Design team: Sergio Bianchi (team leader), Giovanni Favilla, Stefano Giacchini
Status: Competition
Green steel waves
In a city devastated by war we pondered on how to build.
At first we considered the importance of realizing a place that could foster social interaction.
So we came out with the idea of a huge urban space focusing functions and relations under one vast roof.
We also considered the opportunity of weaving rather than building.
The Concert halls and services had to be part of the landscape.
They had to be of the park, not on the park.
The complex roof, a row of steel waves covered with vegetation, lets the park flow through and over the buildings, thus reproducing the hilly shape of Sarajevo orography.
A hidden architecture reveals itself under a grass roof.
As you walk along Bulevar Franca Lehara, you end up wandering through an artificial grotto covered by steel, greenery and glass.
We also didn't want camouflage architecture, so we studied a strictly geometrical configuration for the arches.
Vaulted galvanized steel trusses make up the primary structure of the roof.
Concrete slabs supported by the steel trusses hold the soil and the frames.
As the arches cross the site boundaries, they get smaller, acting as pergolas to shade areas of the nearby park.
Man made artifacts are used to raise the soil over the built environment.
The vaults create a relation with the planned Central Square along Hiseta Street, acting as bridges between the square and the river.
The river, with its enlivening water, is an essential part of the design.
Stripes of water flank the west side of the area, reaching the fountain on Central Square. Arches also act as urban signals.
From the park, as you walk westward, you can see the Parliament and Government Buildings framed by the huge pergolas.
The roof layout has been reproduced on the flooring design, thus magnifying the impact of the free flowing forms of the grotto's built environment.
The floor is paved with natural stone with wooden inlays that define the rectangular shapes.
The free flowing form of the built in environment follows in a winding way the Bulevar Franca Lehara pedestrian axis.
The built form, carved out in order to create a series of different spatial situations, was intended to offer a lively urban space during the whole day and night, so we managed to have many different activities in it.
The foyers of the two Concert halls, the cafeteria, the restaurant and the bookstore open up towards this space.
Huge glazed walls, running the entire length of this space, link the interior to the exterior.
Especially at night, when the halls are used, light invades the galleria.
On the south east corner of the site, where Kotromanica Street meets the Bulevar Franca Lehara axis, a tower houses the library and the complex offices.
It is the only vertical feature of the complex and it acts as a urban signal.
The Musicians entrance is on Kotromanica Street.
The same entrance is used as access to rehearsal and study areas for the orchestra and choir. The use of extended glass surfaces is made possible by the presence of the vast roof that shades the inside reducing the greenhouse effect. Natural ventilation is used as the prime mean of cooling.
Warm stratified air exhausts via motorized opening roof lights.
Glazed roof stripes heat air promoting stack effect.
Fountains, that supply chillers and water sprinklers, and that are used as water reservoir in case of fire, cool the air during the summer channeling breezes through the galleria.
Solar panels on the roof of the rehearsal room supply hot water to the rehearsal and study area.
A green approach has been used also in the choice of timber from sustainable sources such as beech for the interior of the halls.
Vehicular traffic is excluded from the area. Service roads reach the east and west side of the site.