Good vibrations in Malmö Live - a whole new city area

A concert, a nice dinner, a conference, a drink with a view, a good night's sleep – you can get all of these at the new meeting place Malmö Live.

The red, white and yellow facades of the 54,000 sq m center comprises:

- A 25-story Clarion Hotel with 444 rooms, and two Marcus Samuelson restaurants, Eatery Social Taqueria and the sky bar Kitchen & Table.

- A congress center for 1,500 people.

- A concert hall for 1,600 people and smaller concert hall for 500 people.

Moreover, this is a place where you can live and work. It offers:

- A green office facility with healthy workplaces, that is fully leased, and

- Two residential towers with 158 units, all sold out.

All in all, that's Malmö Live!

Everything is top notch in this LEED Platinum complex but nevertheless, the concert hall is the crown of the creation – the acoustics can match the Great Hall of the world famous Vienna Musikverein.

Of course, Jesper Larsson, CEO of Concert Hall Malmö Live and head of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, is happy with the outstanding final result. But most of all he is impressed by Skanska's strong safety focus throughout the journey - from start to finish:

The architectural features, the overall design, as well as the colors and materials add life, while it is the sounds of the Concert Hall that give the impression that will stay in people's minds.

The musicians of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (MSO) are all delighted with what they hear, what they see and what they feel:

Gustaf Melander plays the trumpet in the MSO, Åsa Jacobsson plays the cello, Leif Johannesson plays the first violin and Kristoffer Bröte plays the tuba.

While the City of Malmö is the client for Malmö Live Concert Hall, Skanska is the developer of the Hotel and Congress Center as well as the office building and the residential towers. Skanska has played a major role in many ways – as developer and builder, as designer and coordinator, as financer of parts and facilitator of the whole. Or, if you like, as the conductor of the entire orchestra.

Skanska's Project Director Staffan Andersson explains:

Achieving a world class concert hall began with a 3D laser scanning of the Great Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. That's the benchmark. And Malmö Live is up to par.

The hall and its acoustic properties should support the orchestra and the music. The acoustics should help the audience to hear, regardless of where they are seated. It's an equation with many unknowns.

Carl Jonsson, engineering and acoustic specialist of Skanska Teknik, started work on the sound puzzle in 2011. The dream job for a hi-fi buff included both the first ever scanning of the Great Hall at the Vienna Musikverein and hours and hours of tuning, adjustments and measuring at Malmö Live.

The bag-test illustrates the acoustic qualities. You explode a paper bag filled with air. The bang tells you: Is the sound long enough, is it soft enough, does it reach every corner, every seat even on the third row 50 meters away from the orchestra. Is the bass sound coming through all the way? One of Sweden's number one acoustic experts, Jan-Inge Gustafsson, pops a paper bag to demonstrate the acoustic qualities.

Malmö Live is truly the new meeting place in Malmö. The concert hall, the hotel and the congress center opened in May this year. The office facility will be in operation this autumn and residents of Sopranen are moving in now and residents of Tenoren will move into their new homes next spring.