Lucerne's Musikhochschule is planning a new 9'000 m2 building to host all the necessary infrastructure to teach and perform music. We placed the two most prominent pieces of the program, the black box, and the auditorium, in the center of the building, with student circulation orbiting around those pieces, with five stacked corridor rings. The program pieces with smaller scale are systematically arranged around the facade to maximize daytime use. A custom reflective aluminum facade is designed to interact, like a kaleidoscope, and offer a reinterpreted view of the surrounding landscape. Our design gives the students and the citizens of Lucerne two main public spaces. On the one hand, an elevated shared terrace with a cafeteria overlooking the landscape with the infrastructure required to perform live music outdoors. On the other hand, an interior public vertical circulation hall binds the school's five stories, encouraging spontaneous interaction and a sense of community between the students.
The Lucerne Music School was designed while I was at EM2N Architekten in collaboration with Fabian Hörmann, Mathias Müller, Daniel Niggli, Fabian Oulevay, Konrad Scheffer, Balthasar Weiss. Image production was done in together with Luxigon. Our acoustic designers were Applied Acoustics GmbH. Our project managers were B+P Baurelisation. Our technical facility equipment managers were Hefti Hess Martignoni and Hans Abricht AG. Baliana Schubert was our landscape architects and Kopistis was our energy physics consultants. More information on the EM2N website. Check out the full submission and other competition submissions here.