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21. Seeing Music and Listening to Architecture: Iannis Xenakis and La Philharmonie de Paris

  • Brigitte Métra (author)
Chapter of: Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies(pp. 355–360)

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Metadata
Title21. Seeing Music and Listening to Architecture
SubtitleIannis Xenakis and La Philharmonie de Paris
ContributorBrigitte Métra (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0390.23
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0390/chapters/10.11647/obp.0390.23
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightBrigitte Métra
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-10-09
Long abstractIannis Xenakis has created architectural, musical, and visual works. His architectures are true spatial transpositions of musical works. His extraordinary way of linking space and music opened a new field of reflection and research. A short overview through illustrations from the Philips Pavilion, one of the origins of his inquiry in his Diatope (‘music to be seen’), to his project for the Cité de la Musique (‘a musical jewel box’) allows us to see the evolution of his work bringing forth an unprecedented relationship between architecture and music. In 1980, noting the mediocrity of concert halls of the time, he wrote, ‘we must invent an architectural form that will liberate collective listening’. La Philharmonie de Paris concert hall seems to be one answer to Xenakis's wish, creating a new architectural form serving music. As architects of La Philharmonie de Paris concert hall and music lovers, we wanted to create an instrument allowing immersion in music, echoing the spatialized contemporary music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A presentation of La Philharmonie de Paris concert hall will highlight the two different approaches, with some parallel paths, and with similar goals: to create an experience that is both musical and visual, allowing one to ‘see music’ and to ‘hear architecture’.
Page rangepp. 355–360
Print length6 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Brigitte Métra

(author)

Brigitte Métra created her architectural studio in 2003 (Métra + Associés). There, she is developing her own architecture, having built a performance hall in Dole, an 84,000 m2 multifunctional urban unit in Paris (bus center, offices of the Ministry of the Interior, Middle School, Kindergarten), a neurosurgical implant unit in Besançon, apartment buildings in Nantes and Nanterre, as well as office buildings in Paris and Besançon. In association with Les Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Métra + Associés delivered a theater in Perpignan and the concert hall of La Philharmonie de Paris as associate architect for its conception and construction. Creation and poetry, harmony between culture and nature are the vectors of Brigitte Métra’s architecture. She has been promoted to Chevalière de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur by the French Grand Chancery, and Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. She is also a full member of the French Académie d’Architecture. https://brigittemetra.com/