Grafenegg Castle Concert Hall, Vienna, Austria

Grafenegg Castle Concert Hall opens near Vienna
Austria has seen the opening of a major cultural facility this month. The Concert Hall at Grafenegg Castle near Vienna has opened with an expected 50 000 – 65 000 visitors per year.

Designed by schröder schulte-ladbeck the building is an integration of classical architecture with contemporary copper-cladded auditorium sandwiched between the original buildings. The copper merges sensitively with the red-brick of the central courtyard and offers the building a continually evolving face rapidly depending on the time of day and slowly with age.

The project began in 2005 with an EU-wide competition, then out of the vast number of applicants the jury selected five internationally acclaimed architect offices. The brief given was to integrate a Concert Hall for 1,300 visitors into the protected "Old Riding School" of Grafenegg Castle. The solitary building which is connected to the "Old Riding School" by a glass corridor, was rewarded with the 1st price for its historically sensitive and visionary planning.

From concept to completion the project took less than 3 years; construction works started in spring 2007. The meeting of time-honored Grafenegg Castle and the German architects schröder schulte-ladbeck should become a "liaison créative", a creative connection being synergetic and innovative. The architect duo is famous for planning Concert Halls.Dortmund Concert Hall / Philharmonic for Westphalia, also planned by schröder schulte-ladbeck, belongs to the ten best concert halls worldwide. With the Auditorium they created an unforgettable cultural building which will be part of the famous Grafenegg Music Festival.
source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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