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Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menis

The architecture firm Menis Arquitectos led by spanish architect Fernando Menis has designed Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki a contemporary concert hall located in Torún, Poland.

Project description by architect: 

Respectful integration with the environment

CKK Jordanki is located within a green ring around the historic city centre, overlooking the Vistula River. Therefore, special care was took in designing the orientation and height of the volumes so that the presence of the new building establishes a harmonious relationship with the natural and built environment. Thus the building occupies half of the plot, the other half being dedicated to park and the height is kept as low as possible, to avoid blocking the view over the river. The visual effect achieved is that of a natural object, a rock embedded in a gently sloping meadow.

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

On the other hand, the materiality refers Torun’s Gothic legacy, an UNESCO protected city, in which almost all the façades of the old town boast of red brick. CKK Jordanki’s outside is made of white concrete in contrast to the cuts in the skin that give a glimpse of the red inner lining, made of crushed brick. The use of brick in Jordanki CKK is a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional brick, is a reference to Torun’s façades, and ultimately to its cultural heritage.

a concert hall in Poland made with brick and concrete image © György Palkó

Flexible program 

The program is characterized by a great flexibility at such extent that a building, which according to the client’s brief, was meant to be only a concerts hall, ended up being a space for all kinds of concerts and events, within the same initial budget. First of all, the theatre space is able to adapt easily to different capacities. For instance you may join two rooms to act as the main theatre by moving the walls and changing the number of the easily removable seats. It is possible to hold several separate and simultaneous events. Secondly, thanks to its dynamic ceiling, the building can be tuned to effectively absorb symphonic performances, chamber, theatre, opera, and film and meet any acoustic requirements the theatre designer requires. Finally, the concert hall can open to the outside, allowing to join the interior stage with the park outside for outdoor performances.

concrete hall auditorium with insulation and lighting image © György Palkó

Recycling and innovation: picado

Picado, used in the entire building, is a mix of concrete and other materials. At CKK Jordanki, it was mixed either with reclaimed red bricks from a local factory (Ceramsus) for the sound reflection effect; either with a volcanic reddish stone from China, for its sound absorption effect. The picado is an innovative technique, conceived by Fernando Menis, consisting of mixing concrete with other materials and break it afterwards. Besides achieving a rough expression, the picado allows excellent acoustics results. The first time Menis used it, was for Magma Art & Congress (Tenerife, Canary Islands, 2005), by mixing concrete with local volcanic stones. For the CKK Jordanki, the technique has been researched further, tested and certified by the Spanish and the Polish Building Research Institute -ITB, respectively. The red brick is present almost on all the façades of the city and its use in CKK Jordanki is Menis’s contemporary reinterpretation of this traditional material while a clear reference to the town’s cultural heritage.

contemporary concrete hall design image © György Palkó

Acoustics system

The definition of the auditorium space and of its shapes was made through an interactive process, always in relation to acoustics, until reaching the final shape. The plastic properties of concrete allows its use in concert halls in many different ways because it allows you to control the geometry (liquid stone) and adapt its shape to the formwork so that you can control the first sound reflections the listener received. In addition, the surface treatment of the crushed brick and concrete mix, allowed us a kind of diffusion, very difficult to achieve with other materials.

auditorium hall design image © György Palkó

The moving parts of the auditorium have an area ranging from 80 to 140 m², having a weight that varies according to the piece, from 11 to 20Tn. Each of the pieces can move independently from 3 to 5 m in height, allowing adjustment of the geometry and volume of the hall, depending on the needs of each moment, transforming a volume of 8200 m³ with a time reverberation of 1.85 seconds, into a volume of 6,800 m3, with a reverberation time reduced down to 1.35 seconds. By adding additional absorption you could reach a reverberation time of 1.2 seconds, which covers the entire range of possible activities:  1.85 seconds for symphonic music, 1.6 seconds for opera and 1.2 seconds for theater.

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

auditorium hall with audience seats image © György Palkó

the visitors seat in concert hall image © György Palkó

the isle row between seats image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

auditorium seats for the audience to watch the stage image © György Palkó

black seats at the auditorium room image © György Palkó

concert hall auditorium with acoustic insulation and lighting in the ceiling image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

concert hall stage design image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

auditorium design image © György Palkó

black door and textured wall image © György Palkó

textured wall interior design image © György Palkó

auditorium audience seats toward the performance stage image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

concert hall with concrete walls image © György Palkó

salon with lighting image © György Palkó

sunlight enters the building through skylight in the ceiling image © György Palkó

contemporary build design image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

contemporary concert hall in Poland image © György Palkó

concert hall building with concrete and red brick facade image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

building facade with concrete and brick image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

black door image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

concrete facade image © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

man with bicycle in front of a concrete building image © György Palkó

inclined shape window in the wall image © György Palkó

inclined entrance door image © György Palkó

CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

building with illumination during evening image © György Palkó

concert hall building design image © György Palkó

CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

CKK Jordanki in Poland by Fernando Menisimage © György Palkó

Under Ground Floor PlanUnder Ground Floor Plan

Floor PlanFloor Plan

Third Floor PlanThird Floor Plan

Architectural Elevation drawing Elevation

Architectural Elevation drawing Elevation

Architectural Elevation drawing Elevation

Architectural Elevation drawing Elevation

Architectural Section Drawing Section

Architectural Section Drawing Section

Architectural Section Drawing Section

Architectural Section Drawing Section

Architectural Section Drawing Section

 

Project name: Culture and Congress Centre – CKK Jordanki

Architecture firm: Menis Arquitectos

Archietct: Fernando Menis

Location: Torún. Poland

Completion year: 2015

Total built area: 21837 m²

Photography: György Palkó

Client: Municipality of Torun


By Naser Nader Ibrahim

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