Andermatt Concet Hall | Andermatt, Switzerland | 2019

Architects: Studio Seilern Architects
Landscape Architects: Hager Partner AG
General Contractors: Orascom Development Holding (ODH) and BESIX Group
Client: Andermatt Swiss Alps (ASA)
Photographers: Roland Halbe Kanipak Photography

Additional Credits

Design Team: Marcos Velasco, Alberto Favaro, Brigitta Hadju, Jonathan Wrynne, Ruby Law, Tasos Theodorakakis, Hana Potisk, Sonia Theodosiadi, and Enrique Pujana

BESIX and the Andermatt Swiss Alps Development is transforming the traditional Swiss Alpine village of Andermatt into one of the world’s finest year-round destinations. A new village square will host multiple hotels, residential and chalet facilities, and as part of this new development, Studio Seilern Architects was asked to design a world-class concert facility to be located at its heart. The project has created a sunken performance hall and lifted a large section of the roof into the square, offering capacity to host a 75-piece full symphony orchestra and a total of 900 audience seats. The new concert hall at Andermatt has already become a major and celebrated venue for musical performance - successfully fulfilling its brief to act as a catalyst for bringing enthusiastic visitors to the area.

It has brought high culture to an Alpine Ski village and has hosted concerts by some of the worlds most respected musicians, artists, and orchestras. The feedback from those that have performed there, including the Berlin Philharmonic and maestro Daniel Barenboim, is that the experimental acoustics of the hall work tremendously well, providing a warm and intimate musical experience. The musical director has instigated a fantastic programme designed to showcase the talents of young and upcoming composers and performers. In addition, Andermatt Concert Hall has successfully reinvigorated the village, and has contributed to its economic sustainability through a thorough rationalisation of capital and operational expenditure. The raised roof creates a visible sculptural object within the village, rethinking the traditional notion of a concert hall as a closed and inward-looking space. By adding a glass façade, the hall is awash with natural light.

For a winter concert, the audience might be surrounded by a whirlwind of snow, and in the summer by mountains and sunshine. From street level, the acoustic reflectors are seen as floating over an empty space, like a piece of public art. The passers-by can see into the concert hall, including the audience and orchestra from the street, as a spectacle, offering an active frontage. Early reflections of reverberation are necessary for providing excellent speech intelligibility, musical clarity, presence, and a sense of being acoustically enveloped by the music. Surfaces such as the inclined balcony fronts and the sculptural timber ceiling contribute to an acoustically enhanced interior geometry.

In addition, a suspended acoustic reflector guides the sound from the musicians to arrive at the listeners with the necessary intensity, direction, and time delay to create an involving and immersive acoustic experience. The space was designed for natural acoustics; however, an electroacoustic system has been introduced to the hall. This is a unique specification where an electroacoustic strategy is fully integrated, but natural acoustics are also perfectly solved when the enhanced acoustics is not in use.