Casa de la Ópera, Busan

Abstract

Trabajo realizado para el concurso internacional de ideas para establecer un diseño para la Casa de la Ópera de Busan que se espera comience construirse en el 2014. El diseño se basará en una variedad de ideas de especialistas nacionales y extranjeros, así como grupos de estudiantes. Incluirá una gran variedad de instalaciones que promuevan una amplia gama de actividades artísticas a la vez que ser accesible a la ciudad y sus ciudadanos. La gran escala de este proyecto pondrá a Busan como una ciudad de talla internacional.

The inspiration behind the formal concept of Busan´s Opera House is that of a pearl. A pearl is a gem produced within the soft tissue of a living marine organism. Due to their superior quality, natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, the word pearl has become a metaphor for something very rare, fine, admirable, and valuable. This is also true for Busan, a living, dynamic, energetic marine center where this project originated as a beauty icon, as a statement of what the city produces and gives to the world: Busan‘s finest. But an object of such beauty cannot be left exposed to the elements, it must be sheltered and cherished. That is why the project was conceived using a bioclimatic scheme, protecting it from the elements, with a shield embracing the pearl but allowing it to shine and be admired. However, a city like Busan cannot produce a generic, unspecific pearl, but rather an extremely rare pearl, a pearl that can only be found in nature, a pearl that has long been venerated in Asia but has only recently been discovered by the West: a Melo Pearl. In this way Busan achieves something that had, until now, been impossible: to culture a Melo Pearl. The main component of our project of the Busan Opera House is its bioclimatic character. The design takes into consideration the environment, the climate of the area and its specific characteristics. Our main interest is to make the best use of local natural resources and climate in order to design a complex that is energy efficient, has low maintenance costs and is a model to be used by future generations.