Queen Silvia Concert Hall

When the directors of Stockholm’s prestigious Lilla Akademien music school set out to build a new concert hall, they aimed to create a highly flexible venue for professional concerts, student rehearsals, and creative learning. The goal was to provide an immersive acoustic environment suitable for live classical music performed acoustically as well as for electroacoustic performances and live-streamed concerts.

Named after—and inaugurated by—Sweden’s reigning monarch, Queen Silvia, a patron of the school, the result is a stunning auditorium that blends architecture, technology, and lighting, with a world-class Genelec sound system. Unlike modern purpose-built concert venues, the hall is concealed behind the red-brick facade of a 19th-century former orphanage. Italian architect Giorgio Palù prioritized design aesthetics, while renowned Japanese acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota —an established international authority in the field of concert hall design—was tasked with delivering world-class acoustics.

The unusual layout of the hall required close collaboration across multiple disciplines, with Swedish integrator Informationsteknik leading the AV installation. Genelec’s Smart IP loudspeakers were chosen for their ability to deliver pristine sound while integrating seamlessly into the venue’s architectural constraints.

The team at Informationsteknik specified twenty-two Smart IP 4420 models and four 4430s. Painted in RAL 1036 gold, the 4430s were the only visible loudspeakers of the entire installation. Two pairs were suspended below the first level balcony, blending harmoniously with the décor. Additional pairs of the compact 4420s were installed every few metres across each section of the curved wall in between the windows, cleverly hidden in specially insulated recessed boxes.

“Despite the relatively small 200 seat capacity, this is one of the most complex projects I have been involved in,” says Marcus Haraldsson Boij, Technical director at Informationsteknik. “The combination of a centrally located stage, the long reverberation time of acoustic classical music – and a design requirement to minimise the number of visible loudspeakers – made it very interesting from an acoustic design point of view!”

Boij, an experienced musician with a background in sound engineering, understood all too well the constraints of the building’s cavernous architecture and set about sourcing a flexible sound system that could work just as well for acoustic and non-acoustic music.

“We needed to distribute high-quality sound close to the audience without it playing louder than the reverb. Without a traditional ‘left/right’ stage and with the audience seated at three different levels surrounding the orchestra, it demanded a different way of thinking – and while I wanted more speakers, it simply wasn’t possible given the design of the Hall.”

To limit the amount of sound bouncing around the room, it was important to reduce the volume from the loudspeakers and Genelec’s Smart IP range of networked models, with their outstanding audio performance and excellent nearfield clarity, was an obvious choice: “By positioning them around the space we avoided using a traditional line array system, which would have been too visually obtrusive. Instead, we created a unique distributed sound system which utilised volume of the entire Hall while giving the audience a sound that felt rich and intimate.”

The Hall is built to the highest environmental standards with an unparalleled attention to detail; the pine-clad walls of the 14-metre-high room are finished in the same varnish as ‘Cremona’ violins – but it was the wooden ribs of this unique wall construction which posed an issue.

“With the way the walls were constructed, and the design requirements imposed upon us, pulling cables was going to be a problem. However, the active design and the single cable technology of the Smart IP loudspeaker family made installation MUCH easier,” notes Boij. “It was a great solution for us.”

Lilla Akademien’s Queen Silvia Concert Hall represents a landmark achievement in audio-visual integration, blending historic architecture with cutting-edge audio technology. The Hall serves as both a world-class performance venue and an educational space, offering students a unique platform to experiment with sound. Genelec’s networked audio solution allows students to manipulate sound within the space, fostering creative innovation.

Lilla Akademien’s Artistic Advisor, Mark Tatlow explains: “Using a digital audio workstation, our composition students can connect to the Hall and create pieces by combining the live acoustics of the Concert Hall with electronic sounds or music. The network allows discrete control of each loudspeaker to move sound around the room. The design of the Hall itself encourages students to take the next step in their music making – and the possibilities are huge.”

The project’s commitment to acoustic excellence, sustainability, and technological integration sets it apart. By overcoming architectural constraints and maintaining aesthetic integrity, the team delivered an exceptional listening environment. This fusion of tradition and modernity makes the Hall a worthy recipient of a MONDO-DR Award.