Bernard Tschumi

Bernard Tschumi Architects

The most challenging part of the project was to make it simultaneously a powerful architectural concept and to support the audience experience with the architecture.This can be quite complex with spaces that have large spans, such as a concert hall for six thousand people…

What was the single hardest issue to predict about working within this building type and/or the most unexpected challenge that influenced new thought in the building?

The most challenging part of the project was to make it simultaneously a powerful architectural concept and to support the audience experience with the architecture.This can be quite complex with spaces that have large spans, such as a concert hall for six thousand people, but our strategy of focusing on the movement of crowds within the building’s double envelope proved to be very successful.

Did this project or building type require an expansion and evolution of your role as an architect in any way? In general, do you feel that the role of the architect is having to expand, change, or evolve on projects?

Architecture can either accelerate social transformation or slow it down. We think architects should try to accelerate social and cultural change.

How is this particular building possible today in a way that it may not have been before and how have trends in technology and society inspired new solutions?

Once upon a time, buildings had roofs, cornices, and facades. New envelopes can combine all these and create new spaces previously unimaginable. The possibilities and ramifications of this new condition are just beginning to be fully explored.

In the context of this project, how is your office and design process being influenced by current trends in academic curricula and incoming young architects? In turn, how are current projects and processes guiding the ongoing reformulation and development of academic curricula?

In the 1950s, practice influenced theory and education. In the 1980s, theory and the architectural schools influenced practice. Today, we are witnessing, for the first time, a productive dialogue in both directions with much import and export between the two.