OPERA BELGRADE
La Bohème
Belgrade Opera House
Silvia Funieru - diploma project - july 2014
WHY AN OPERA HOUSE IN BELGRADE Despite its strong cultural character, the city of Belgrade doesn’t have an Opera house! Opera and ballet performances are held at the National Theater, located in the heart of the old city, in Republic Square. The Opera company was founded in 1919, and since that time there was a will to build an independent building for this institute. Over the past 70 years there have been 3 attempts to build an Opera House, 3 international competitions regarding this construction, in 1940, 1948 and 1968, but all of them failed to fulfill their task. It became an irritating subject for the people of Belgrade, who in 2005 tried again to realize this building. All the newspapers at that time were screaming: New International Competition for Belgrade’s Opera House will be lauched in 2007! The city tried to organize a new international competition, but they could not decide on a suitable location for this grandiose project. Several sites were proposed for this building and after numerous public debates only 2 remained valid for the pending competition: Usce Park and Republic Square. But after this, silence…. Nothing has been done after all. And Belgrade still doesn’t have an Opera House.
Winnig project from 1948 and 1968 competitions
All proposed sites in 2005
LOCATION After analyzing this tabu topic, and all 9 proposed locations for this building, I came to the conclusion that the best site would be at the confluence of Sava and Danube, in Usce Park. The highlights of this location were: • the perfect view and visibility that the opera would have from across Sava river, from Kalemedgan, the citadel of Belgrade and the main tourist attraction of the city. • easy access from both parts of the city, • unlimited ground for construction and the possibility to extend the building with public spaces, • the cultural potential of this area (Museum of Modern Art, concert ground, Revolution Museum ruins) • good views from the opera to the surroundings • no urbanistic restrictions regarding size, integration, (gabarit, aliniament, integrare etc)
Usce Park, Belgrade, Serbia
CONCEPT One of the things that I considered was the fact that the building is surrounded by nature. How could I integrate such a large building in this context, to have a minimum impact on the environment on one hand, and to be a symbol of the city on the other hand? After analyzing several methods of merging architecture into the landscape, I chose a topological solution, a volume inspired by the forms in nature, like an artificial mountain, that seems to rise from the ground and grow on this specific site. I was inspired by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s concept of The Oblique Function. The architecture they proposed has the potential to dominate the site and to become the equivalent of a natural relief, in which the inclined plane works both as a closure/ roof for the interior and as a ground for exterior circulation. “Architecture must never be neutral or indeterminate. It must be active; it must continually engage people, draw them into action, involve them in public events. People are essential to the life of the architectural environment. Buildings are there to be climbed, conquered! “ (Paul Virilio and Claude Parent) The oblique planes are orientated towards the important buildings around: Kalemegdan Fortress, the Old City, Sava and Danube rivers, Great War Island, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Usce Tower, Palace of Serbia and Usce Park. I created a path over the entire building, which people can follow; they can climb onto the building and admire the surroundings. This way the building becomes active, animated by people’s movement; it becomes a public space, opened all day, no matter if there is a performance inside or not. The “function” of the park remains untouched: a public space, a place for loisir and promenade.
Volume cut-outs given by the important views towards the city
The Function of the Oblique
East Facade
View from the roof towards Kalemegdan
View from the roof towards the park and Old Belgrade
SUBJECT (PROJECT DESCRIPTION) ACT I (ORGANIZATION) Due to the location, right at the confluence, the building is opened/ visible on all its 4 sides. Therefore the opera couldn’t have a classic configuration, with a main façade, public areas in front and a back dedicated to the opera staff and production. The circular character of the site demanded public areas around the building, in order to value all the views that this location can offer. Therefore the public has a circular path inside the building: from the entrance foyer, to the exhibition area, cafes and back to the foyer through the studio stage foyer. The core of this circle is dedicated to the opera company: main and side stages, rehearsal rooms, production spaces and areas for artists, administration and technical staff. The planning of the building anticipated people arriving at the front plaza by car, and at the right plaza by foot or boat from across the river. Commercial deliveries, stage door, scenery and load-in are on the left side of the building. The stage is designed as a full-scenic rehearsal stage, with 2 side stages, 1 back stage, rehearsal space and stage support area. Next to these, on the left, is the production and assembly area for the scenery. The background warehouse is in the basement, under the side stages. Artists’ spaces (dressing rooms and practice rooms) are located at the back of the stages, grouped together on the first 3 levels. The main suite of rehearsal spaces and practice rooms for opera, dance, chorus and musicians are located above the side and rear stages on the fourth floor of the building. Administration offices are above the dressing rooms at the 4th and 5th level and the canteen is at the last floor offering a superb view to the west and north of the city. It is not a full production house, since the land is too expensive and valuable for production areas to be included in the building. Therefore, this opera has only an assembly area that is used also for repairing and maintenance of the scenery and for production of small elements. Scenery will be made outside the house and delivered as and when required by the repertoire. The wardrobe department is located at the 3rd level, above the dressing rooms.
Basement
Ground Floor
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6
ACT II (AUDITORIUM)
The main auditorium has 1678 seats, distributed on ground floor and 3 tiers. The auditorium is completed by a technical gallery for lighting, faced to resemble a fourth tier, which connects with the proscenium frame. The stalls accommodate 720 people entering through large doors at the center of the rear stalls in addition to the side doors. The first tier is for 331 and includes a suite of spacious control rooms. The second tier holds 302 and the third, 325 seats. The side tiers slope down towards the stage and have many good side seats, together with spacious boxes behind, for both seated and standing patrons. In terms of scale and intimacy it is the best seating capacity to work with. The form of the auditorium is based on the traditional horseshoe scheme. There are three large doors at the rear of the auditorium that directly connects the stalls with the foyers, so that the audience can flow straight into the room as a continuation of the foyer. For acoustic reasons there are internal, mechanized, hinged doors in the auditorium and a rolling curved panel which seals on the foyer side. The main lighting, projection and sound control rooms are on first tier level but there are others for subtitles, audio description, stage managers and directors off-centre on either side of the large doors at the back of the stalls. The proscenium is relatively thin and the boxes (tiers) extend right up to it. The ends of the balconies are used by the lighting technicians.
ACT III (FOYER)
An important concept was that the building should be very transparent. The plaza should link over to the park beyond and the whole building would be perceived from across the water. The auditorium is designed as a solitary object, that sits in a big open space. It is lighten from the top so it glows as a sun inside the building, both during the day and the night. The foyers should flow both out to the plaza and into the auditorium. They should bring the audience away from the auditorium towards the faรงade and the views during intervals. The foyers are very spacious and the audience populate the faรงade . During the night the audience itself becomes a theatrical performance, when viewed from outside. The links from the foyer to the upper levels of the auditorium are all via the bridges.
ACT IV (STUDIO STAGE) The Studio Stage is a rectangular, flexible space accommodating a number of movable balcony towers and a set of retractable seats for around 350 people. These may be rearranged in a large number of formats to accommodate chamber opera, experimental opera and dance, small-scale classical ballet, workshops, master classes, recitals and similar events.