The Casa da Música changed Porto, beyond the Guggenheim effect, and established the city as a unique musical hub, as well as a remarkable architectural centre. We share the impressions of the process with the participation of architect Ellen van Loon and the director of the Casa da Música Foundation, Paulo Sarmento e Cunha.

It is a house for music and it is an architectural “box” that transformed the city of Porto for good. Over the last 15 years, it has proven its versatility and “pull effect” for lovers of music and especially architecture.

In 2005, the serene port city trembled with the arrival of a unique and distinctive architectural object that, immediately and unanimously, became one of the 21st century’s most important buildings of contemporary architecture. Regardless of the architect/star dichotomy with a unique building, in a city that earns visibility and identity through it.

Fifteen years have passed since the opening of a work that is not without controversy, stemming from the bid itself and the design of the building, conceived by architect Rem Koolhass and his OMA team. 

“It was my first project at OMA, a vision of breaking preconceived systems, where we had the freedom of reflection and action,” says Ellen van Loon when we met in February at the opening of another of her works, the extension of Brighton College.

Ellen van Loon was the project leader for the Casa da Música, after having worked for Foster and Partners, where she was involved in the renovation of the Reichstag building in Berlin. After the development of the Casa da Música, she became another prominent member of the studio. 

“The concrete box is shaped like a diamond, sculpted to create a prism effect, where the bays and walls open to bring light to the different internal features. A main acoustic hall for 1,200 spectators and other smaller halls for rehearsals and smaller concerts. The effects of changing materials in an almost kaleidoscopic manner, the handcrafted finishes, the transformations of light and the different textures, provide a host of interior surprises that have been enhanced over the years by visitors,” explains van Loon.

“Undoubtedly, the operation of increasing the visibility of the city and the architectural importance of the building is a success that other cities are using as a model to transform their visibility and local and, if possible, as is the case with the Casa de Música, international cultural offering,” adds the Managing Director of the Casa da Música Foundation.

“From a cultural point of view, it involved and continues to represent a richness of all the musical perspectives and formats that have been developed; it has been understood and assimilated over the years. Our goals are based on bringing enlightened and cultured music to the wider public. Over these years, maestro after maestro, programme after programme, boldness and impetus have been seen, very in line with the proposed building itself”.

“I am sometimes asked about the connection between the Danish centre of architecture, Blox, in Copenhagen and my work at the Casa da Música. Fifteen years have passed and it is a reflection that I have made. In fact, within Blox there is the Bloxhub workspace, with the slogan: ‘Co-Creating Better Cities’, and I remember that this was the initial approach to Casa da Música. A way to convey the idea of a building that reflects the city, which opens up to it like a mirror. The Casa da Música changed my life and the way I see architecture, it amplified and enriched it,” said Ellen van Loon.

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Among the many international awards that the building’s architecture has received is the prestigious RIBA Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects, which made clear the legacy the building brought to the city and contemporary architecture: “It is an intriguing and dynamic building, on the one hand it is a perfect machine for performing music at different levels, and on the other hand, the architectural impact is situated between the two projected boxes, one is within the other and generates common interior spaces for other activities. The interior connects with the exterior through the glazed windows and terraces on the roof, provoking a visibility unusual in this type of construction”.

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