In 1993, the City of Rome launched

In 1993, the City of Rome launched a limited competition for the construction of a multipurpose complex to host musical and cultural events. The Parco della Musica is situated between the Olympic Village, the Stadio Flamioni and the Pariol Quarter. The original competition did not stipulate three separate concert halls. However, in order to guarantee maximum flexibility of use and the best possible acoustics, Renzo Piano Building Workshop introduced this new concept to the project. The halls are conceived as giant individual musical instruments, ‘resonating chambers’, sitting in a landscape. The three halls are grouped in a semi-circle, their positions to some extent determined by the discovery, during early excavations, of a roman villa on the site and the wish to incorporate its display within the music centre. This layout results in a fourth space in the centre which became an outdoor amphitheatre known as the ‘Cavea’, with a capacity of almost 3000, an element which gives particular public and urban dimensions to the site.

A limited range of materials were used for the building: travertine for the ‘Cavea’, the foyer and the entrances; Roman brick for all of the vertical surfaces; pre-oxidised lead for the concert halls’ distinctive roofs. The interior is dominated by wood, carefully chosen for its acoustic qualities, but also for its attractiveness.

Petrassi Hall has 750 seats. It is a workshop dedicated to the study and performance of experimental music, an exceptionally versatile space with a mobile stage, an orchestra pit that can be lowered, and a stage area that can be expanded by eliminating the front four rows of seats. The characteristics of the walls can also be altered in order to obtain the best possible acoustics for each performance.
Sinopoli Hall has 1200 seats. While the space has a traditional rectangular auditorium layout, it also has a mobile ceiling and an adjustable stage. This hall is particularly suited to chamber music and dance performances.
Santa Cecilia Hall has 2800 seats. It is reserved for symphonic concerts. Its large size called for meticulous care in shaping the inner space based on sophisticated acoustic studies, simulations and tests on large-scale models. The stage is almost at the centre of the hall, with seating rising to various heights around the orchestra, not dissimilar to the solution conceived by Hans Scharoum for the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall. The suspended ceiling is made of 26 American Cherry wood panels, each with a surface of about 180m². This too is a space “designed through sound”, it’s steeped in sound, it is where listening to music becomes an almost religious experience. A concert here signifies a moment of shared artistic expression and cultural transmission.