PiM.studio + mcconville
MSCTY_EXPO (LDF ZONE)
PiM.studio + mcconville
For his piece responding to the work of PiM.studio, mcconville takes elements from nature and digitally manipulates them to show a distorted version of acoustic sounds, while still leaving them recognisable and connected to their source, or to show digital approximations of natural sounds. The piece aims to create a representation of space both inside and outside of the building at different times throughout the day.
Video
Introduction video by PiM.studio Architects about A music hall in the Alps, Valsolda, Italy, 2019 – competition
Architects Statement
"Being able to express the idea that on the outside the project is fully “integrated” with nature, and also, from the inside, with the large glass window, Nature becomes the visual background of the musical experience, it would nice and important."
This project was developed as a competition proposal for a small music hall in the Italian Alps, about a year ago. When we started to look at the project brief, and most importantly at the place where the music hall was meant to be built on, it was immediately clear to us that this project could not be about “architecture”. Normally it is not easy for architects to say your project shouldn’t be about architecture, and to put aside architects’ typically big egos. But it was clear that in our proposal we should focus on what this project was really about: music and nature. [Maurizio Mucciola]
This beautiful place is on the mountain facing the Italian side of Lugano lake and is very close to the places where I grew up and the mountains I used to explore as a young scout with my friends. I visited this area many times and I remember vividly the beauty and the power of Nature in these mountains. This is why my first thought when starting to think about the design was: if you are in this beautiful place, listening to a concert, you barely need anything else and the architecture should be as little intrusive as possible; and if anything, it should enhance the experience of music in the nature for musicians and the public. So, we decided that from the outside the architecture should be almost invisible; we lifted the ground to make space underneath for the hall and we covered the roof with local vegetation in continuity with the landscape around it. The green roof is very important because it minimises the visual impact from the higher points of the mountain above, maintaining a continuity of the natural elements and vegetation that are the foundation of the view, particularly suggestive, of the lake and surrounding mountains that can be enjoyed from this side. [Maria-Chiara Piccinelli]
For the interior of the music hall we have used one single material, wood, for the structure, the floor, ceiling and the walls. Walls that can open entirely to one side giving continuity between inside and outside and creating the opportunity for outdoor music with musicians on the outdoor stage next to the hall, and the public sitting on the gentle natural slope. The background wall of the stage is a full-size window so that the stunning view of the lake and the mountains is the real background for enjoying the music and so that the experience can focus on the harmony between the music and the natural landscape. [Maurizio Mucciola]
This arrangement is reminiscent of the archaic type of the Hellenic theatre, in which both what took place on the stage and the context that framed it, was suggesting the image of a harmonious, ideal and enveloping space between man and nature.
Exterior (Visualisation)
© PiM.studio
Interior (Visualisation)
© PiM.studio
THE COMPOSER + THE ARCHITECT
ABOUT
mcconville
Thomas McConville is an Irish composer and sound artist, working in the field of acoustic and electro-acoustic composition. Under the mononym ‘mcconville’, he has released his compositions through the labels, Apollo/R&S Records, Schematic Music Company and Resist AV gaining support from BBC Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 6, RTÉ Lyric, Radio France, electronic music duo Plaid and artists from the PC Music collective among others.
Moving between electronic and classical composition, his self-titled debut ep (released on Apollo Records) was named on a range of ‘best of year’ lists. He continues to write in multiple genres, currently exploring the juxtaposition of the human voice enmeshed within a digital pop context.
facebook.com/mcconvillemusic
soundcloud.com/thomasmcconville
Image © mcconville
ABOUT
PiM.Studio
“We feel strongly that the very best buildings sit happily in their context. Place is always our starting point. We take nothing for granted about a place but immerse ourselves in it. Out of this process comes a design that responds to its context and belongs.”
Maurizio Mucciola is an Architect and Director of PiM.studio Architects in London.
Maurizio is fascinated by the relationship between city, architecture and public places, and is passionate about rethinking the way these interact. How can we create better connections between private and public spaces? How can internal and external spaces better flow into one another? How can people positively influence the way public spaces are used? He has explored all of these questions in his work as lead architect for V&A Dundee, a dramatic building which draws people to the waterfront, revitalises the idea of public space, and blurs the boundaries between a building and its surroundings.
Before setting up PiM.studio with Maria-Chiara Piccinelli in 2016, Maurizio worked with Kengo Kuma & Associates in Tokyo, Edinburgh and Paris, with OMA/Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, and with Jeffrey Inaba at C-Lab in New York.
In December 2019 he has been elected as a Fellow Member of the RIBA in recognition to a significant contribution to architecture, the profession and the community.
He is also a member of the RIAS (Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland).
Maurizio holds a Master of Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano and a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from GSAPP – Columbia University.
He teaches at the London School of Architecture, co-leading with Maria-Chiara Piccinelli one of the LSA Design Think Tanks and he’s a RIBA student mentor.
Maria-Chiara Piccinelli is an Architect and Director of PiM.studio Architects in London.
Maria-Chiara is as interested in the technical aspects of architecture – the finer details, the way things fit together, the materials – as she is in the way we use the spaces in which we live and work. She is a strong believer in the importance of public spaces for a city to thrive, and in the crucial role nature plays within architecture.
As a director of PiM.studio alongside Maurizio Mucciola, she brings to the practice many years of experience leading complex and high-profile projects. She began her career in Italy, and has since worked in Tokyo, Edinburgh and Paris for Kengo Kuma & Associates, and in Rotterdam for OMA/Rem Koolhaas. Most recently, she applied her rigour and eye for detail as project architect on the much-heralded revamp of the Galleries Lafayette revamp in Paris for Amanda Levete Architects.
She is registered with the ARB (Architects Registration Board) and with the OAPPC (the architects register in Italy).
Maria-Chiara holds a Master of Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano, and she co-leads with Maurizio Mucciola a Design Think Tank at The London School of Architecture.
Maria-Chiara is also Architecture Ambassador for the RIBA National Schools Programme.
pim.studio
Image © Mark Cocksedge
Artwork © PiM.studio
Sound art © mcconville
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