grafenegg concert hall

location
in accordance with the significance of the new concert hall, which must meet the highest international standards for classical concerts in terms of acoustics, spatial volume, stage size, and audience capacity, it is positioned in the front row, on equal footing with the old riding school and the visitor center. this gives both the visitor center and the concert hall direct connection to the castle, park, open-air area, and their respective visitor flows. the old riding school is flanked by the two slightly recessed building volumes of the concert hall and the visitor center, thereby further emphasizing its importance.

circulation
from the new entrance between the old gate arches, a clear circulation path emerges:
hotel, restaurant – visitor center – old riding school – concert hall.
starting from the parking area in front of the grafenegg castle grounds, visitors reach the always publicly accessible area via the new entrance between the two old gate arches and pass the gastronomy terraces of the hotel/restaurant directly to the visitor center. through the direct sequence of visitor center – old riding school – concert hall, direct circulation paths and various usage options between the different halls and their respective foyers are created. the arrangement of the backstage area in the u-shaped building section of the “old riding school” complex allows for short paths from the rehearsal rooms and artist dressing rooms directly to the concert hall, and also via a separate corridor to the old riding school. this ensures a clear separation between visitors and artists.

new concert hall
the shape of the new hall, essentially generated and optimized according to requirements for acoustics, spatial volume, stage size, and audience capacity, is lowered about 2 meters below ground level to allow, on the one hand, for sloped parquet seating rows starting from the foyer and, on the other, to minimize the required height of the building in comparison to the existing structures. the new hall is separated on three sides from the foyer at its lowest level by a darkenable glass wall, allowing a maximum number of people to still experience the concert from the foyer (visually through the glass wall, acoustically via sound system) if open-air events are moved indoors due to bad weather.

delivery
delivery takes place via the road running along the northern part of the site, directly into the storage room and from there onto the stage. access and parking for backstage and catering delivery also take place from the north.

financing strategies
due to the requirement for the shortest possible planning and construction time with simultaneously limited budget resources, a phased execution strategy is of utmost importance. the westward positioning of the new concert hall means that demolition of existing buildings is not strictly necessary (cost savings); in the first construction phase of the hall, there will be no intersections or disturbances to ongoing events. during the “soft renovation” of the visitor center, the foyer of the new concert hall can be used as the entrance area for events in the concert hall or in the old riding school to avoid disruptions to operations. “soft renovation” refers to a cost- and time-saving adaptation of the existing entrance foyer as a visitor center. at a later stage, a new visitor center of any desired size can be realized in place of this building section. the location of the concert hall provides the conditions for different implementation phases and, above all, leaves open the possibility of generous future expansions. a seminar-hotel facility for large festivals is envisioned in the area of the existing hotel-restaurant.