Exploring the possibilities of the future ambition for Binckhorst in The Hague, a key music venue is set to integrate a modern high density residential neighborhood as part of the city centre.
However, contemporary music buildings functioning as catalysts for urban development are often focused on urban connectivity. As a result, they tend to forget the true function of music, which is to provide a mental escape for the audience. Therefore it becomes paramount for future projects to consider a migration from an exterior iconic character to an introverted oasis for musical performance. This notion establishes a degree of transposition in the experience of a visitor, a passage between the public realm and the specific main function of the building, which can be referred to as liminality. Layering phases of separation, transition and incorporation can be used as a strategy in architectural route design to construct a liminal odyssey. Finally to conceive the greatest sense of escapism within the musical oasis, parameters of intimacy and visual relations play a significant role. Nevertheless, other parameters can be used, depending on audience personality, which is related to musical genre.
Another aspect of designing for escapism is to create a world specific to music. To achieve this, the architecture should be a complete opposite to the organisational and contextual rules. In spite of this contrast, the building will still have to respond to the surroundings in a way that is characterised by its own architectural language. Only then will it become a fluid visitor route free of all limitations, purely based on the people and their liminal odyssey in anticipation of attending a concert.

In Medieval Utrecht, five churches were built to form a Christian cross in plan. After centuries of turmoil, in 1674, a storm with multiple tornadoes passed right through the city, damaging most of the churches badly. During these thirty minutes of extreme weather conditions, the skyline had lost most of its church towers, spires and roofs. Since the city was poor, most of the churches were rebuilt in a simple way. This was completely in contrast to the majestic potential to have all churches at the ends of the cross built monumentally with two towers and needle spires, generating a great symmetry with the tallest tower, the Domtoren, in the middle. This would have made the invisible cross plan to be unmistakable in the skyline. On street level, the Domkerk lost the entire nave, and the Pieterskerk’s front facade, including the two towers, collapsed. The latter created a beautiful opening straight towards the Dom, but after renovations the design of the Pieterskerk didn’t make sense anymore on a larger scale. The storm and the following actions made it impossible for the city to make use of the architectural potential, resulting in the invisible enigma the cross forms in Utrecht today.