The Campos do Jordão Music Festival has become, over the course of forty years, a cultural reference. In this sense, it requires an improvement of its facilities to ensure permanent activities throughout the year. Complementing the architectural complex started with the Cláudio Santoro Auditorium, an ensemble will be built for musicians whose main uses are clearly divided into two: Accommodation and Rehearsal Rooms.

The new site is about 300 meters away from the concert hall, with access from Av. Luis Gonzaga Arroba Martins. It is a cleared area of 7,000.00m2, in the middle of a large green reserve, where there are two plateaus for the precarious existing pavilions that will be replaced. From the arrival level, there is an extensive view of the Mantiqueira Mountains, which culminates at Pedra do Baú (Baú Rock).

The implantation of the complex was defined by two actions: 1 – the redesign of the site, within the deforested perimeter, through a building that houses areas for collective use (rehearsal rooms, cafeteria, services and administration), and allows the expansion of activities to the outside, taking advantage of the totality of the land; 2 – the guarantee of the distant view and the best insolation, designing a two-story high blade for the lodgings, more sheltered. The implantation of this large longilinear piece intensifies the relationship of the building with the natural landscape, revealing the clearing in the forest as part of the whole. On the first floor, between the horizontal and vertical pieces, the open floor with the glassed-in lobby, which strategically mediates between the uses, extends into a veranda and solarium. A small tower with differentiated lodgings was also designed, associated to the whole complex, which concentrates the infrastructure equipment such as clean water reservoirs, reuse tanks, air conditioning machines, and elevators with stops on all floors.

In the vertical blade, the stairs in continuity establish a path that unfolds in the different floors and connects the base to the blade. From the first floor up, this walkway forms a sequence of holes in the building (noticeable in the balcony of the facade) that when reaching the top floor configures a belvedere for the landscape. This sequence of spaces at one end, the bridge connecting to the tower at the other, and the windows along the circulation break a possible monotony of the corridor. Downstairs you reach the mezzanine, where the administration and smaller rehearsal rooms are located, interspersed by a large internal patio that floods these environments with sunlight. These areas open up to the lower floor, which houses the large rehearsal rooms and cafeteria. Com pé-direito duplo e recortes na cobertura para entrada de luz e ventilação, estes espaços estão associados ao pátio, com piso de pedras locais para acumular o calor. The kitchen and laundry are located on the level below the administration and have independent access from the street for loading and unloading.

The rehearsal and practice rooms involve intense planning and acoustical design work. For hours at a time on the same day, the nuances of musical performance, from pianissimo to fortissimo, are simultaneously rehearsed, performed and evaluated in several adjacent rooms. Listening to music in rehearsal and individual practice rooms is fundamental to the improvement of musicians. This depends on silence and acoustic quality in the rooms.

The acoustical quality then defines the design of these rooms, grouped by instrumental families: wind, strings, voice, and complements. Acoustic insulation is fundamental, to minimize interference between different activities. We adopted insulating walls, in masonry or special drywall, floating floors and ceilings, acoustic doors and windows. The air conditioning system is silent.

The rooms were sized so as not to interfere with sound reproduction and to provide an environment conducive to perfecting the musicians’ sensitive listening. The correct relations between ceiling height, room height and width, and walls that avoid parallelism prevent audible resonances in the small rehearsal rooms. The adequacy of the ceiling height, a critical path to maintain the acoustic quality in the space, is also a concern of the project. Systems such as acoustic diffusers are used to reinforce sounds that define timbre and articulation. And acoustic absorption elements correct small geometric defects, sometimes unavoidable in small rooms. The distribution of diffusion and acoustic absorption is made considering factors such as sound equalization and ambience.

Glass walls, with excellent acoustic response, allow the view of nearby vegetation, consistent with the protection and concentration required. Thus, large volumes of wood are formed, scattered throughout the room, creating a small, sheltered square where the musicians can rest. While in the dormitories the focus was on distant views, from this level full access to the forest is possible.

Adequate bio-climatic treatment and economy of resources were sought, ensuring the so-called sustainability and a set of exemplary actions for this project. The climate is determinant (1700 meters high), with low temperatures, which in winter averages eight degrees and in summer, sixteen. The northeast orientation for the houses is intended to combine the best view with the prolonged incidence of sunlight. Thus, artificial thermal control is avoided most of the time, generating great energy savings. The thin blade maximizes natural lighting and ensures hygienic cross ventilation. The chosen materials have long durability and were thought to age keeping their qualities. Concrete, reforested wood, and glass were arranged to provide heat retention, that is, internal thermal mass and glass as an envelope. Solar panels for water heating are planned on the roof, and on the lower level, a rainwater retention reservoir, for reuse in the basins and garden irrigation systems.

Due to the need for acoustic insulation between the test rooms, mechanical air conditioning is indicated for these environments. The suggested air conditioning system is formed by a modular central condenser with progressive drive and evaporators with independent control of flow and temperature in each room.

The reinforced concrete structure represents, in this case, great savings in construction costs, since all slabs were modulated so that the construction is executed with a single industrialized formwork that can be reused throughout the building.

Our team forwarded the preliminary study for analysis at the city hall, from which we obtained the Building Licensing Directive, which indicates a compliant use for this project. The local legislation restricts the occupation on this land to the first floor and two more upper floors. It also allows the use of the lower floors, due to the sloping terrain. The project presented has already been adapted to all the determinations required by Campos do Jordão Municipal City Hall.