iteresting, too.

  2. alex Says:

    horrible version of zaha hadid architecture…….it looks cheap

  3. Quillasophink Says:

    Why does this remind me of speakers by JBL… I’m thinking of the Creature II…hmm

  4. DN3 Says:

    Nice interiors, ugly exteriors!

  5. austerlitz Says:

    “For the first time in musical design a large and elegant rear window behind the musicians will be carved out to allow for spectacular views in to the park behind the building.”

    umm, excuse me? can anyone say Casa da Musica Porto?

    In any case, I find it curious how so few of Futuresystems renderings include any kind of meaningful context. I know Ceske Budejovice quite well but I have no idea where this project is from any of the views. Also, the main hall has this strange feeling like a gymnasium with bleachers. No sense of intimacy in that space whatsoever which I think is quite a key feature of a hall meant for classical music, no?

  6. sylvie Says:

    this seems like something that we’ll look back on and laugh at.

  7. White Paper Says:

    Uhhh that’s ugly….Gone are the days when Future Systems was designing extraordinary buildings like Media Center, Selfridges or Maserati Museum…..It’s just all becoming too grotesque and without any elegance or coherence….retro-future I’d say…..

  8. pop Says:

    some architects should never be commissioned for anything.. its never a challenge for them.

  9. Jamie Says:

    Along with Zaha Hadid, Herzog & De Meuron, and UN Studios, Future Systems should be considered one of the most important contributors to architecture of the 21st century.

  10. jed_ Says:

    so far beyond grotesque. it’s a joke.

  11. edin Says:

    If it’s going to be opened during the show, I think local pranksters will love “elegant rear window behind the musicians”.

  12. mama Says:

    I’m laughing out loud already.

  13. daniel king Says:

    looks like a total disaster ugly interios ugly color and the out side look lika a alien

  14. bojana v. Says:

    truly bad ripoff of z. hadid….

  15. yimyim Says:

    *yawn*

  16. Tyler Says:

    I just don’t know.

  17. R Says:

    Indeed strange that they mention the glass concept as a first timer. Furthermore, this is just Teletubbies design. I did not expect the future to look so dated.

  18. oddjob Says:

    hopefully not going to be built

  19. JuiceMajor² Says:

    You can almost tell that is Future System. Ok when I was in uni I thought their architecture was pretty radical but that Selffridges building is just vile if you look at it today! 20 years from now, people will just hate it like they hate the brutalist architecture.

    No to future!

  20. JuiceMajor² Says:

    They might do better in the product design if creating fancy shapes is what they are into!

  21. dariusz Says:

    I know I’d get slaughtered in Architecture school if I showed something like this.. structure? thin little poles?

  22. yancanchan Says:

    In reply to austerlitz’s comment on the rear window… Casa da Musica Porto has a curved undulating rear window that you can see light out of but no VIEWS, which is what the article points out!!!!

    As for the context, you could have a point, but there could be any number of reasons for future systems not publishing images in context.

    I think this project is amazing and am a constant admirer of Future Systems

  23. tereza Says:

    >alex - not horrible version of zaha hadid architecture it is Kaplicky’s horrible version of his project “New Building of the National Library of the Czech Republic” in Prague.
    http://www.archiweb.cz/buildings.php?type=9&action=show&id=1147

  24. fluid Says:

    amzing!

  25. corbs Says:

    Think that internal colour should have been a warmer colour but the over all design is quite impressive. I know some of the guys that work on this and got to see the structure which is very light weight aluminium and is based on aviation technology

  26. sahara Says:

    Dariusz, you should look at the Johnson wax building by Frank Lloyd Wright and then you should reconsider your comment as you clearly seem to not have a very open mind! The columns, introduced a diagonal steel reinforcing mesh that was criticized by planners and some engineers until they held up 6 times their supposed maximum load!

  27. Suppe Says:

    Well, then look Niemeyer’s Ibirapuera Auditorium, in Sao Paulo, with a huge window opened to the beautiful view of the park behind the musicians - http://www.arcoweb.com.br/arquitetura/arquitetura634.asp

  28. sahara Says:

    suppe, you defiantly have a point about the existence of an open window in an Auditorium but this has been translated in to a concert hall. I have personally worked on a concert hall and know how hard it is to maintain quality acoustics, so you have to realise that double curves and a large open glazed span in back impresses me quite allot!

  29. hateit Says:

    ugly shit - cheap and dump

  30. kumakuma Says:

    what is going on here?

    it seems the structure is the least of this building’s problems. may i also say that the ‘thrown pizza dough’ exterior roof structure is a far less extraordinary yet blatant copy of toyo ito’s kakamigahara crematorium.

  31. rodger Says:

    great building if one is housing the cartoon network or if one is an animated character like daffy duck.

  32. runningforasthma Says:

    Teletubbies architecture.

  33. sahara Says:

    Kumakuma, you are quite wrong about the blatant copy of Toyo Ito’s kakamigahara unless you are saying that a probable influence is a copy??? and then you are slating all architects everywhere!!
    The crematorium is a thin concrete structure that has a continues flow from roof to (Hollow) columns, where as the congress and concert hall is separated from its structure by a clearly deliberate use of different materials, (as shown by the metal columns) there by creating a floating roof sensation.
    In my opinion your wrong about the project being copied!

  34. hendrix Says:

    These guys are funny, their designs are HORRIBLE!!!!!
    What a joke, hahahaha!!!!

  35. One Says:

    Future systems goes on. Nothing built so far, what is wrong?

  36. vb Says:

    “For the first time in musical design a large and elegant rear window behind the musicians will be carved out to allow for spectacular views in to the park behind the building.”

    It´s not the first time that such a thing like that happens.
    Please visit the Grande Auditório of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, and you may have the luck to see the rear window behind the musicians open. The view is great and it´s also to a park.
    Both building and park were built in 1969.

  37. charles Says:

    GUYS!! why arent anyone noticing?!
    This is like, their 1st design that is NOT phallic or vag…..

    well, I do see a big hole…

  38. eduardo Says:

    Poor Dvorak!!!
    Can you imagine having to listen to his beautiful Cello Concerto in this horrible surroundings…
    Call the Al-Kaeda!!!

  39. jem's Says:

    guys guys guys it seems like there is alot of animosity toward this building… yet how many of you have ever produced any peice of work that is news worthy? my guess is NONE!

  40. architektonina Says:

    it just looks like plastic.

  41. jakb Says:

    I like the black surface. Too much “bubbles” inside, maybe. But still good and interesting/exciting architecture. For some…irritant. See another (and better) pictures here:

    http://aktualne.centrum.cz/czechnews/foto.phtml?gid=7658&id=210639

  42. shmandrea Says:

    looks like the cheese. it’d be like listening to music inside a giant block of cheddar sitting on a cheese-it. this could be my idea of heaven.

  43. flaig Says:

    reminds me of dr eugene tsui’s work , which frankly i find terrifying in a buck rogers sort of way.

  44. martincho cho Says:

    future systems sayes: “every city in the world should have a tent!!! “

  45. Jomark Osabel Says:

    Cool and chic design. How about the acoustic characteristics of the building.

  46. dedee Says:

    I was really impressed when I went to this link posted by Jakb, there are axonometric full model renders and model photographs.
    Really liked the axon!!!!

  47. technorama Says:

    model photograph is amazing!

  48. Erik Says:

    At least the clerestory absorbs a natural context.

  49. Stanimir Says:

    Well I like the window in the concert hall looking to the outside, but the rest is really shit

  50. Stefan Says:

    hhmmm…. there are some serious spatial qualitites inside thsi building… but why do they show those cheap looking renderings? i guess this thing built with the right materials could be great… the spaces and rooms are beautiful… forget about the palstic and the colours please…

  51. esa Says:

    it looks like another futuristic concept, which cannot be a bad thing.
    love organic shapes

  52. Lubos Says:

    Why in Ceske Budejovice? I absolutely agree with the following article:

    http://blog-en.pierre-arnaud-dablemont.com/new-hall-for-ceske-budejovice-148

    There is actually no modern concert hall in Prague. Ceske Budejovice is not “Just out side of Prague” but it’s 2 hours by car and 3 by train!

  53. Daniel Says:

    I love future systems work, the ark its one of my all favorites non built projects, but lately its designs look like something melting, and really cartoony, i miss the more space age aproach of the early days.

  54. ariel Says:

    grat!!!!

    shiny and ugly es hell

    were they got their architectural degree? hollywood?

  55. maama Says:

    it is quite weak

  56. Costa Nóbrega Says:

    CASA DA MÚSICA - Rem Koolhaas

    For the guy who said Casa da Música had no views…. take a look at the this picture, or visit yourself the building:

    http://www.casadamusica.com/imagedownload.aspx?schema=097946B3-506D-45E5-BDBF-CDAFBD2AB060&channel=DA286C6D-42EF-4E61-82BD-89A11B861ADB&content_id=64A51FAD-961E-454C-B91F-7E3A5AD8D69E&field=f_src&lang=pt&ver=1

    About the Future System’’s building…. next time don’t put it on the microwave! It could be interesting before melting… who knows?

  57. technorama Says:

    Costa,

    Yes you have a view in the casa de musica, that cant be argued. But, you shure as hell have no quality accustics! but being a world expert designer and producing all the countless projects in dezeen that you have, you would know that! Next time, before you have a horrible thought or comment about other peoples work think of what you have achieved in your life… my guess is nothing! and then try and offer a constructive opinion.

  58. PPatrício Says:

    One thing I am sure: the comments are more interesting than the building itself.

  59. lace Says:

    the spaces are boring

  60. Reza Says:

    I don’t like calling it a cheaper version of Zaha’s. That doesn’t mean anything to me…
    I love the colors, the window, and the interiors; very playful as a lot of Future’s other projects…

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