SoSe24 - Main Course
The starting point for our work at the Chair is an appreciation of what already exists; for us, this forms the foundation on which we can build in our work as architects. Our work is always in the context of a larger whole, so we see houses less as objects and more as specific structures that are part of an organism, whether built or natural.
With this in mind, we would like to focus on Baden-Baden in the second design course we are offering for students in the 2024 summer semester. Baden-Baden is one of the oldest thermal spas in Europe. The early settlement of thermal spas led to the development of a specific urban structure that can be characterised by a high density of public buildings. The festival theatre, the baths, the casino, the museums and the large spa hotels as semi-public places characterise the townscape and the atmosphere in the public space. Some of the buildings from the early Art Nouveau period, the heyday of spa culture, have been extended since the 1990s, such as the State Art Gallery and the railway station building on Lange Strasse.The new museum building for the Frieder Burda Collection was added to the Staatliche Kunsthalle in 2004 based on a design by American architect Richard Meier. The new building was considered independently of the existing building; the two structures were merely connected by a glass bridge. Potential that could have resulted from a spatial connection between the original museum and the new building was not utilised. The Festspielhaus also suffers from a similar dilemma today. According to a design by Wilhelm Holzbauer from 1998, the hall and foyer were built at the rear of the existing railway station building, and the connection between old and new was resolved by a glass joint, so that no real spatial relationship could be created. In the coming semester, we will be focussing on this area and looking at the question of how we can strengthen the character of a building through additions and how a spatial interweaving of different temporal layers can succeed.
As part of an excursion, we will investigate related phenomena and familiarise ourselves with the topic by examining references. The Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden is at the centre of our considerations. We will begin with the restructuring of the existing entrance situation and, in the next step, create an additional space for smaller concerts and events as well as overnight accommodation for artists. We want to give the building better visibility and presence to the outside world and, by reorganising the entrance area, enable the inner life of the building to be brought into the public space. In this context, we will examine threshold spaces as places of transition. Directly linked to this is the question of the spatial interweaving of the entrance zone with the foyer areas of the building. A concept is to be developed which, in addition to strengthening the spatial connection between the entrance hall and foyer, also allows these spaces to be used during the day, outside of performances. In addition, an extension of the existing building complex with a multifunctional, divisible hall and the planning of three communal flats for young artists is desired. The new parts of the building are to be closely linked to the existing foyers and access zones and connected to them to form a spatial conglomerate.
The project will be worked on in groups of two; work in the drawing rooms at the chair is expressly desired.
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Fall Semester23/24