Festival halls, Salzburg (AT)
New building,
Building in existing structures,
Listed building,
Refurbishment
Client: Salzburger Festspielfonds
Architecture: Dietrich Untertrifaller
Competition: 2022, 3. prize
Programme: Workshops, rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms, stage technology, orchestra hall, choir hall
Visualisation: Dietrich Untertrifaller
Team
Luisa Dennig, Christina Kimmerle, Barbora Köver Tothova, Michael Porath, Martin Thüring, Fabio Verber
Text: Gerlinde Jüttner
Partners
Statics: FCP Fritsch Chiari & Partner, Vienna / building services: HL-Technik Engineering, Munich / stage: Kottke, Bayreuth / acoustics: Müller BBM, Planegg / landscape: Kieran Fraser, Vienna
Built into the mountain
Founded over 100 years ago, the Salzburg Festival is now the largest and most important festival in the world. The refurbishment and extension of the festival theatre preserves Clemens Holzmeister's iconic idea of a festival district, but develops it further and makes it fit for the future. A key aspect here is ecological, economic and social sustainability.
New workshops, rehearsal rooms and dressing rooms for up to 4,500 employees are housed in a compact new building behind the existing buildings, some of which are dug deep into the Mönchsberg.
Two green inner courtyards bring light and air into the new ensemble. The eight-storey building is crowned by a shed roof that towers above the silhouette of the existing buildings and makes the workshops visible.
The ‘festspielbezirk2030’ project will secure and further develop the infrastructure that is so central to Salzburg's cultural life for the future. Salzburg's festival theatres today include the Grosses Festspielhaus and the Haus für Mozart, formerly the Kleines Festspielhaus.
The Kleines Festspielhaus, built in 1925, was remodelled and extended in 1937 according to plans by Clemens Holzmeister. The Large Festival Theatre in Hofstallgasse, also designed by Holzmeister, was completed in 1960. The Haus für Mozart followed in 2006, replacing the Kleines Festspielhaus.
Prominent orchestra hall
In contrast to the largely concealed workshop complex, the cantilevered orchestra hall on Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz emerges in a prominent position. In dialogue with the new festival centre opposite, it gives the narrow square an attractive address without competing with the stage tower.
The choir hall as a new component of the roofscape also reveals its importance. Both are not only suitable for rehearsals, but are also excellent venues with a distinctive identity.
