Cultural interface
Amusement, art and control of the body are inscribed in the urban genes of the Thalia in Graz: back in 1830 a circus erected its wooden frame tents here, replaced in 1965 by a dodecagonal rotunda built of stone, known as the Thalia am Stadtpark.
It was followed in 1899 by the Graz Opera House designed by Fellner and Helmer.
Beside and to the south of this temple of high culture the roughly 140 m long and up to 43 m deep Thalia complex slides along Girardigasse. This narrow tapering street with steeply pitched roofs typical of Graz has a strongly village like appearance.
It is visually terminated by the steeple of the Heilandskirche to the east.
In the west the "cultural tanker" with the terrace of the legendary Thalia is docked here to the tree lines avenue of the Opernring. Here there were once basins of water, seating areas and flamingo enclosures.
Viennese Architect Rudolf Voregger planned the cafe with cinema that was erected in 1956/57. The glamorous transverse ballroom on the first floor with bar and panorama window subdivided by vertical concrete slats is still in existence. Its interior is under a preservation order, the airy ground floor below has repeatedly changed its style.
In the basement night becomes day in the disco "Mausefalle", in the north the glazed foyer and staircase tower of "next liberty" childrens and young persons theater adjoins the gem of a cafe dating from the post-war period. Beside this a piece of the old circus walls project out of the forecourt. It too is under preservation order and therefore an irrevocable part of this cultural conglomerate´s patchwork facade.
Complex starting point
At the start of the second millenium an expert study by Professor Hierzegger for the extension of the Thalia was approved. Behind the historic walls a 22.70 m high concrete fly tower was built. This colossus contains the rehearsal stage of the opera house with, beside it, a goods lift for the 18 m high stage set, their storage area and the offices of Theaterholding GmbH.
All these functions are placed behind the post modern facade with embrasure-like glass blocks. They belong to an expansion phase for which Viennese architect Gunter Wawrik won a competition in 1985. A glazed bridge connects this extension to the Thalia with the opera house, allowing sets to be easily manoeuvred back and forth between the opera, rehearsal stage and depot.
The existing facade on Girardigasse is articulated by narrow windows, wavy render, mortar courses and vertical cornice like elements. It is also under a preservation order. An escape stairs marks the transition between postmodernism and the post-war period.
Professor Hierzeggers expert study proposed building a four storey hotel with a volume of around 8000 m3 and a swimming pool above the Thalia, and using the space between terrace as a shopping arcade.
These plans were thwarted by objections from Graz Altstadtkommission (old preservation body) and the demand of UNESCO regarding the buffer zone of the world heritage area of Graz. In 2009 the Thalia Betriebs Gesmbh shuffled the cards again by setting up a competition for a usable floor area of 4000 m2: from the earlier hotel project the western wing inherited the structural preparations that had been made to carry the load of a four storey addition with a swimming pool and a John Harris fitness studio as a fixed tenant.
The team of Franz Sam, Irene Ott-Reinisch and Urs Bette won this competition. Theirs was the only entry that did not bundle the new elements compactly above the Thalia but instead distributes them in precisely tailored fashion across and above the existing volume. Their freeform addition is laid organically above the different parts of the existing building and connects them like a kind of clasp. "We saw the complex as a huge torso without a roof. It needed a termination" say the architects. "And we wanted to reduce the brutal impact of the fly tower."
Thoroughly three-dimensional
Taking the maximum permitted volumes as their starting point they worked out a complex geometry with an optimised structural design whose differently inclined areas of roof and wall, incisions and openings respond precisely to the inhomogeneous existing building and surroundings.
In designing the form they took into account a variety of parameters such as the building line in the narrow Girardigasse, the possible structural loads, the optimal entry of light, the best views, the fitness studio´s requirements and the insertion of the building in its setting.
After being accepted by a committee that examined its suitability for the old city setting, the project was implemented by the Graz architects Strohecker.
The roof top addition is about 80 m long up to 38 meters wide and is wound in a carefully balanced way like a neck support around the fly tower. In the west, where the addition is up to three storeys high, the pool rests on foundations made earlier.
The two storey “snout” with its angled walls and deep light slits projects more than seven meters beyond the Thalia, when you stand in the open air on terraces made in the incision and enjoy the evening sun feel very close to the treetops in the nearby Stadtpark. Fitness freaks train in 3.80 high rooms with continuous bands of glazing the voids to the galleries give the fitness centre a generous expansiveness. The floor area of 3500 m2 distributes across three levels was designed by BWM Architekten from Vienna.
The fitness centre extends as far as the eastern part of the building. From the terrace incised in the northern side of the homogenous roof skin made of perforated aluminium panels coated in turquoise green, you have a view of the copper roof of the Opera House. The floor above was used by the client for offices that are rented to the Theaterholding.
The eastern end of the building volumes rest on the outside walls of the stage set assembly hall, whose construction spans 25 metres and was strengthened by the addition of ring beams to take the load of the new addition above.
Photos: Hertha Hurnaus
Text: Isabella Marboe