Kyoto Concert Hall

Project Name: Kyoto Concert Hall
Construction year: 1995
Website: www.kyoto-ongeibun.jp/kyotoconcerthall
Address: 1-26, Shimogamo Hangi-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-shi , KYOTO - Japan

Architect(s) : Arata Isozaki & Associates (www.isozaki.co.jp)
Project Category: Cultural

Latitude: 35.0499
Longitude: 135.767

Kyoto Concert Hall

The Kyoto Concert Hall, the home of the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, was planned as a Memorial for the 1,200 years celebration of the city of Kyoto. The building is located on the boundary of the ancient capital, Heiankyo, Kitayama Street and the Kamogawa River; an area with a distinctive Kyoto significance.

Exterior

Composed of three primary blocks, The Main Hall, The Ensemble Hall Murata and the Foyer, the refined exterior is clad in terracotta panels that had the texture of roof tiles. Believing that a subdued silver or black suited Kyoto Isozaki used that as a basic color of materials; limiting the colors used to a certain range. By limiting the range of materials and using only materials that can withstand the passing of time Isozaki created the texture of a building that had been there for ages.

Interior

The floor in the circular Entrance Hall is done entirely in limestone imported from Florence. In the center of the Hall twelve pillars, placed at regular intervals, represent the twelve zodiac symbols of ancient Eastern chronology, the ox, the tiger, the hare etc.

A gently sloping spiralling pathway leads to the Foyer and the two Concert Halls.

The Foyer, that serves the two Concert halls, is enclosed by screens of translucent glass that mute the direct rays of the sun and, at the same time offers views of mountains far to the west and the Kyoto Botanical Gardens in the foreground. The open floor area at the foot of the stairs is designed to serve as a stage for lecture concerts and the like.

Comments by Arata Isozaki

"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

"I use ceramic panels in a way that is unusual. Because of glazing ceramics never have perfectly flat surfaces or edges. This tolerance for slight imperfections might be said to be the architectural equivalent of that quality people in Kyoto refer to by the word hannari which is the highest compliment one can pay to a woman in the prime of life. I felt that people in Kyoto would not accept something that did not possess that quality."
Arata Isozaki

Awards

The building received the Kyoto City Urban Landscape Award (1995) , the BCS Award (1997) and the HIROBA Architectural Award (1996).

Contributed by ArchiTeam