Aula Magna is the largest auditorium at Stockholm University in Sweden, completed in 1998. In addition to the large lecture hall there are smaller meeting and seminar rooms. Outside the lecture hall there is a gallery for reading. The auditorium is used for academic gatherings such as conferences and symposium as well as external functions such as general meetings. Nobel lectures have also been held here.
Aula Magna was designed by architect Ralph Erskine, who also designed the nearby Allhuset, Stockholm University Library, Aktiverum (Frescatihallen), and the House of Laws for the University. Aula Magna was the last project by Erskine for the university before his death in 2005. The idea of placing an auditorium on the site dates from when the campus was planned in the early 1960s.
The building is built into the ground. From the north side and the main entrance it gives a low, modest impression, dominated by large glass surfaces. On the south side, the building is at its full height. Erskine breaks up the facade into many volumes of different size, structure and height in and interesting arrangement. The north facade is faced in brick in different shades of red brick, highly articulated with different surface textures. The roof, visible from a distance, features sun reflectors, typical of Erskine's style, which transmit daylight into the auditorium via skylights. The interior offers a vast panorama through the glass facade to the north which places the viewer in close contact with nature and the old oaks outside. Inside, the patterned brick walls return. The interior design has a natural feel through exposed bedrock in the lower foyer. The rustic lining of blonde woods is a characteristic feature throughout the building, presenting a warm contrast to the glass stone. [1]
The design of the auditorium was inspired by the semi-circular plan of an ancient amphitheater. This is intended to allow the audience of 1,194 to perceive the speaker without electronic amplification. For this purpose, Erskine worked with the acoustic consultant Nils-Åke Nilsson. The wood ceiling has a steep slope towards the stage and powerful profiling to maximize the spread of the sound and avoid echoes. These solutions were also meant to provide an aesthetic sculptural effect. To achieve maximum sound diffusion, a steep slope was integrated into the design and care was taken to shape space and materials.
The main space can be divided into 2 spaces in its middle via mobile wall blocks.
Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2015), İstanbul Modern in Istanbul (2022) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (2016). He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998.
A mansard or mansard roof is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer windows. The steep roofline and windows allow for additional floors of habitable space, and reduce the overall height of the roof for a given number of habitable storeys. The upper slope of the roof may not be visible from street level when viewed from close proximity to the building.
Marycrest College Historic District is located on a bluff overlooking the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The district encompasses the campus of Marycrest College, which was a small, private collegiate institution. The school became Teikyo Marycrest University and finally Marycrest International University after affiliating with a private educational consortium during the 1990s. The school closed in 2002 because of financial shortcomings. The campus has been listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties and on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004. At the time of its nomination, the historic district consisted of 13 resources, including six contributing buildings and five non-contributing buildings. Two of the buildings were already individually listed on the National Register.
Ralph Erskine ARIBA was a British architect and planner who lived and worked in Sweden for most of his life.
The University City of Caracas, also known by the acronym CUC, is the main campus of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), located in central Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. It was designed by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas is considered a "masterpiece" of architecture and urban planning, and greatly influenced Venezuelan architecture.
The Fagus Factory, a shoe last factory in Alfeld on the Leine, Lower Saxony, Germany, is an important example of early modern architecture. Commissioned by owner Carl Benscheidt who wanted a radical structure to express the company's break from the past, the factory was designed by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. It was constructed between 1911 and 1913, with additions and interiors completed in 1925. Because of its influence in the development of modern architecture and outstanding design, the factory has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.
Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a church in the North Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Located at 957 West North Avenue at the corner of Allegheny Avenue, its 1886 building is known for its architectural features and was one of the last designs by Henry Hobson Richardson. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000. An active parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, it is known for offering a Sunday evening service of Jazz Vespers.
The Sacramento Masonic Temple, built between 1913 and 1918, is a five-story building on J Street in downtown Sacramento, California. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
The Nichols House is a residential building designed by the Australian architect Kevin Borland. The construction was completed in 1973 and awarded the OPCD Bronze Medal for The Age/RAIA House of the Year together with Max May’s Rattle House at Harkaway in 1974. The project is a medium density development which shows many of Borland's architectural ideals regarding the configurations of how the modern family dwells in. These ideologies resulted in two major themes, a distinctive connection with the topography of the site and a creative approach to the ideas of family events happening in stages such as a theatre.
Richard King Mellon Hall of Science, also known as Mellon Hall, is an academic facility on the Duquesne University campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
The Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina Historic District is 10.1-acre (41,000 m2) historic district along the western boundary of the campus of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. The area includes five historical Colonial Revival, Classical Revival style buildings. Some significant structures are among those located within the Historic District include the James B. Dudley Memorial Building and Harrison Auditorium. The district has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 20, 1988.
The Alvar Aalto Museum is a Finnish museum operating in two cities, Jyväskylä and Helsinki, in two locations each, dedicated to architect and designer Alvar Aalto. All four locations are open to the public. They are:
The Pantages Theatre or Jones Building in Tacoma, Washington was designed by the architect B. Marcus Priteca. The unusual structure opened in January 1918. It was designed to be an office building and a vaudeville theatre. The theaters Second Renaissance Revival style is juxtaposed with the Commercial style. The exterior above the ground floor is largely unaltered. The building still houses entertainment and commercial activities.
University College, historically known as the Arts Building, is an academic building of the University of Western Ontario on its main campus in London, Ontario. The building has become an iconic symbol of the university, as well as a prominent landmark in the city of London. The building sits atop a hill and faces the Thames River. Along with the Physics and Astronomy Building, University College is one of the first buildings that was built on the present campus in 1922. The building currently houses the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
The Aula Magna is an auditorium at the Central University of Venezuela. It is located within the University City of Caracas, next to the University's main library building. The hall was designed by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva in the 1940s and built by the Danish company Christiani & Nielsen from 1952–53. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in November 2000 for being artistically and architecturally significant. The most notable feature of the hall is its acoustic 'clouds', which serve both aesthetic and practical functions. They are an element of the hall's design which contributed to the science of interior space acoustics, though the building exterior is also architecturally significant.
The Aula Magna is a postmodern building of the University of Louvain located in Louvain-la-Neuve, a section of the Belgian city of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, in Walloon Brabant. It holds one of the country's largest auditoria, with a maximum capacity of 1050 seats, and Wallonia's largest stage. Inaugurated in 2001, the complex was designed by Philippe Samyn.
Floating Clouds is a work of art by American sculptor Alexander Calder, located in the Aula Magna of the University City of Caracas in Venezuela. The 1953 work comprises many 'cloud' panels that are renowned both artistically and acoustically. The piece is seen as "one of Calder's most truly monumental works" and the prime example of the urban-artistic theory of campus architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva.
The Stephen Leacock Building, also known simply as the Leacock Building, is a building located at 855 Sherbrooke Street West, on the McGill University downtown campus in Montreal, Quebec. The building was named after Stephen Leacock, a well-known Canadian humorist and author, and Professor of Economics at McGill from 1901 to 1944. Built between 1962 and 1965 by the Montreal architectural firm Arcop, the Leacock Building's purpose was to accommodate the growing number of students at McGill, particularly in the Faculty of Arts which had outgrown its ancestral home, the Arts Building.
Åhléns City is a department store in the Norrmalm district in central Stockholm, Sweden. The building is located at Klarabergsgatan 50 and takes up the entirety of the Gripen block. Åhléns City is the largest singular store of the Åhléns chain and amounts to almost 20% of the chain's total revenue. The building was designed by the architectural bureau Backström & Reinius Arkitekter AB, was opened on 9 September 1964 and was awarded the Kasper Salin Prize in 1966. The building is noted by the Stockholm City Museum for "having an obviously high cultural historical value".
