Why Dunard Centre means Edinburgh will soon join an elite group of global cities

In 2029, Edinburgh will become the first city in the UK to have a concert hall designed by Nagata Acoustics, widely recognised as the world’s leading specialists in concert hall sound, writes Jo Buckley

As any master distiller will tell you, creating something of enduring quality takes time, patience and persistence – and a willingness to embrace failure along the way. In 1923, having already gambled and lost his fortune attempting to launch a new Spanish wine business in Japan, Shinjiro Torii invested his remaining life savings in Japan’s first malt whisky distillery.

Fourteen years later, Suntory whisky was born. Nearly 90 years on, its distinctive square bottle remains the number one best-selling whisky in Japan. All of which indicates that Torii embodied his motto, ‘Yatte Minahare’, which means “dream big and never give up”.

But what came next is more extraordinary still. In 1986, that same company – founded to produce whisky – opened Tokyo’s first concert hall. And in the intervening years, Suntory Hall has led a global cultural revolution.

READ MORE: The hidden benefactor funding Edinburgh's new concert hall awarded Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy

Suntory Hall in Tokyo is highly regarded for the quality of its acoustics (Picture: Koichi Kamoshida) | Getty Images

Ethos of generosity

Designed to deliver “the world’s most beautiful sound” in a ‘vineyard’-style space that is as immersive and democratic as they come, Suntory Hall became an exemplar of the company’s and its founder’s ethos of generosity, built on a commitment to give away a third of its profits each year for the betterment of society.

Suntory Hall was also the first major project for Nagata Acoustics, now widely recognised as the world’s leading specialists in concert hall sound. Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Helsinki – they all have a concert hall designed by Nagata. And what Nagata has done for these cities is as transformative as what Shinjiro did for Japanese whisky.

READ MORE: Inside the £68m arts project set to transform one of Edinburgh's most prominent landmarks by 2027

Within five years of its completion, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie led to a 15 per cent increase in overnight stays and attracted more than 14.5 million visitors, three-quarters of whom went on to visit other cultural venues across the city.

In Los Angeles, Disney Hall revitalised a forgotten downtown area, restoring population levels and local retail spending to the boom of the 1950s. And in Helsinki, the Music Centre is at the heart of a long-term city strategy to achieve sustainable growth that fosters social, economic, and cultural well-being.

READ MORE: Japanese ambassador delights in Irn Bru and 'fantastic' haggis on trip to Scotland

An artist's impression of what the Dunard Centre's Caledonia Hall will look like (Picture: David Chipperfield Architects) | David Chipperfield Architects

‘A sense of oneness’

Nagata’s principles are founded upon the experience of the individual and, like Suntory, upon the betterment of society. Nagata puts people first, positioning the listener at the centre of the music in pursuit of a more immersive, and ultimately more profound, experience.

The focus of Suntory Hall’s design was “to achieve a sense of oneness between musicians and audience”, and to create an immediacy of sound, as pure for the listener as for the musicians themselves on stage. The unique flat floor design of their Blue Rose hall brings the audience into close proximity with the performers, allowing them to feel the music “with their entire body”.

This people-focused approach extends outside the auditorium too. Welcoming communal spaces and free ‘open house’ events invite visitors to gather and to linger, and a broad community engagement programme built around Suntory’s principle of ‘giving back’ has nourished a whole new generation of musicians and concertgoers.

READ MORE: First look inside Ardgowan distillery as ‘cathedral to whisky’ opens

Cultural transformation

In 2029, Edinburgh will become the first city in the UK to host a Nagata hall. In doing so, it will join the list of global cities that have put people at the heart of their cultural ambitions.

The Dunard Centre is already projected to bring in more than £8 million to the city every year, and to generate a return on investment of nearly £170m over its first 20 years of operations. These alluring numbers are only half of the story.

The really tantalising part is the impact on people, and the cultural transformation that the UK’s first Nagata hall will have on Scotland’s festival city for generations to come.

Built on a hidden plot just off the capital’s bustling St Andrew Square – served by buses, trains and trams – the Dunard Centre will open up a new piece of the public realm that has been closed off to the public for more than 200 years. In doing so, it will create new lanes and thoroughfares through the heart of the city, adding an open and welcoming cultural space to Edinburgh’s historic New Town.

Every seat the best in the house

Its 21st-century design was created with Nagata’s acoustics front and centre: the brief to David Chipperfield Architects was to ensure there is no barrier between audience and performer, for the experience to be as intimate and as personal as possible.

So, the audience seating wraps around the stage and, in certain small-scale formats, it even brings the audience within touching distance of the performers. There are no poor sightlines and no cold spots: every inch of the auditorium has been mapped with Nagata’s acoustic precision, such that every single seat is the best in the house.

Our vision? To be a ‘Hall for all’, a space which – like Suntory Hall – embeds culture in people’s everyday lives, fostering togetherness, curiosity, and deep personal connections.

It is a project that has taken more than 25 years to reach fruition. Like a fine single malt, Nagata halls tend to take time, patience and persistence to realise, but they are the embodiment of Yatte Minahare: dream big and never give up.

Jo Buckley is chief executive of the Dunard Centre