The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them
Cultural Facilities
Hala Ludowa – Wroclaw, Poland
Oct 12th
The building, designed by architect Max Berg, is set on a quatrefoil plan, with a centrally positioned, circular 426-foot-wide (130m) hall connected by a double-ring foyer to 56 auxiliary exhibition spaces offset outward. Each side of the floorplan’s main axis is marked by an entrance hall with the main west access point, facing the city centre, emphasized by double-story height, and an oval floor.
To provide appropriate acoustic conditions, the walls are partially constructed of concrete mixed with wood or cork. The elevations’ concrete finish, textured with the imprints of wooden shuttering, adds to the brutal charm of the building. More >
London Royal Festival Hall
Sep 19th
The Royal Festival Hall was built as part of the Festival of Britain of 1951. This festival looked back to the famous Great Exhibition of 1851 but, more importantly, encouraged a nation that still bore the scars of World War II to look forward to a burgher future. More >
Weishaupt Forum – Germany
Sep 13th
Set in Schwabian countryside on the edge of a small town, this complex is the representational building for a small industrial plant. The assembly was conceived as a communal and public reception facility, which, running parallel to the existing administration building, creates a new controlled street leading from the main entry to the interior of the plant.
The new complex is made up to two principal structures: a cafeteria and a training centre housed in a single-bar building, and a portico building opposite the existing offices. The portico building accommodates a product display area and a 50-seat orientation space at grade, with a gallery for the industrialist’s collection of the late-20th-century art above. More >
Ulm Stadthaus – Exhibition and Assembly Building
Sep 13th
Conceived as a programmatic and cultural complement to Ulm’s Munsterplatz and the historic mass of its cathedral, this Stadthaus establishes a modest, secular, civic presence within the newly configured main square of the city. The building houses a visitors’ information centre, a ticket office, and a cafe terrace on the ground floor, and a top-lit, multilevel galley space-cum-lecture hall on the floors above.
With its striking cylindrical form capped by three prominent roof skylights, the building imparts a decisively civic character to the otherwise continuous commercial frontage of the square. The main body of the building derives its form from the geometry of the cathedral and the square. More >
Unicorn Theatre – London
Sep 13th
Located just south of Norman Foster’s City Hall building near London Bridge, this theatre was built for a company that performs for children, from toddlers to teenagers. Yet its style is minimal, even austere, hardly what one would expect for a youth-related facility. The particular palette was chosen, architect Keith Williams says, because it would not ‘condescend to the audience’ and because it was flexible enough to suit tastes that change rapidly through childhood.
A series of interlocking and protruding masses compose the exterior of the five-storey building. To the west the main theatre, wrapped in copper with irregular standing seams, cantilevers over the glazed foyer, almost appearing to float. More >
