Philharmonic hall and chamber music hall

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Hans Scharoun , Germany

Hans Scharoun and Edgar Wisniewski

The idea of a cultural centre is a constant theme throughout Scharoun’s life, from his early expressionist sketches to his later theatre designs. In the fifties he is finally given the opportunity to design such a centre for the city of Berlin.
In 1956 he wins the competition for a new concert hall. His design motif is "music in the centre ". He literally places the orchestra in the middle of the audience in order to minimize the distance to the listeners. The seats are distributed on freely formed terraces, which, in combination with the convex ceiling, achieve an excellent acoustic.

For the chamber music hall Scharoun was only able to prepare an initial sketch. Here the music is equally placed into the central space. The further design and construction of this building was left to his partner Edgar Wisniewski.