Opera House and Music School in San Francisco
This competition proposal brings an opera house and a music school into a shared architectural composition in San Francisco. A cluster of elliptical volumes gives the institution a form composed of distinct but related parts.
- Location
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Type
- Opera House and Music School
- Status
- Competition Entry
- Year
- 2017
- Principal
- Ibrahim Nawaf Joharji
- Focus
- Acoustic geometry, wave-derived form, dual programme integration
The programme combines public performance with teaching and rehearsal. Their different patterns of use inform the distribution of entrances, shared circulation and spaces requiring acoustic separation.
The concept draws a formal parallel between musical rhythm and the repetition of curved units. This is an architectural reference rather than a claim that the external geometry alone determines the acoustics of the performance spaces.
The elliptical modules are grouped at different scales and heights. Their repetition creates a recognizable family of forms while allowing the larger performance spaces to be distinguished from the smaller parts of the programme.
Terraces and spaces between the volumes provide a second layer of circulation. They connect the building’s parts visually and give the shared institution a sequence of external thresholds rather than a single undifferentiated frontage.
The proposal’s contribution is spatial: bringing performance, study and rehearsal into one composition. Acoustic isolation, audience circulation and the technical requirements of a working theatre remain matters for detailed specialist development.
Related project: Athe-LAB 2023.