The design team signed a contract with the leadership of Brno for a new concert hall

photo: www.brno.cz

The design team consisting of Tomasz Konior (POL), Yasuhisa Toyota (US), and Petr Hrůša (CZ) yesterday signed a contract with the representatives of the city of Brno for the project documentation for the building permit and project documentation for the second phase of the Janáček Cultural Centre. That is the new concert hall that Brno has been waiting for for decades.

“This morning, we attended a rehearsal of the Brno Philharmonic and were reinforced in our belief that it is wonderful to design a hall for such a beautiful city full of music lovers. I hope that we will open a new era of cultural and musical life here,” said architect and general designer of the team Tomasz Konior.

He also recalled his earlier work with Yasuhisa Toyota. “He is a complete genius in the field of acoustics. Together we worked on the concert hall in Katowice, Poland, which opened in 2014. I look forward to what we still have ahead of us, also together with Professor Hrůša,” emphasized Konior.

Toyota also highlighted their previous collaboration. “I am an acoustician, and therefore two things are important to me: the shape of the hall and the materials used. I work on this, but architects must do the same, so I look forward to collaborating with this team. We have a great project behind us in Katowice, and we will now benefit from our experiences, not only from there, in Brno. We are ready to start,” said Toyota.

Mayor Petr Vokřál expressed hope on the spot that Brno will really get the hall. “I believe that by signing the contract today, this dream will come true. It is a major commitment for the city. I wish the team to deliver to us the best they have provided to other cities in the past,” Vokřál said.

He also mentioned the commitment of the former Minister of Culture, who signed a memorandum of cooperation under which the state is to contribute 600 million crowns to the project. “I believe that with the help of the government, not only financially, and the Ministry of Culture, which has been promised, we will see the new hall in three years and will cut the ribbon,” said Culture Minister Ilja Šmíd.

The winning team emerged from a two-round selection process in which four participants applied, and two qualified for the competition round. Their first task will now be the design work on connecting the underground and above-ground parts of the building. If everything goes according to plan, construction should begin to rise in about a year and open in the 2020/21 season.

About the design team
Tomasz Konior (1968), general designer of the team

•     Polish architect and urban planner
•     Founder, owner, and principal architect of Konior Studio
•     Architect of the internationally acclaimed concert hall in Katowice, Poland
•     Holder of numerous international awards and titles

Yasuhisa Toyota (1952), chief acoustician of the team

•     Director of the American branch of Nagata Acoustics, founded in 1971
•     The company has over sixty concert halls around the world to its name, and Toyota is the chief acoustician of fifty of them
•     Among his most acclaimed halls are the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Helsinki Music Center, and recently the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and he is currently tasked with the renovation of the Sydney Opera House concert hall
•     He is also the chief acoustician of the hall in Katowice, where he collaborated with Tomasz Konior
•     An event at the Walt Disney Hall, where he collaborated with Frank Gehry, testifies to Yasuhisa Toyota's extraordinary abilities. The orchestra was rehearsing for the gala concert to open the new hall and during deep tones, it seemed to him that something was wrong, that the sound was not what it should be. They invited Mr. Toyota, who sat in the auditorium and listened for an hour as the musicians played. Then he stood up, pointed to the ceiling, and said: “Replace this panel and that panel in the back.” It later turned out that the two mentioned wooden panels had a different density than the others.

Petr Hrůša (1955), designer of the construction part

•     Brno architect and founder of the firm Architekti Hrůša & spol., Ateliér Brno, s.r.o.
•     Holder of many prestigious architectural awards
•     Author of significant Brno buildings, such as the Vaňkovka Gallery, Pavilion P at the Brno Exhibition Centre, Trinity Administrative Center, or Domini Park; his modifications to public spaces, such as Moravian Square, are also acclaimed
•     Appointed Professor of Architecture in 2003

About the project Hall for Brno (Janáček Cultural Centre)

Under the name Hall for Brno (Janáček Cultural Centre) lies the project for the construction of a new concert hall at the corner of Besední and Veselé Streets. It will become the home of the Brno Philharmonic, whose more than one hundred members of European level perform and rehearse under inadequate conditions.

The stage of the Besední House, where the Philharmonic is based, cannot accommodate the entire orchestra. And at the Janáček Theatre, where it often performs, there are insufficient acoustic conditions. Furthermore, it is currently closed for reconstruction. Thus, the listeners do not really know how the Brno Philharmonic sounds.

“Thanks to the new hall, we will finally appreciate the quality of the orchestra, and I believe that Brno will also attract top international artists, whom we currently have nowhere to invite,” said the director of the Brno Philharmonic, Marie Kučerová.