Culture and Congress Center

The plain, restrained theater building from the 1960s was built on the bombed remains of the original 1889 building. The theater and festival hall was comprehensively refurbished and extended without infringing the architectural identity of the original building.

The style of the added new building interprets the post-war Modernist movement and continues the key style elements of the older building. These include the outside galleries of the upper floor of the theater that project like balconies, the generous glass facade of the foyer at first floor level, and the cube-like composition with the theater hall inserted in the shape of a cylinder.

The defining theme of the old building, i.e. the circular hall inserted in the cube, is replicated and continued in the new building. Therefore in both buildings the main elements can be seen both inside and from the outside; on the inside of the old theater and festival building the circular spectator hall within is discernible as an enclosed space, which is surrounded by the foyer—open to the outside. In the new cultural and conference center the square spectator volume has been placed within the circular foyer. On the inside, the cube-like hall is enclosed by curved walls; from the outside, the square shape with its glazed clerestory windows is visible as a protruding structure.