Resonating body of prestressed concrete

The Vienna State Opera is world-renowned. Future members of the Vienna Philharmonic play in its orchestra pit; Dominique Meyer has been director since September 1. “Each season we perform around sixty different pieces, including premieres as well as repeats of old productions. Contemporary stage sets can be up to three storeys high and are often complex to erect.” In the 2012/13 season there are five opera and three ballet premieres. “We’ve often used the main stage for rehearsals. But we could only rehearse there until 2 pm because then the sets for the evening performance had to be erected. De facto we could only rehearse premieres and so conditions were not ideal.” Meyer wanted to be able to also rehearse repertoire performances properly. A rehearsal stage was needed with the same dimensions as the original, 28x28 metres. This would enable precise blocking rehearsals to be held and allow the main stage of the Opera to be used more – for performances for children, for example.

The Arsenal seemed a good location. On the site of the “Art for Art” decoration and stage set workshops there, around 15 000m² in area, the entire focus is on theatre. This is where stage sets for productions in the state theatres are built and stored. Gustav Peichl’s rehearsal stage for the Burgtheater stands in the northeast along the approach road. In the southeast a row of poplars lines the road with the decorations depot. It is almost 230 metres long. With the opening of Vienna’s new Main Railway Station nearby, the Arsenal will move closer to the centre. The new 21er Haus of the Belvedere (redesign: Adolf Krischanitz) already provides a cultural highlight nearby.

The four-storey, 25-metre-wide depot from the post-war era is filled with props, furniture and stage fixtures. The huge lifts at the end of the building can transport up to 8000 kg. In front of the south-western short end of the building there is a turning area for trucks. They transport stage sets back and forth between the Arsenal and the various theatres of the Vereinigte Bühnen. This asphalted space is about 38 metres deep, the turning radius for the trucks is 23 metres. The required clearance height is 4.40 metres; the plan was to place the new building with the stage and service rooms for conductors, directors, choir, soloists and other theatre people above this area. In addition the rehearsals stage was to be at the same level as the first floor of the depot, i.e. the floor had to be 5.44 metres above ground level. This further complicated the planning as it restricted the maximum thickness of the slab above the ground floor, which had to span at least 23 metres without intermediate columns, to one metre.

The “Art for Art” Theaterservice GmbH set up a competition and invited eight teams to take part. Kiskan-Kaufmann + Venturo were clear winners: using prestressed concrete with a low construction depth they succeeded in keeping the turning area free and remaining within the budget. The staircase core helps carry the loads, its tight organisation is particularly impressive: the lift and staircase tower, which stands between two load-bearing columns in the middle of the approach road, accesses all levels. On the ground floor the glazed box around the stairs becomes the foyer, on the upper levels the sanitary facility cores are situated above it. On the first floor a long corridor is docked to the rehearsal stage that is connected to the stage set depot on the same level. All the other technical and lounge spaces are arranged along the circulation corridor with staircase, lift and WC cores. In the southwest this part of the building cantilevers around ten metres beyond the columns like a waist bag containing the infrastructure. Their stringent approach meant that Kiskan-Kaufmann + Venturo could make do with just three full upper floors, the fourth is set back. The new building therefore remains within Building Class III and below the height of the depot, an aspect that was very positively assessed. (...)
Isabella Marboe

The article in full length and more pictures can be found in architektur.aktuell