OFFICE

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen

The new Arvo Pärt Centre, dedicated to the Estonian composer of classical music, is located in a marvellous place near Kellasalu. This elegant, dense stretch of forest is a datum where the silence of nature presents itself to one who engages with it.
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The centre brings in a set of harmonies related to the site. Symmetrical and loose, it presents a compact way to inhabit this beautiful stretch of nature. The Centre is conceived as a set of rooms of different sizes that are developed in a harmonic system of related measurements. The rooms have increasing length, width and height. The growing and developing plan thus creates a field of closely connected spaces, each with a unique relationship to the surrounding nature and the other rooms close by. The enclosing wooden walls interrelate with each other and the landscape through a classic system of enfilade openings. On top of the walls a glass surface makes the roof, it relates each of the rooms directly to the sky under the trees. In a framework this ethereal, it is important to measure tenderness and warmth and for that reason the layers between roof and room – beams, velum or also simply closed – creates intimate spaces where one can regress from the direct impact of nature and sky.
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ARVO PÄRT CENTRE
2014 / Laulasmaa, FI