ZENITH OF ROUEN

The Zenith is an exhibition hall and venue for contemporary music, located in the suburbs of Rouen, designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects. HDA assisted Tschumi’s team as façade and cladding consultants from the competition design stage onwards, setting out the curvilinear geometry using simple toroidal shapes and designing the steel structures and façade envelopes to a very limited construction budget.

The concert hall structure is a large-span steel truss system, with support assistance given by masts and suspension ties. The lobby facades were set out as a repetitive series of steels arcs with infill panels in insulated corrugated steel sheet. Excellent acoustic insulation from emergent sound was achieved by using the lobby volume as a sound buffer, and by combining this attribute with the absorptive properties of the external façade envelope.