Culture Meets the Fields

A concert hall for 4,000 people in the middle of the Croa­tian coun­try­side? With the EVE Music Hall, BIG is embar­king on an unusual expe­ri­ment. The sculp­tural new buil­ding is intended to bring culture, confe­rences, and festi­vals to a region that has hardly been known as a cultural hotspot until now.

Anyone fami­liar with BIG’s spec­ta­cular designs would expect to see them in major cities rather than in the coun­try­side. Yet the new EVE Music Hall is being built neither in Copen­hagen nor in London nor in Dubai, but in Čepin—a muni­ci­pa­lity with about 9,000 resi­dents in the predo­mi­nantly agri­cul­tural eastern part of Croatia.

It is precisely this contrast that makes the project so remar­kable.

The EVE Music Hall is set to become a new cultural attrac­tion in the Slavonia region. The complex, which spans appro­xi­m­ately 10,000 square meters, includes a concert hall, a conven­tion center, exhi­bi­tion spaces, dining options, and rooftop event spaces. The buil­ding can accom­mo­date nearly 4,000 visi­tors, and outdoor events are expected to draw as many as 25,000 people. The opening is sche­duled for early 2027.

Behind the project is Croa­tian entre­pre­neur Marko Pipunić, owner of the Žito agri­cul­tural group. The fact that a cultural center of this magni­tude is being built in a region known prima­rily for agri­cul­ture and food produc­tion is anything but a given. While compa­rable projects are usually carried out in major cities with public funding, the EVE Music Hall relies on private initia­tive and the goal of using culture as a driver of regional deve­lo­p­ment.

Archi­tec­tu­rally, too, BIG responds to this unusual context. Instead of a single buil­ding, the archi­tects desi­gned two distinct struc­tures that seem to rise from the flat land­scape. The facades are clad in regional lime­s­tone and slope down to the ground in gentle curves. The shape is remi­nis­cent of an open stage curtain and alludes to the events taking place inside.

But the archi­tec­ture tells a second story as well. The curved shells contrast with the straight lines of the surroun­ding fields and farm­land. BIG describes the hall as a “musical outburst on the horizon of the Slavo­nian fields”—a deli­be­rate sign that some­thing unex­pected is taking shape here.

The larger of the two halls serves as a venue for concerts and music produc­tions, while the smaller hall hosts confe­rences, presen­ta­tions, and exhi­bi­tions. Both areas can be operated inde­pendently of one another. They are comple­mented by outdoor spaces for festi­vals and open-air events.

So, just as with sports faci­li­ties, multi­func­tion­a­lity is also key in the cultural sector.

Whether this vision will come to frui­tion remains to be seen after the opening. Even now, however, the EVE Music Hall embo­dies an unusual concept: rather than brin­ging culture to places where it is already expected, it is crea­ting a cultural desti­na­tion right in the middle of the coun­try­side.

BIG’s spec­ta­cular archi­tec­ture serves not only as a land­mark but also as a visible expres­sion of this ambi­tion.