How does one rethink an opera? There is no lack in ambition. But more often than not ambition becomes pretentious.The constant all consuming urge for innovation can be destructive and self serving. But there is no mistaking the impact of creative processes fuelled by these seemingly undesirable traits . To dissect the traditional opera, gnawing away at the foundations of the sacred opera house till that threshold is reached when the heirarchies are disintegrated, when the instrument becomes the artist, and artist the facilitator.
The attempt was to transform the notion of a designed space into that of a designed intent. Performative spaces were achieved through articulations of the skin, the surface and the structure. Starting from a simple module, the articulations rise in complexity and heirarchy to sprout a new opera and concert hall in the middle of the Stadtpark in Vienna. The landscape is a manicured english garden which is transformed by the growth of the bionic music pavillion progressivly mutating into an Opera. A relationship fluctuating between symbiotic and parasitic exists between the landscape and the opera in such a way that the boundaries are blurred.
The interstitial spaces are colonized by a matrix of semi flexible biotic cell which undergoes mutation according to its specific situation. These cells exist in a state of flux between calcified structural cells, transparent circulation clusters, and lush botanical cells.
The opera as a music instrument that has a kaleidoscopic effect on the performances. The sound is selectively propagated into 4 quadrants based on the urban conditions. The opera is also an urban condensor, facilitating the streamlining of the multi modal flows surrounding stadtpark. Creates new vistas and flow patterns and thus sculpts the urbanscape.
Project done as part of the Urbanstrategies Excessive studio at the Universität Für Angewandte Kunst, Wien
