sou fujimoto tops 'house of music' in budapest with perforated roof canopy

sou fujimoto-designed ‘house of music’ opens its doors

nestled among the trees of budapest‘s city park is a new cultural landmark dedicated to music designed by japanese architect sou fujimoto. called ‘house of music’, the new 9,000 sqm building features a huge undulating roof with 100 crater-like perforations to accommodate surrounding trees. inside, the museum hosts a range of musical experiences including exhibitions on the history of european music and hungarian pop as well as concerts and educational music workshops.

now open to the public, the house of music forms part of the liget budapest project — europe’s largest urban cultural development program.

‘music making is at the heart of human experience. the house is a one-of-a-kind institution created to introduce the beauty of sound and music, alongside the important role it plays in every aspect of our life,’ says andrás batta, managing director of the house of music, hungary and former president of liszt academy.

images by palkó györgy, © liget budapest

a golden forest of music

designed as ‘a continuation of the landscape’, the building façade is clad in a curtain of glass, making the monumental roof canopy appear to hover and blurring the line between indoor and outdoor. this glazed elevational treatment is composed of 94 custom-manufactured, heat-insulated, horizontally undivided panels. slim columns between the park and the glass building echo the surrounding nature to create the sense of walking among a forest of music.

lead architect sou fujimoto explains, ‘we were enchanted by the multitude of trees in the city park and inspired by the space created by them. whilst the thick and rich canopy covers and protects its surroundings, it also allows the sun’s rays to reach the ground. I envisaged the open floor plan, where boundaries between inside and outside blur, as a continuation of the natural environment.’

the underside of the roof canopy is covered in over 30,000 gold-colored ‘leaves’ and the perforations are clad in the same gold-color, which become dazzling light wells during the day. at night, the underside of the canopy is similarly illuminated by artificial light to create a glowing beacon in the city park. in addition to nature, the roof design is also informed by the varying form of sound waves.

30,000 geometric ‘leaves’ cover the underside of the roof canopy

the museum is arranged over three levels to reflect the three movements of a musical score and interweaving nature and music. the ground floor at park level contains a glass-walled concert hall with a 320-seat capacity and a sinkable stage. the park level also hosts an open-air stage for daytime and evening events while the top floor is dedicated to educational spaces.

the subterranean level comprises the permanent and temporary exhibitions and a hemispherical sound dome inspired by a spherical concert hall debuted by composer karlheinz stockhausen at the 1970 world expo. the house of music’s sound dome is an immersive experience that accommodates up to 60 visitors to experience 360-degree surround sound emitted from every direction from more than 31 loudspeakers, creating ‘hologram-like’ walls of sound.

the permanent exhibition on the subterranean level is titled ‘sound dimensions – musical journeys in space and time’, and it takes visitors on an immersive musical journey through 2,000 years of music making in europe. the three museum levels are connected by a sculptural spiral staircase.

see designboom’s previous coverage of sou fujimoto’s house of music here.

the crater-like perforations act as huge light wells