Herzog De Meuron Plan Hamburg Concert Hall

Plans are afoot in the German city of Hamburg for a massive new dockland development called Hafencity (Harbour City in English) that include a massive new concert hall.

The new concert hall The Elbphilharmonie on Kaispeicher A site is intended to become a new cultural landmark utilising an old, vast, brick shipping warehouse on a prime area of headland with an impressive glass structure above it.

Combining the lightness and evanescence of the glass with the solidity of the brick cocoa house, the building will literally be a project of two visual halves, externally separated by a vast outdoor terrace that wraps around the building 37 meters above ground level.

Following through the nautical theme, the design is crowned by a series of peaks arranged as if they are waves on the River Elbe. The architects also hope that these peaks will evoke the impression of a vast glass palace, a crowning cultural triumph for Hamburg.

Inside it will be decorated with incredibly lush warm colours and gently flowing organic surfaces that create an almost womb-like appearance. Undulating surfaces and soft textures play with the light that moves in gradual gradients adding a further dimension to the work.

Other levels feature a labyrinthine series of level with crystalline shapes that are softened with to the clever use of light that somehow succeeds in making rigid shapes malleable whilst shunning hard reflective surfaces for more soothing materials.

The highlights are the two concert halls it contains, that avoid the cliché of traditional boxes for a series of softly stepped levels circling around the central performance areas making the audience experience more socially inclusive.

These calm fluid forms are symptomatic of the architects, Herzog and de Meuron who often utilise soft zoomorphic shapes into their work and have specialised in the past in combining the ultra-modern with brick industrial - just see the Tate Modern in London for this.

The project doesn't just include the 600 and 2200 seat performance areas but also a new hotel, a nightclub, residential dwellings and conference centre. It will cost a grand total of 186 million euros and is due to be completed in 2009.

Our bet is it will be rivalling the Guggenheim in Bilbao for sheer architectural audacity making it one to watch.