Casa Da Musica

This is for sure one of the most iconic buildings of OMA. For more than a year, there was a huge 1/50 model in OMA’s office allowing the design team to check in ‘3D’ all the different concepts.

Photography:

OMA - Rem Koolhaas
Porto, Portugal
2005
Concert Hall

Photography: © Philippe Ruault

OMA is a very democratic company, where all the employees can participate in the discussions. But this time, Rem did it all by himself. Let’s never think that ‘starchitects’ just let others do the work : they are passionate, they understand perfectly the technical problems, and they are able to propose the most brilliant ideas in as little as a meeting. For this I have a deep respect.

- Robert-Jan van Santen, founder of VS-A. Group

Sketch: © VS-A. Group

Photography: © courtesy of OMA, Rem Koolhaas

The story of the corrugated glass is just amazing: during a meeting with the entire design team, around 20 architects and consultants, Rem invites me and Renz, the acoustics engineer, to have a private talk about the facades. He reminds us of his strong interest in having natural daylight in the concert hall, he understands that glass is not so good regarding acoustics and that it will require a lot of framework.

Then he asks Renz to confirm that corrugated glass will help the acoustic. He confirms. He asked me to confirm that corrugated glass requires much less framing support. I confirm. In 5 minutes, the concept was set, never to be changed for the project's duration.

- Robert-Jan van Santen, founder of VS-A. Group