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The House of Music, Hungary: the idea – the design – the completed building
In 2013 the decision was made to construct the House of Music Hungary within the framework of the Liget Budapest Project. That is also when the team of music, theatre and museum professionals was assembled, taking on the lion’s share of the task to develop the basic concept of the new institution. The team held regular meetings and visited already operating museums of music and memorial centres abroad in order to outline how the future House of Music Hungary would be similar and how it would be different from what they had seen. (Included among the institutions they studied were the Haus der Musik in Vienna, the Cité de la Musique in Paris and the Museu de la Música in Barcelona, as well as numerous music memorial houses).
The objective drawn up by the team was that the House of Music Hungary was to be an institution where visitors would be able to familiarise themselves with the beginnings, history and physics of music at one permanent exhibition, to which various thematic temporary shows would be added to enrich the palette of experiences. It was an important priority that the house would have a prominent educational profile too, and a space suitable to accommodate every kind of musical genre.
February 2014: The international design competition was announced. The deadline for the receipt of projects was 27 May 2014, the next round took place in August and the results were made public in December. Close to 170 projects were submitted to the international design competition from all over the world, and six projects were selected for the second round. The winner, Sou Fujimoto Architects, was announced on 19 December 2014.
10 June 2015: Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto signed the contract to design the House of Music Hungary.
September 2018: The construction of the House of Music Hungary began.
April 2019: The works on the superstructure of the House of Music Hungary began.
October 2019: The House of Music Hungary won the title of Best Public Service Architecture Europe.
December 2019: The House of Music Hungary won the Best International Public Service Architecture award.
February 2020: The highest point of the House of Music Hungary was reached during the construction process.
May–June 2020: The ‘invisible’ wall of the House of Music Hungary was built – the construction of an enormous glass wall, unparalleled in Europe, was begun.
September 2020: the House of Music Hungary won the World's Best Use of Music in Property Development award at the American Cities Awards.
February 2021: A time capsule was placed under the floor of the House of Music Hungary.
September 20-25 2021: The acoustics testing of the concert hall was carried out with the participation of the Japanese Nagata Acoustics.
