Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles
In 2003, a concert hall was successfully completed in Los Angeles after 16 years of construction, its design was created in the studio of Frank Owen Gehry. The building immediately became the symbol of Los Angeles after its completion (similarly like the Opera House in Sydney). In terms of acoustics, the hall is valued as one of the best concert halls in the world. It has a capacity of 2265 people, whose placement around the stage from all sides was inspired by the building of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Santory Hall in Tokyo. Just like in the famous Vienna Musikverein, daylight falls into the hall through the ceiling.
Construction of the hall began in 1992 and was stopped after two years. The success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao revived the project in 1998. Gehry’s team changed some parts of the project and used the BIM technology which was fully available for the first time. It was designed entirely digitally, using the CATIA software designed for the aerospace and automotive industries. It is thus a groundbreaking project in architecture, which enabled to maintain full control over the design of the design and the building as well.
Just like with all projects, Gehry created a number of models from paper and balsa (very light wood), there were 82 models only for the interior, including a 1:10 model, which tested the acoustics of the hall. The interior of the concert hall is lined with fir wood, the organ has an exceptional design. The exterior of the building is inspired by the sails of the sailboats from the nearby harbour.
Michal Sedláček graduated at the Faculty of Architecture of the Brno University of Technology and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. After the Velvet Revolution, he went to the USA and established himself in the team of one of the globally most famous contemporary architects, Frank O. Gehry. He worked for Gehry for over eight years, and then founded his own architectural team with several colleagues, connected with Aedas (Aedas LA Managing Partner), based in Los Angeles and operating worldwide.
The lecture takes place on Monday, 18th May 2015 at 6 p.m. (A tour of the villa is not included in the lecture).
The lecture will be in Czech.
Entrance fee is 100 CZK; students and senior citizens 50 CZK.
Booking is required to the lecture by phone +420 515 511 015/017 or e-mail: info@tugendhat.eu (limited capacity of 70 people).
A poster for the lecture can be downloaded here.
Frank O. Gehry studio 
Frank O. Gehry studio 
Models of the concert hall and the organ 
Models of the concert hall and the organ 
A model of the building 
A model of the concert hall with musicians and audience 
The interior of the concert hall with organ and orchestra pit 
Digital CATIA models 
Exterior of the building 
photo Jan Vala 
photo Jan Vala 
photo Jan Vala 
photo Jan Vala 
photo Jan Vala 
photo Jan Vala