Opera House
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Date
2020
Authors
SALMAN, YASMINA
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Journal ISSN
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Abstract
Opera house / Haifa
Approach:
This project is a reassessment of what music in Palestine is. We – the only
owners of the land – have to rediscover the spirit of the Palestinian
orchestral heritage and to represent it to the world. We face a lot of
problems in preserving Palestinian musical heritage, while all we know is
folk music, there is much more variety in the cities.
For Haifa, the capital of Palestinian and Arab music, I am representing the
soundscape of the city in a landscape inspired by the natural skyline of
Haifa.
Unlike the trend of representing heritage using pure traditional
architecture this project comes to emphasize the cultural richness of
Palestine and its flexibility with keeping up with modernism, yet having
hidden philosophy which provokes your mind to think, your soul to feel,
and your eye to observe.
Unlike the trend of representing heritage using pure traditional
architecture this project comes to emphasize the cultural richness of
Palestine and its flexibility with keeping up with modernism, yet having
hidden philosophy which provokes your mind to think, your soul to feel,
and your eye to observe.
Heading to a show here, gives you a whole round to experience the natural
landscape of Haifa. The main body gives you a feeling of freedom and
blasting of to the horizon.
Concept:
The project aims to reflect the unique topography of Haifa and its musical
harmony between the plain, the mountain and the sea, and translate it into
a unique sensory experience that gives the visitor more than just a musical
show, but a conceptual trip in the spirit of Haifa.
Each visitor’s journey starts from scratch on the beach, where each
expatriate is assigned a path that corresponds to the means of
transportation that she/he used, whether it is the cable car, cars, ships or
even on foot. The paths gradually rise, supervising from both sides of the
beach on one side and Mount Carmel on the other, then they meet at one
gathering point that leads to the main stage or the secondary stage. The
person feels that the elevations gradually rise and launch towards the
horizon of the sea, while the cable-based construction system gives
her/him a sense of balance and stability, but without obscuring the look.
After the show, the individual journeys in an open corridor bordering the
sea, in the center of which is a glass exhibition, library and two- storey
restaurant. At the end of the corridor is a port that allows him to proceed in
a boat for a sea tour before returning with a spirit imbued with music of
Haifa and its breeze.
Concrete is linked in the minds of Palestinians to the wall of apartheid,
rigidity, and solidity, but in complete contrast, it was adopted in the project
because we, with art and music, face our fears and sorrows, and bring them
out to others beautifully.
We dance in our grief to produce a timeless masterpiece.