'Imago Musicae' Oslo Opera House, Oslo, NO

lmago musicae
the title imago musisae is to be read as a programmatic description of the architectonical topic for the new opera-house in oslo. in accordance withth graphical notations of music and dance, a multilayered dynamic fugue evolves in space and time.

architectonical rhythm
unified in spite of their different rhythms, the strustural trajectories fluctuate in counter-movement and amplitude. this reference to the voices and lines of a musical com-position is manifested in a score for architecture and corresponds to the functional procedures within the building.

organizational system
the various, functionally ordered units are systematically placed in slices and evolve out of their inherent rhythm: rehearsals, public areas, auditoria, offices, stages, workshops etc. etc. incorporating a wide spectrum of functional procedures, the units are clocked in different tempi and form specific.

amplitudes, mazxima and minima
the precise and well synchronized interplay in height and integral layout secures the necessary separations and interconnections between programmatical layers and functional units.

topographical architecture
the topographical character of the project is founded upon its meaning as the first norwegian operahouse. its main concern is a multi-facetted relation to the land of norway with its typical topography of hills, fjords and islands, a syntactic reference to its immediate surroundings is secured through the opera-house’s character as a transitional catalyst between nature, city and art.

building park
the operahouse’s roof is understood as an artificial parkscape, its functions as the interconnection between the city and the new park on the waterfront between bjørvika and bispevika and herewith formulates an answer to the location of the site at the banks of the oslo fjord with its neighbouring islands and rollng hills.