One of this month’s earlier posts, ArkitecTrue announced French architect Jean Nouvel had won a competition to design the new Philharmonie de Paris building at Parc de La Villette in the French capital. The aluminum-clad building — which in a model, drawings and computer-generated images resembles a mound of loosely stacked plates topped by a 170-foot-high sail — will have a 2,400-seat auditorium designed in what experts call a “vineyard” style, with the audience on all sides of the orchestra on multilevel “terraces.”

The 2,400 seat auditorium is due to open in 2012.

Balconies in the main auditorium.

Mr. Nouvel said that the novelty of his auditorium was to “suspend” balconies — they will be attached to the building by access passages — in a way that allows sound waves to circulate around and behind them. “The idea is that the audience will be in the middle of the music” he said at the design’s unveiling at the Cité de la Musique.

The main auditorium.

Beneath the foyer.

View of the park from the foyer.

Photo source: dezeen