Visitors simply rush to the renovated concert hall of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra – for experiences and feelings

When creating the interior of the symphony orchestra hall, the most important task was to ensure acoustic quality according to the highest international standards. This ambition, according to one of the authors of the interior of the hall, Marius Mateikas, encouraged in the creative process to leave the comfort zone and look for new means to achieve aesthetic goals.

“Although the term “good acoustics” sounds quite simple, during the project we had to take into account 30 acoustic indicators and criteria – from reverberation time, clarity of music, speech clarity, sound warmth, to criteria such as mutual support index of musicians, density of lateral reflections. And in order for the hall to meet all these parameters, different measures had to be applied”, says architect M. Mateika about the behind-the-scenes of the interior design.

According to him, the creative process was implemented in accordance with the philosophy of the Lego constructor. In consultation with acousticians from the Akustika plus team, several typical elements were prepared: rhombuses, triangles, smooth and ribbed planes. Then the interior was started to be constructed from them, which ensured that by experimenting and changing the individual parts, an acoustically and aesthetically balanced result would be obtained.

The former Palace of Congresses is an interesting building with complex geometric shapes, designed by architect Edmund Stasiulis. During the renovation of the hall, it was decided that it should meet the highest international standards of sound quality, which are required for newly built symphony orchestra halls. As a result, the volume of the hall was increased by raising the roof, and the proportions of the hall changed. So even here, in an existing building, for the sake of perfect sound, we had to create a completely new space, which has little in common with the previous interior.

According to M. Mateika, various layout options are usually chosen in this type of halls, for example, vineyard (when the hall has terraces and balconies) or shoebox (when the hall is a clean rectangle). Due to its unusual broken diamond shape, this concert hall has both vineyard and shoebox qualities. The developers had to adapt to the non-traditional space and look for solutions to find the perfect acoustics and aesthetics.

“A kind of camouflage is created with lighting. Vertical lighting along the entire perimeter of the walls here hides what is not important and highlights those details that are necessary. In addition, since the geometry of the building itself and the concert hall is very complex, we decided not to overdo it with colors: the hall is dominated by black and beige. The oak covering was chosen to interpret the interior of classical concert halls,” says M. Mateika.

M. Mateika’s portfolio is not the first interior of a public facility. This spring, visitors will also see the interior of the new Klaipėda musical theater created by him. However, according to the architect, the LVSO hall has a unique function.

“Public spaces are interesting because of their different purposes: you go to the office to work, to the restaurant to socialize, to the bar to relax, and here you go to the hall for the symphony orchestra to deeply experience and feel. In a certain sense, such a space is intended even for a sacred, transcendental experience,” says M. Mateika.

The interior of the LVSO hall was designed by M. Mateika together with Indre Ankudavičiene, the acoustics project was prepared by acousticians Viktoras Mekas, Gintarė Privedienė from the Lithuanian company “Akustika Plius”, a team of acoustics consultants from Germany, led by prof. skilled Dr. by Wolfgang Ahnert.