Philharmonie de Paris, Cultural center in La Villette district, Paris, France
Philharmonie de Paris is a concert complex in the Parc de la Villette, in the 19th arrondissement. Jean Nouvel designed it as an aluminium hill: pale grey panels flecked with dark and light spots, a projecting band of aluminium panels, and a deep recess holding tiers of crumpled reflective metal. A wide angled band of the same flecked cladding cuts across the lower right. The 2,400-seat Pierre Boulez hall sits inside.
The building was constructed between 2006 and 2015 following designs by French architect Jean Nouvel and expanded the existing music complex at Parc de la Villette. The opening took place in January 2015 with a concert conducted by Paavo Järvi, marking the beginning of a new era for Parisian musical life.
The concert hall offers symphony performances alongside workshops and family concerts that make music accessible to all age groups. Visitors also find rotating exhibitions inside about musical instruments and sound experiments from different cultures and eras throughout the year.
Several metro lines and bus connections stop nearby, making it easy to reach from any part of the city. The building has accessible entrances and offers guided tours that provide insights into its acoustics and architecture.
The hall's acoustics were designed with Marshall Day Acoustics and Nagata Acoustics, whose director Yasuhisa Toyota advised Nouvel and ran scale-model tests. Floating balconies keep the farthest spectator about 36 yards from the conductor. The Austrian firm Rieger Orgelbau built the pipe organ, 6,055 pipes across 91 stops, first heard on 28 October 2015.
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