Henning Larsen Architects

Authors:
Troels Troelsen
Employees and Student Trainees:
Troels Troelsen, Viggo Haremst, Nina La Cour Sell, Charlotte Soderhamn Nielsen
Experts:
Büro Happold, UK
Ove Arup & Partners, UK

Explanatory report (abstract)
The heart of the building is the magnificent amphitheatric foyer. Here all the qualities of the project are brought together in a lively social meeting point.
The ambition is to create a visionary power centre for Amman's cultural life. It is not only a functional performing arts centre, but also magnificent and intense meeting place fort the citizens of Amman.
The cultural centre becomes the grand stage of the "Cultural Strip" with a Roman amphitheatre and citadel over the old city.
The public flow starts in the GAM strip and creates a crescendo culminating in the building complex thus creating a prominent landmark.
The heart of the building is the amphitheatric foyer. Here all the qualities of the place are brought together in a lively, social meeting point. It is shadowy crossing point between public landscape promenade and the multi-level foyer. The foyer is created as a terraced landscape giving access to the different levels of the auditoria via openings in the terraces.
The landscape and the building are unified. Indoor and outdoor areas are merged to a continuous and coherent sequence of spaces and a contrast between the monolithic base and the floating curved roof like an artificial cloud is created.
Multi-applicability and accessibility are keywords. Large or smaller informal performances can take place in the festive, amphitheatric foyer with the park as the backdrop. As the small hall is conceived as a multi- flexible space with either a flat or sloping floor, the large theatre has the possibility of creating a horizontal parterre for conferences, exhibitions, a celebration or a feast. One or more of the halls and education spaces can be directly accessed from the street level foyer, thus creating an independent conference centre.
The different levels of the amphitheatric foyer will have access to the levels of the halls as well as to different education, exhibition and rehearsal spaces. The park of the Cultural Centre has multiple functions: picnics, outdoors serving, music, theatre and lectures.

Remarks by the jury
The idea of extending the agglomeration of the existing urban fabric and the amphitheater-like continuation of the historic context as the heart of the complex was appreciated by the jury. The metaphor of the welcoming heart as a meeting place for the community was recognized as a potentially very strong starting point for the design. However, the jury felt that the architectural development had deficiencies both in the expression of the podium structure with its bulky front façades and the roof structure. It was noted that a coherent design bringing these two elements together was missing. The sense of space created by the proposed roof was seen as counterproductive to the expectations of an uplifting space and creates a too large volume. Moreover, the glass enclosures and the roof construction will be technical challenges and security risks adding to construction costs that are already exceeding the budget already by the too large areas. As a strong part of the project, the design of the two main theaters and their backstage areas has been recognized as truly successful.
It was only criticized that the annex for delivery, which is located in the northern section, is not well connected to the overall complex.
The jury unanimously appreciated the project’s ability to act as a magnet for the informal performances of the people augmenting the formal theatrical and musical performances.