We decided to move the Theaterplatz to the quay or indeed to create such a space in the first place. As a reference to the proportion of the old theatre the entrance is placed here and the historical theatre quay is reactivated, precisely on the axis of the Rathaussteg which here meets the axis of the Kapellsteg.
New Lucerne Theatre
The building for the New Lucerne Theatre will reorganise an important urban interface in the heart of Lucerne.
Year
2022
Venue
Lucerne
State
Competition
Category
Culture
Size
11.711 m²
Year |
Venue |
State |
Category |
Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 |
Lucerne |
Competition |
Culture |
11.711 m² |
Year
2022
Venue
Lucerne
State
Competition
Category
Culture
Size
11.711 m²
Our proposal responds in varied and spatially differentiated ways to the diversity of relationships, directions and intersecting lines in this unusual urban situation. The place produces, as it were, the syntax for the tectonic form of the new theatre building.
Our aim is to keep the building height as perceived by a pedestrian from the respective street spaces as low as possible. On this account the taller volumes needed for the theatre are either recessed from the continuous eaves line on three sides or are stepped several times. The orthogonal relationship of the blocks of buildings to the quay of the River Reuss is broken up precisely at the site for the theatre. Hirschengraben and Kapellbrücke run towards it on a diagonal, at the Waterturm the latter makes a characteristic bend in direction.
The stage tower should not appear as a freestanding element but rather integrated by means of a roof that falls continuously to the volume of the studio.
The perspective effect of these non-parallel lines and the fifth decision not to make the stage tower as a freestanding element but rather to integrate it by means of a roof that falls continuously to the volume of the studio is most surprising. On the one hand the projecting silhouette of the stage tower is further calmed and on the other hand for the viewers unsuspected dynamics of the place itself are revealed.
The tectonics of the building are understood as those of a continuous folding of surfaces and the openings are placed there where they develop as a result of the folding process. These openings are generously glazed. The ground floor zone has panes of maximum size that are as transparent as possible towards the quay. The „bel etage“ of the three-storey main foyer,
in contrast, has wavy glazing that recalls the motif of the theatre curtain but also the River Reuss that flows by here. Towards the Jesuit Church this skin becomes an opaque, hanging but also a wavy panel. The recessed roof top and the stage tower have glass elements whose frames emphasise the verticality.
The performance spaces are essentially connected in two clusters of volumes: the “large cross” in the west consisting of the main stage with the stage tower, the side stages, the backstage, and the large hall, as well as the staggered tower in the west consisting of the Middle Hall and the Studio.
The New Lucerne Theatre – with a syntax of organisation for the harmonious interplay of the different functions and a syntax of geometry generated from the implications of the place.
Architecture
Pichler & Traupmann Architects
Design team
Bartosz Lewandowski (team leader)
Anna Chakhal-Salakhova
Anna Gulinska
Client
Projektierungsgesellschaft Neues Luzerner Theater, Lucerne
Hard facts
Start of planning: 2021
Usable floor area: 7.430 m²
Gross floor area: 11.711 m²
Location: Lucerne, CH
Function: Theatre
Scope: Open project competition in two stages
Rendering
Patricia Bagienski-Grandits, Vienna
Model
Harald Schmidt, Vienna