Photographs and illustrations are courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind

Designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, the Grand Canal Square Theatre and Commercial Development in Dublin features a 2,000-seat performing arts centre which is integrated into a commercial area via two office blocks that include 375,000-squarefoot of leasable office and retail space. This is located at the heart of the Grand Canal Harbour development and creates a focal point for Grand Canal Square.

Designed as a new “window” for the city facing the lake: a work of architecture halfway between earth and sky, a design based on the typical natural features of the local landscape: the water of the lake, the wood of the trees, the stone of the Dolomites.

A simple architectural design proposal: a linear, harmonious building with an entirely glazed head and a tail that rises in height to enclose the fly tower of the theater. 


A sinuous body that creates urban spaces in the context, like the square that welcomes visitors arriving from the historical center of the city. The large internal hall of the building opens toward the lake with a large window.

Creative Image & Contextual Resonance:
The Tempe Center for the Arts (TCA) is a unique collection of intimate venues within an iconic, protective envelope. Underneath the flight path of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, the sculptural shed roof not only provides the first level of acoustic protection, but also shelters its patrons and performers from the harsh desert sun. The roof is multi-referential, with inspiration from: monument valley; nearby Hayden butte; origami; and even stealth fighter design.

The roof’s faceted form drapes over the independent 600-seat Proscenium Theater, including its fly tower, the 200-seat Studio Theater, the visual arts gallery and a common lobby. The individual venues are clustered to form and activate a lobby emulating a town square. The semi-circular, protective assemblage of Pueblo Bonito at Chaco canyon inspired the building’s organization. Similar to Pueblo Bonito’s south orientation adjacent to the trade route and once flowing river, TCA is oriented north adjacent to Tempe Town Lake with views to nearby and distant landforms that punctuate the valley.

The Royal Conservatory of Music officially celebrates the completion of the new home for Canada’s premier music and arts educator on Sept. 25, 2009.


The new TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning is the last jewel in the crown of Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance, a phenomenon that was catalysed in the slipstream of the Bilbao effect. Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB), under the direction of partner Marianne McKenna, has been committed to working with the RCM for over 20 years to realize the vision which was first set forth in 1991 with the award winning Master Plan.

All Photographs by Tom Arban

Cloud Tower is a pavilion for open-air concerts in the grounds of a castle near Vienna, Austria, designed by the next ENTERprise - architects. Located at Grafenegg Castle along with the copper-clad concert hall in our previous story, the auditorium occupies an existing depression in the landscape, accentuated by further excavations.

Here’s some more information from the next ENTERprise - architects:

Visitors enter the auditorium through a corridor cut into the small hill created with the displaced earth

The auditorium has 1,670 seats with a further 300 on the lawn, while the stage can accommodate an orchestra with up to 200 performers.

Zaha Hadid Architects have created a unique chamber music hall specially designed to house solo performances of the exquisite music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

A voluminous ribbon swirls within the room, carving out a spatial and visual response to the intricate relationships of Bach’s harmonies. As the ribbon careens above the performer, cascades into the ground and wraps around the audience, the original room as a box is sculpted into fluid spaces swelling, merging, and slipping through one another.

The design process involved architectural considerations of scale, structure and acoustics to realize a dynamic formal dialogue inseparable from its intended purpose as an intimate chamber music hall. A layering of spaces and functions is achieved through the ribbon wrapping around itself, alternately compressing to the size of a handrail then stretching to enclose the full height of the room. Circulatory and visual connections are continually discovered as one passes through the multiple layers of space delineated by the ribbon.