Volker Giencke & Company ZT GmbH

Great Amber Concert Hall

Great Amber Concert Hall
© Aigars Prūsis

GREAT AMBER CONCERT HALL

Volker Giencke

ARCHITECTS
Volker Giencke

LOCATION
Liepāja, Latvia

CATEGORY
Concert House

PHOTOGRAPHS
 Indriķis Stūrmanis, Aigars Prūsis, Merks Ltd, Giencke&Company

GENERAL PLANNING
Giencke & Company – Latvija PS, Riga

UPTK, LIEPAJA
Riga Chair, Riga

PROJECT YEAR
2015

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Petra Friedl

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
SIA Merks, Riga

PHOTOGRAPHS
Indriķis Stūrmanis, Aigars Prūsis, Merks Ltd, Giencke&Company

MANUFACTURERS
Uppe, Waagner-biro Stahlbau Ag

ACOUSTICS
Müller-BBM GmbH, Munich/Planegg, Karlheinz Müller

STEEL CONSTRUCTIONS
Uptk, Liepaja

PLANNING
Volker Giencke & Company

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Johann Birner

BUILDING TECHNOLOGY CONCEPT
Altherm Engineering, Baden/Vienna, Hans Haugeneder

GENERAL PLANNER
Giencke & Company – Latvija PS, Riga

STAGE TECHNIC
Bühnenplanung Walter Kottke, Waagner-Biro

PARTNER ARCHITECT
SIA Arhitekta J. Pogas Birojs, Riga

LIGHTING DESIGNER
Bartenbach Lichtlabor, Christian Bartenbach, Innsbruck 
Landscape planning: Paul Giencke

Text description provided by architect.

Designed by Graz architect Volker Giencke, the Great Amber Concert Hall has been inaugurated on 7 November in Liepaja, Latvia.

Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis
Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis

The first – and most momentous – phase of this multistage project envisioning the construction of a cultural urban district is thus completed. In 2003, Volker Giencke won the international architectural competition for a new cultural centre in this traditional seaport on the Baltic Sea. The construction work started in 2013.

“Great Amber” is a monolithic, cone-shaped, slightly contorted structure with a transparent, amber- coloured façade.

Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis
Great Amber Concert Hall
© Giencke&Company

This façade envelops the irregular folded work of the concrete structure built around the building’s most important architectural element: the grand Concert Hall providing seating for more than 1,000 visitors.

The hall itself is surrounded by the rooms of the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and the Music School’s instruction and rehearsal rooms, thus producing a favourable blend of space to foster communication between artists, students and teachers.

Great Amber Concert Hall
Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis

An additional Chamber Hall situated beneath the Concert Hall as well as a Ballet Studio and an Experimental Stage with a foyer, Bar & Music Club on the fifth floor complete the spatial concept.

The Concert Hall can also be adapted for congresses, exhibitions and receptions by elevating the orchestra pit and the stalls.

Moreover, “Civita Nova” offers an additional 2,000 m2 of space for multifunctional events, thus fully responding to the architect’s idea of “Great Amber” as a venue catering for all kinds of purposes that is freely accessible to the people of Liepaja.

Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis
Great Amber Concert Hall
© Giencke&Company
Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis

Volker Giencke also developed the acoustics concept together with Karlheinz Müller / Müller-BBM, Munich; they achieved excellent results, with acoustics based on the principle of an oval, terraced vineyard.

Reaching high above the roof, fourteen mirror-finished reflective tubes flood the Concert Hall with daylight, creating a unique atmosphere inside.

Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis
Great Amber Concert Hall
© Merks Ltd

Light plays a key role at the façade of “Great Amber”, too. Attached to a delicately interwoven steel construction, its amber-coloured glazing bathes the inside area in soft warm light.

At night, the building turns into a transparent luminous element, making its interior and many different functions visible from the outside.

Great Amber Concert Hall
© Indrikis Stūrmanis
Great Amber Concert Hall
© Giencke&Company

During the day, the building’s external glazing glows in varying surrounding colours and shades, offering truly stunning impressions.

Convincing in terms of both architecture and content, this symbolic effect emphasises “Great Amber’s” connection to the city. It is a new landmark of modern Liepaja.

Great Amber Concert Hall
© Aigars Prūsis


Great Amber Concert Hall
Ground Floor Plan
Great Amber Concert Hall
Floor Plan
Great Amber Concert Hall
Floor Plan


Great Amber Concert Hall
Section
Great Amber Concert Hall
Sketch

Volker Giencke & Company ZT GmbH
T +43 316 32 3077 F +43 316 32 30777
Volker Giencke & Company ZT GmbH
Schoenbrunngasse 73, A-8010 Graz, Austria