Niccolo’ Paganini Auditorium

The creation of the Auditorium Paganini was an integral part of a larger plan to renew an area endowed with decommissioned factories east of the centre of Parma. An old park with fine tall trees added to the impetus for redeveloping this area and converting the rundown buildings into useful public ones.

The visual impact of the long parallel walls of the old Eridiana sugar refinery was a powerful one. They were also objects steeped in local history, laden with emotion and memories. So it was decided that the simple yet dramatic exposure of the essential structural elements of the factory – the two long main walls with their sequence of metal trusses – should become the basis of the project to convert the building into a space for music. This stripping back of the building called for the removal of the narrow front and back walls, as well as all of the transverse walls. Ancillary structures were also done away with, except a building right next to the auditorium, converted to house rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and services for the Auditorium.