It may be contrasted with the shoebox style, which has a rectangular auditorium and a stage at one end (as at the Musikverein).
[1][2][3] When faced with designing a new home for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra to replace Die alte Philharmonie, destroyed by bombing in 1944, architect Hans Scharoun observed that "people always gather in circles when listening to music informally".
[3] His design won the ensuing competition, with Herbert von Karajan writing to the judges "of all the designs submitted, one seems to stand out above the others... founded on the principle that the performers should be in the middle... the deployment of the walls certainly makes good sense acoustically, but the most impressive of all is the complete concentration of the listener on the musical event".
[2] For the Philharmonie de Paris, the vineyard concept is extended with balconies rather than banked terraces.
[7] The walls surrounding the stage on which the seats are banked help provide the early reflections of sound from the side that are generally considered favourable.