Serbian Cultural Center

Location:	Mississauga, Canada
Status:	Feasibility study ongoing
Date:	2024-Present

Office Ou has been engaged to developed a program brief and pre-design report for a new banquet hall and cultural centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

Office Ou is part of a sub-committee whose aim has been to submit a pre-consultation application to the City of Mississauga with the intent of receiving a formal endorsement of the project by the Planning Department in order to properly assess the overall feasibility of the project. The members of the sub-committee have held several in person meetings, completed questionnaires prepared by the Office Ou, attended online meeting with the City of Mississauga Heritage Department, and carried out site visits to other banquet halls. Office Ou has completed a programme brief, and proposed three different visions and site strategies to redevelop the site to include new facilities, cultural amenities and outdoor spaces.

Ada Park: Mixed-Use Community

Location:	Belgrade, Serbia
Status:	Study submitted
Date:	2024

Belgrade’s identity, ecosystems and history are defined by its relationship to the Danube and Sava rivers.

Ada park will set a new precedent for sustainable and resilient development along Belgrade’s rivers, embracing old and new ways to engage with its landscapes in day-to-day life. Ada Park combines office, residential, commercial programming, around transit-connected public spaces. It is place of business (Negotium) and of leasure (Otium), where urban fabric and local landscapes support one-another.

The site of future Ada Park is located at an intersection of two major regional transects: (1) the Sava River valley edge, and (2) the Belgrade suburban transition. 

Sava River Valley Edge 

Belgrade’s identity, ecosystems and history are defined by its relationship to the Danube and Sava Rivers, and the conditions of the river valley edge. On the lower part of its course, near its confluence with Danube, the Sava flow through a wide valley bounded on the south by forested slopes of Banovo Brdo, and extending far to the north. Tradionally, for vast majority of its history, the site was identified by its location within Sava River valley. The site is located near the bottom of the river valley, within a floodplain forest below the mesic forest of Banovo Brdo. Before 20th century, the spatial character and its inhabitation was determined entirely by the river valley transect. 

Belgrade Suburban Transition 

As the city of Belgrade expanded in the second half of 20th century, the site found itself in the transition zone between the rural and urban landscape. Today the site is situation at the precise point where the rural landscape ends and suburban landscape begins. The site is therefore equally defined by its location at the entrance to the city. It has become a gateway into Belgrade. 

Both the river valley transect and the rurar-urban transition define the character and the unique opportunities of the site as it is today. The project should take advantage of the extremely unique condition that the site provides. 

Taksim Belongs to Everyone: Cultivating Spaces for Pluralism

Location:	Istanbul, Turkey
Status:	Competition Finalist
Date:	2020

Diversity is at the core of Instanbul's identity. Connecting Europe and Asia, Istanbul has always been one of the most internationally diverse cities; a global hub gathering people, and goods from all over the world.

Diversity is also at the core of Taksim's identity. As the modern, post-Ottoman, centre of Istanbul, Taksim is surrounded by monuments representing diverse beliefs, cultures, and ideas. Once a Greek-Armenian neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city, it was also a symbolic space of Kemalism and Modernism, a tourist destination, and a centre for Istanbul's alternative subcultures.

Methodology for Cultivating a Space for Pluralism:

Diversity is the identity of Taksim, and Istanbul. Pluralism is the explicit valuing of diversity as such.  A pluralist space encourages everyone to maintain their independent cultural traditions, while at the same time including them in the overall collective.

The proposal would cultivate a pluralist space through following four aims:

Step 1

Already existing differences and identities need to be recognized, and the integrity of these identities should be preserved and enhanced.

Step 2

The Commons, a shared space where differences can be negotiated, must be clearly defined and delieneated. The Commons are a basic infrastructure for human life. They need to be accessible, and safe for everyone.

Step 3

Wherever possible, the shared commons should be enhanced in order to supported further diversity.

Step 4

Finally, the inclusion of others needs to be facilitated. Procedures encouraging inclusivity are established.

Historical Monuments of Taksim

Layers of Infrastructure for Pluralism

Masterplan - An Eclectic Scenario

Taksim Belongs to Everyone:

Taksim Gezi Park is in the southernmost green patch of the Bosphorus Green System, a system of parks that is traditionally called “koru”. The korus has situated along with Bosphorus and serves for local and immigrant fauna as well as flora.

Historic Istanbul has been surrounded by cemeteries and gardens providing fresh food for the city. Today, only a few of the gardens have been remained.

As the Gezi Park was a cemetery in past, and redeveloped  as an urban park. It is still one of the most crucial green spaces within the dense urban development of Istanbul for its citizens and visitors. Its historic role of water distribution benefiting from its situation on the top of ridge-line highlights its critical role as a urban infrastructure and provision as well as opportunities to foster the ecological flows penetrating city and towards the Marmara Sea in South.

Axo of market and transport hub building

Market and Transport Hub Entrance

Taksim Square

Taksim Square at night

Pedestrian Boulevard leading to Maksem Plaza

Pedestrian Boulevard

Alphabet Sidewalk Labs Toronto Headquarters - 'Good Neighbours'

Location:	Toronto, Ontario
Status:	Finalist RFP Entry
Date:	2018

Office Ou was invited by Sidewalk Labs to propose a design for their new Toronto Headquarters, and has been selected as a finalist. Housed in a repurposed industrial building, this will be a workspace and testing ground for new urban design proposals and technologies for the next 3 to 5 years, until the building is demolished to make way for Sidewalk Labs’ Quayside development.

Quayside is a very ambitious urban design experiment which may have a widespread influence on future development in the Portlands and beyond. We believe that whether it succeeds or not will depend largely on how well Toronto's citizens are involved.

We asked ourselves, how can architecture support community building, welcome local citizens in, and provide a productive interface between Sidewalk’s ongoing research and the many groups who hold an interest in the project? The other imperative is sustainability, which is also a major theme of Sidewalk’s urban design work. How can a temporary building be made sustainable? And how to do it all on a very tight budget?

A set of 'porches' structure the interior space and provide interfaces between different areas - inside to outside, public to private

The site strategy creates an inviting and flexible space that builds up ecological value and reduces stormwater runoffs.

Office/Commons Porch, Workshop/Commons, and Front porches, in different configurations

Project cubbies, demountable walls, benches, platforms

Our proposal is structured around a set of three large wooden ‘porches’, which mediate between the building and city, and between the internal public space and Sidewalk’s offices / workshops. We were inspired directly by the porches of ordinary houses across the city, which offer a place for neighbors to get to know each other and, house by house, form a community. The porches act as as set of stages and thresholds to structure interactions within and in front of the building.

Given the highly diverse and uncertain uses that may occupy Sidewalk Labs HQ, the rest of the project is implemented as a furniture-scaled, mobile kit of parts. These components, including project cubbies, platforms, benches, and demountable walls, are designed to be rapidly fabricated out of plywood using Sidewalk’s own CNC equipment, and set up in a range of scenarios. This allows the space to change and grow while retaining a cohesive identity. Some uses will be directly related to Sidewalk’s work, and some are purely for the local community’s use. We expect to Sidewalk HQ could restore some of the spaces that are disappearing within the city: concert and performance venues, affordable work / creative space, outdoor event space and even public gardening space.

Sharing space will ensure continued visibility for Sidewalk Labs’ project for Quayside, and encourage collaboration with community groups, universities / colleges, artists and writers, residents, and everyone who has something to contribute.

The temporary nature of the project also suggested a different approach to sustainability, less focused on energy use, and more on what becomes of the project beyond its first lifespan. All the porches and mobile components are designed with upcycling, flexibility, and biodegradability in mind from the very start. The new elements in our proposal can be subdivided and repurposed into parklets and pollinator gardens to be distributed throughout the city through partnerships with local organizations and community groups. Other materials (like mycelium board) can biodegraded into growing medium. This intentions are made very clear by labeling every space or element in the building with its future identity. This built-in capacity for transformation ensures that the time and money invested now, will have an impact well beyond the project’s expected lifespan.

Hackathon

Product / system demonstration

Lecture

Performance

Labeling System

Porch Reuse

Curtain Reuse

Lety u Písku

Location:	Lety, Czech Republic
Status:	Finalist Design
Date:	2020

Running through the length of the site, the scar is the physical manifestation of a story which has been buried, the story of the Roma and Sinti. Constant, unwavering and unbroken, it is meant to relay that the land and its people have witnessed a trauma. 

While the site’s final design cannot fully be defined without the input of survivors, their families and the Roma and Sinti communities, the proposal creates a procession through the site: from the visitor center, the scar leads visitors from the waters of Lipes Pond, north through the pig farm, a contemporary layer of trauma, and into the reconstructed concrete walls of the so-called- Gypsy camp, from which visitors emerge into the forest to gradually meet the burial site. This procession is meant to be an immersive, solemn and informative experience, where visitors begin to understand the complex layers of the site’s history. It is an experience where layers of history intersect with current conditions to illustrate the story of Roma and Sinti people in Bohemia. 

We believe this memorial can also become a gateway to the story of Roma and Sinti in the broader region, and educational trails and pathways will reconnect critical historical sites to the memorial: the quarry, the parish cemetery in Mirovice and the train station. This will be done through trail markers and a series of new benches and informational signage that use the same materiality as that of the memorial. 

Site Plan

Following the scar, the story of the site unfolds and the history of the Roma and Sinti is revealed. The Scar brings visitors through a procession of stories, artifacts, empty spaces, narrow pathways, successional forest-scapes, and memorials. Whether arriving on site via the parking lot on the west, or through the trails connected to Lety and neighbouring towns, the memorial’s elements form a sequence that can be viewed in many different orders. The story of the site can begin at the visitor centre where introductory material is provided and the basic necessities of the site are located. The visitor centre is a point of departure, or point of comfort, and a hub for all exhibition buildings on site. 

Repurposed pig farms house exhibition and museum spaces that showcase the history of the Roma and Sinti before, during and after WW2, as well as introducing spaces for more contemporary cultural exhibits. The pig farms stand as a fragment of the site’s history, namely an attempt to cover up and disregard the atrocities which took place on the land. To demolish the farm would effectively erase an important aspect of the site and the narrative: that for so long after the war, the story of this land has been ignored and hidden. Overall, these spaces provide 2059 m2 of open air performance and exhibition spaces and 2000m2 of temperature controlled closed exhibition space. These newly repurposed spaces should also be a platform for contemporary Roma and Sinti culture, supporting their agency. They should be safe spaces, spaces of resilience where Roma and Sinti culture can thrive through cultural and artistic expression, installations, performances and lectures. During the first phase of construction we foresee repurposing one farm building to contain all exhibits; these exhibits could during the second phase be split into two buildings and expanded with contemporary cultural content. 

As one moves along the scar, the pig farms deconstruct and give way to the resurrected camp walls. The scar, a 0.4m deep physical cut in the landscape, deepens to 2.5m by the camp walls, allowing visitors to pass through this barrier that was a prison for so many. The ground slopes towards the scar to create entry points and guards as needed. The scar releases visitors into the barren camp, where only emptiness greets them. Ruins of camp buildings are intended to be maintained within the camp walls, however this site is intended to be a contemplative void. The scar is built out of concrete, with a thin slice of weathering steel embedded at the top, changing the concrete’s patina over time. 

Passing through the only narrow cut in the camp walls, one is directed towards the burial ground. This pathway through the forest is a direct juxtaposition with the emptiness within the camp boundary. It is meant to be a reflective moment for visitors intended to quietly lead them to the burial site. Along that path, a series of wayfinding and minimal concrete benches would tell the story of the different victims, building a personal portrait that culminates in the arrival to the burial ground. Whether it is the beginning of the procession, or the end, Lipes pond lies at a point of intersection with the scar. The physical manifestation of pain vanishes into the shores of the pond’s waters.

Approaching the Former Camp

The building strategy aims to be sensitive to the memory of the site as well as lower carbon footprint by reusing existing structures and reducing new construction on site. Rather than removing the entirety of the pig farms on site, erasing their memory as an integral part of the traumatic history of the site, we propose reusing a selected few pig farms as exhibition and performance spaces. With minimal gravel and soil infilling, as well as interior retrofits and insulation, the buildings can help tell the story of the site, while minimizing new construction and waste. The pig farms are deconstructed into four primary forms. 

The only new structure we foresee being erected on site would be the visitor center. While occupying a small footprint, the visitor center would be a hub for knowledge on the site and the regional network of historically significant places. It contains an information center, office spaces with necessary amenities, storage and warehouse spaces and public restrooms. The design is minimal yet functional, and offers flexibility to expand any spaces required. Its canopy creates sheltered seating and gathering spaces for groups, as well as a contemplation garden, which we imagine being home to a Roma or Sinti art installation, facing the entry to the scar. This building can be built to passive house and electricity net-zero standards. Use of high-efficiency air-sourced heat pumps and hydronic radiant heating would be offset by the use of low-profile solar panels located within the flat roof of the building. 

Pig Farm deconstruction

Exhibition space

Entry and Visitor Centre

A Home for Art Within Nature: Dugok-ri Cultural Resource Facility

Location:	Dugok-ri, South Korea
Status:	Competition Proposal
Date:	2020

The landscape of this part of Hoengseong-gun is defined by a mix of lush forested hills and productive agricultural fields. This mix of ancestral nature and productive landscapes provides a rich context for a new cultural facility. This facility aims to become a revitalizing cultural and economic force for the region, but also provide a platform for local creativity, and work as a hub for a new regional network of cultural institutions (some existing and some new).

The Cultural Resource Centre Complex is to be built in a secluded rural location, which offers it bold opportunities for connecting with the rich local landscape of forested hills and fields. A home for art must be designed within the local landscapes, taking cues from the site to define its placement. It rises upward from the valley of agricultural fields, yet comfortably nestles within the lush forested hills, respecting the local typology and flows of the site. It must proudly represent the beauty of local lifestyles (through spatial organization, materiality and building programming) while humbly embedding itself within the land.

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Context Plan

Building Site Plan

 The site plan makes full use of the local topography to provides efficient access for visitors, staff and loading while respecting the local landscape and providing a unique way to experience art within nature (both fields and forests). 

The building stacks and flows along the site’s topography, making use of the different datums to create separate access points: Public access happens uphill while private access (loading and staff) happens downhill. The main public entrance is located within a peaceful central forecourt enclosed by the hills and the building, it is accessible from all sides, whether visitors are coming from local villages, mountain paths or by local transit or car. The central public area beyond that forecourt extends onto the roofs of the private spaces below, these public terraces become flexible exhibition areas with magnificent views of the surroundings. 

Building Morphology

Elevation and Section

Pedestrian Boulevard

View towards main entrance forecourt

Spirit of Forgotten Forests

Location:	Kyoto, Japan
Status:	Competition Entry
Date:	2018

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Plan and Section

A project in collaboration with Asuka Kohno

Kyoto was built on the strength of a very intimate relationship between the human realm and the nature which cradles it. From that relationship, an appreciation of landscapes and their changing character grew to become an integral part of the rituals of daily life (a folklore of spirits, hidden in light and obscurity, in the movement or stillness of plants and water, of soils and stones.)

Long ago, the site of this project was a forest, but today it is nothing more than an isolated patch of greenery, disconnected from its traditional presence in daily life by tall hedges; but take a peek behind the hedges and you’ll find a forest with its own story to tell.

Besides the formal pathways, sidewalks and parking lots that have become the spaces of daily life, we find a small patch of forest yearning to be rediscovered. We enter and find three distinct landscapes, each with its own character, its own spirit. To communicate with these landscapes we insert a small temporary structure inspired by that landscape, a lantern-like device to capture and amplify its unique qualities. These structures invite us to dwell within a forgotten forest, to observe its beauty, and immerse ourselves in its stories with all of our senses. In addition to existing hedges, we designed simple earth walls, benches and plantings that guide people's gaze and movement towards discovering the three different spirits of the site. The sequence through the site is designed to engage visitors in a playful game of hide-and-seek with each of the three landscapes.

Procession / Experiences

Three spirits of the site:

A. 温糺室 / A warm room

Under a dense coniferous forest canopy, warm waterways course through herbaceous plants; within this soft and humid space, one feels cocooned within the warmth of the local ancestral forests that once occupied the site.

B. 木漏れ日 / Sunlight and shadows

Further into the site, the shadows of barren deciduous trees sway in the wind. Within the shoji-like enclosure, visitors find a place where they can enjoy the theatrical performance created by the winter forest.

C. 巣床 / Burrow / Nest bed

Furthest along the path, animals look for places to nest and burrow. Visitors are invited to lower their point of view, hiding themselves close to the ground in a sheltered place where one can see without being seen, and experience a rarely seen side of the forest.

Construction system and timeline

Winnipeg Warming Huts

Location:	Winnipeg, Manitoba
Status:	Competition Entry
Date:	2018

To bring warmth to a Winnipeg winter, we propose a simple and evocative set of curving walls made of undyed industial felt. Felt is an ancient material that speaks to us of warmth and comfort not only through it’s insulating qualities, but also it’s soft texture and colour, its density and round sculpural forms. Rather than creating a single enclosed space, the meandering walls form pockets of shelter, sized for groups from 3 to 10. At 3.0m high, the walls are high enough to create a sense of deep enclosure, but still open to views of the Forks. The felt will be made rigid and self-supporting by being soaked in water and frozen in the -30°C cold. The assembly process will be a performance in itself, as a pump draws water up from below the river’s frozen surface, and transforms a flimsy substance, hung from portable frames, into a hard shell that nonetheless appears soft.

Construction Process

No. 9 Gardens

Location:	Lyndhurst, Ontario, Canada
Status:	Masterplanning
Date:	2018

No 9 is a Toronto-based arts organization with a mission to educate youths about environmental concerns through art and design. Following several years of delivering educational workshops with school boards and arts institutions, No 9 is now taking the leap to develop its own educational camp, that will not only teach, but also test and develop the latest practices in sustainable building and agriculture. In collaboration with Sandra Iskandar Architect (responsible for building design and general layout), Office Ou is developing a masterplan for the No. 9 Gardens, defining a comprehensive set of sustainable building and landscape strategies.

The project includes an existing barn plus a greenhouse, classrooms, culinary kitchen, dormitory, and a wood/metal fabrication studio, all organized around a central wildflower garden / gathering space. The surrounding landscape is a designed to fit the existing site conditions

TRK Winery

Location: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada
Status: Planning
Date: 2018

The client is interested in creating a winery that provides visitors a unique experience, a way to feel engaged in the wine-making process. This winery will not cater to large tour groups, but instead welcome smaller groups of visitors that would like to learn and even take part in the life of a vineyard.

This winery will include a range of different spaces, from productive areas (fermentation room, barrel room, bottle storage room, lab, etc...), educational spaces (conference rooms, seminar rooms, tasting room), and commercial spaces including a small bistro and store. It will also include a small inn to provide accommodation to visitors to allow them to dwell on site longer and properly experience the daily processes of the winery.

In order to do that, we’ve designed a building that engages the surrounding productive landscapes, directly linking the vineyards to the internal processing spaces of the building. As visitors explore the winery they are able to gain an under- standing of the wine-making process and of the landscapes that support it (the grapevines, the supporting pollinator species and indicator species).

The project will be split into three different phases. Phase 1 will include construction of the main production space and a small commercial area. Phase 2 will add the educational facilities, and extend the production area. Phase 3 will add the inn component of the project and a distillery.

The first phase of the project is due to be completed in 2018.

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Creemore House

Location:	Creemore, Ontario
Status:	Construction
Date:	2018

The clients acquired a 5 ha piece of land near Creemore with a dream of living on a site where they can grow their own food as well as processing it into different types of preserves, dry goods and cooked dishes. We designed their home as a flexible productive hub, a place whose identity changes with the seasons, and the agricultural and culinary activities associated with different times of the year.

The house has a large flexible interior, an east-facing patio for processing crops, and large overhangs on the South side equipped with a hanging system to dry all kinds of site-harvested foods including persimmons, wild flowers, radishes, cattails, wild rice, etc... Most drying activities take place during spring, summer and fall, taking optimal advantage of the southward exposure of the house.

During the winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, the facade is not used for drying any produce, letting the sun shine far into the house, passively warming it.

This house is another foray into the use of straw as insulative material, and the building envelope reaches R-values of 45-50 through the use of 16” thick walls made of locally harvested straw.

Biophilic Housing Matrix

Location:	Seoul, South Korea
Status:	Research / Publication
Date:	2017

Many of climate change’s threats — floods, droughts, loss of biodiversity and food systems — disproportionately affect cities as urban populations rise. How a city like Seoul is designed in relation to social and natural systems has tremendous consequences for urban resilience, the capacity to feed populations, and the ability to prevent, survive, mitigate, and adapt to climactic and environmental change. The biophilic housing matrix tackles issues of urban resilience by intertwining productive natural systems and housing.

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Our definition of urban resilience draws on theories from ecology, disaster risk reduction, urban planning and governance – but is based primarily on the Panarchy theory of resilience by system ecologists Gunderson and Holling. Resilience, or the tolerance of a system, is defined by the capacity it has to absorb disturbance and reorganize while retaining the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks. Applied to the context of Seoul, our proposed interventions explore how the following resilience-bolstering design principles manifest in the built form: Social and ecological integration, small scale action with large scale thinking, always be learning and modularity.

These 4 design principles are applied to our concept, as we aim to connect people to one another and to an urban ecology through agricultural production. We are interested in exploring opportunities for ecological and agricultural cultivation and harvesting as an integrated live/work experience. The resulting productive networks create communities and identities defined by purpose, place, and production. Among the many types of typologies that can be created, this project elaborates upon orchard homes, pollinator meadow homes and urban farm homes for food production.

Condominium Renovation

Location:	Toronto, Ontario
Status:	Built
Date:	2013

The condominium was outdated and flood- damaged. Years of neglect had left its walls and carpeting cigarette-stained. Yet we knew this place could once again become a comfortable homestead through the use of natural materials like untreated douglas fir, which was used as flooring material and for the construction of benches as well as headboards.

This full condominium renovation transformed a neglected interior into a simple and contemporary canvas for the owners to exhibit their art and antiquities collections.

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Floating Theatre

Location:	Berlin, Germany
Status:	Competition, Winning Entry
Date:	2015

The First Prize winning entry of the OISTAT Theatre Architecture Competition 2015. This ideas competition asked designers to conceive a floating theatre on the river Spree, at a location known as Holzmarkt. Like much of east Berlin, this area has supported a thriving independent culture for many years, although this too now faces commercial development pressure. The theatre is designed for performance of Judith Thompson’s The Crackwalker, a play with four principal actors, typically staged for small audiences, which focuses on people living on the margins of society. While climaxing in an event of unmitigated, tragic suffering, the play also reveals the innermost dreams, loves and affection of its subjects.

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The theatre strives to abolish the spectators’ privileged position over the performer, avoiding easy, merely voyeuristic, sympathy that often accompanies works depicting the lives of the disadvantaged. A four-sided arena layout, reflecting the symmetry of the four protagonists, creates an intensely intimate experience. The stage is not separated and the performance can take place around the audience. Scenes which are not meant to be visible (on playwright’s explicit instruction) can be hidden from sight, yet take place in close proximity. Evening performances will have the feeling of a gathering around a campfire.

The location of the theatre on the water creates a sense of isolation and sacredness, but also of openness, and implicitly addresses all of Berlin into the performance. Simple, highly formal design using raw, low cost materials works in the spirit of Holzmarkt’s character, without fetishizing it, or producing architecture of spectacle.

Takeshita Concert Hall

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Location:	Tokyo, Japan
Status:	Competition Entry
Date:	2015

The Takeshita House of Music is located between a centre of youth pop culture on Takeshita-Dori, the high-street shopping of Meiji-Dori (connecting Takeshita to Omotesando), and the traditional landscape of the Togo Shrine. This context presents an opportunity to create a place of exchange between these different worlds, attracting a wider range of audiences and performers, fluidly accommodating the contrasting identities of adjacent neighborhoods.

Our proposal is an attempt to remove from the music hall any sense of exclusivity, monumentality, or association with an unapproachable ‘high’ culture. Instead, the concert hall must be accessible and open. To this end, the theatre volume is wrapped in a lightweight, open structure, which allows public spaces such as the restaurant and bar to support the life on the street as well as serving the guests seeing a performance. This type of structure is a contemporary adaptation of traditional Japanese framing typologies, which allow spaces to be selectively indoor or outdoor.

A narrow, one storey pavilion extends the commercial frontage on the north side of TakeshitaDori, and creates a permeable transition into a public square that links Meiji-Dori Street to the Togo Shrine garden path, and to the entrance foyer of the theatre.

The concert hall itself is the classic shoebox shapeof dimensions similar to Boston Symphony Hall (still considered one of the acoustically greatest halls in the world) with three tiers of wraparound balconies. The end wall behind the stage is acoustic glazing, corrugated to diffuse sound, allowing natural light into the hall while presenting the image of the city as a backdrop to the performance. Towards the entrance, the concert hall lobbies on each floor face onto the Togo Shrine park. In addition, the ground level side walls of the theatre are designed to pivot open, creating for certain events a new public relationship between the concert hall and its surroundings. These pivoting panels not only allow for a seamless transition between the plaza and the concert hall, they also help welcome a greater variety of musical genres within the concert hall by creating an open condition which is more acoustically suitable for amplified music.