Designed by Renzo Piano and managed by the Musica per Roma Foundation, the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone was created to provide a permanent home for the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Over the years, it has become one of the largest cultural and performing arts hubs in Europe. The complex is located just a few minutes from the historic city center, nestled between the banks of the Tiber River, the hills of the Parioli district, and the Olympic Village.
The Auditorium Parco della Musica is the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Orchestra headquarter. Established in 1585 under Pope Sixtus V, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is the oldest music academy in the world.
The Auditorium building is a masterpiece of contemporary architecture devoted to music and culture. To celebrate ancient Roman buildings, architect Renzo Piano chose Roman marble for the floors, typical Roman red bricks for the external walls and lead slabs for the roofs as main building materials. The internal walls of the concert halls, of the rooms, of corridors and of the ceilings are all covered in American cherry wood -a warm, natural red wood that is the best material for the sound transmission. All the conference rooms are music rooms.
Auditorium has vertical green walls and hanging gardens on the top of the complex to keep temperature in the venue, saving energy for air conditioning and heating.
Auditorium Parco della Musica is environmentally friendly. Its architecture was designed to save energy, and the lighting system has recently been upgraded to LED, both inside and outside. Environmental care is central to the Auditorium’s management. Integration and accessibilities are also priorities. Equal opportunities for people with disabilities (including visually-impaired and mobility-impaired visitors) are at the core of the Auditorium’s organization. There are no architectural barriers: accessible entrances, tactile paths for blind visitors and Braille signage are provided.
During the building works for Auditorium in the nineties, ruins from a VI Century BC Roman Villa (large more than 2.000 sqm) came to light. They revealed a 6th-century BC farmhouse, featuring a wealthy residential quarter and a service area for the production of olives oil. The ruins of the Roman villa are now collected in the Archaeological Museum inside Auditorium.
