The Opera House, an urban object officially in conflict with the surrounding projects. To assert its singular character, it uses simplicity. In geometry, the cube is the most neutral shape.
The almost total lack of openings makes it pure geometry. The Opera House asserts itself through these dimensions. Placing the cube on water is where the paradox comes in. It fully takes on its dimension as a landmark by placing itself outside the urban system.
The Opera House’s functions are divided into two, one sacred and the other secular. The secular is left on the bank in a small cube.
The administrative offices, ticket office and shop are separated from the noble purpose of the building. The interior volume of the Opera House creates the ideal conditions: obscurity and silence. The lobby is a public space, a square.
In addition to its distributing purpose, it can be used for exhibitions and shows. An opera is an illusion. Through sound and image, it produces its reality. It is a synthesis of poetry, theater and music.
The architecture serving this art is therefore not rationalist. Like the opera, it uses illusions to create emotion. Floating and levitation are feelings. The main room is a volume floating above the lobby, creating a paradox of mass and weightlessness.
Architecture must produce ambiance. Inside, it will be soft, cozy, intimate. It is a spiritual place. The contrast with the lobby further heightens these traits. Through its dimensions, light and materials, the lobby is a cold place.
The peripheral emptiness creates a feeling of dizziness, sounds echo, as in a cathedral. It is a monumental and sober anti-chamber. The ambiance produced is strict and surrealist, an experience for both body and mind.
By placing it on the water, separating it from the city and surrounding it with emptiness, the room becomes a place without a context. The absence of time and space are the foundations of opera. It can blossom when it departs from reality.
