The USEK “Jean Paul II” amphitheater was designed, built, and inaugurated in 9 months. Its seating capacity of 1350 people makes it the largest auditorium in Lebanon. It was challenging to build it on a narrow, irregular plot, considering its capacity, the assigned time frame and the low budget limiting the material choice to reinforced concrete and stone cladding.

The auditorium was measured for a subtle balance of acoustics at the advantage of musical performances and speeches. The reverberation time stands in the span of 1.6 to 1.8 seconds. The geometry of the auditorium is calibrated to reflect direct sound so as a lecturer can be heard without amplification and intelligibly by the full audience of 1350 people, whereas the reverberated sound builds up to 1.8 seconds in a half empty room and to 1.6 seconds in a full room making it ideal for concerts. The acoustical characteristics of the amphitheater produce a large scale music spectrum qualified also by intimacy, which marks the personality of the full timbre of each instrument in the concert. The musical experience is enhanced by the feeling of conviviality binding the audience to the orchestra due to the fact that the furthest distance between the audience and the stage is of 10m (excluding the extra seating capacity in the loge behind) and the sense of envelopment transmits a feeling of belonging to the field of the orchestra.

To achieve that acoustical performance, all the angles and reflecting surfaces were set for a harmonious transmission of direct sound and the geometry of the massive shell of concrete impacts the bass spectrum by increasing its reverberation time and the feeling of warmth it transmits.