Grand opening of the new venue for education and culture on 6/7 October 2018
With its unique concept, the new House of Music will unite several important cultural institutions and musical training facilities in Tyrol under one roof: the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck, the Tyrolean State Theatre Innsbruck, the Mozarteum (University of Salzburg), the Institute of Musicology at the University of Innsbruck, the Tyrolean State Conservatory, the Tyrolean Wind Music Association, the Tyrolean Singers’ Association and other institutions will all have a new home from October 2018.
The foundation stone for the large-scale cultural project with a usable area of around 6,355 m² was laid in the immediate vicinity of the Tiroler Landestheater on November 20, 2015. The design by architects ARGE Strolz + Dietrich | Untertrifaller emerged as the winner of an international architectural competition. The acoustics experts from Müller-BBM Building Solutions were responsible for the sophisticated building and room acoustics consulting.
An acoustic challenge
The large and small concert halls, Kammerspiele, Black Box [K2], music practice rooms, library and restaurant are housed next to and on top of each other in a single building. This is no easy task for the acoustician, as the diverse and high-quality uses must be able to take place simultaneously and without any acoustic interference or organizational restrictions.
A structure-borne sound decoupled room-in-room construction for the concert and event halls as well as extremely high-quality ceiling, floor and wall structures paired with precisely fitting room acoustics concepts lead to an outstanding acoustic level in the new Haus der Musik.
The concert and event halls
The large concert hall seats up to 550 people and extends over two floors. It can be used for concerts that require a long reverberation time as well as for orchestra rehearsals where a short reverberation time is important. The reverberation time can be varied using sound-absorbing fabric curtains, which are hidden from the audience behind the wall coverings. An adjustable scissor stage also allows for different playing levels. The large, two-part panoramic window is a true acoustic masterpiece, reliably dampening all noise emissions from the high volume of traffic in the surrounding streets and thus ensuring the enjoyment of musical passages performed in pianissimo.
The small concert hall can be used in a variety of ways and can accommodate up to 110 people. Chamber and soloist concerts are just as possible here as readings or panel discussions.
Kammerspiele, Black Box [K2] and music classrooms
The Kammerspiele and Black Box [K2] in the basement can be used simultaneously with the two concert halls and all other music practice/lesson rooms in the building at any time without acoustic consideration and without impairing hearing. To optimize the seating in the Kammerspiele, measurements were carried out in the company’s own reverberation room.
In order to meet the special requirements of the large number of music practice and teaching rooms and, above all, to avoid flutter echoes, walls were arranged at an angle instead of straight and all door transitions were made double-skinned. The Haus der Musik had requested floor-to-ceiling windows for some of the study rooms. High-quality constructions with a weighted sound reduction index of up to 65 dB were used for these, so that absolutely undisturbed rehearsals are possible at any time of day; inaudible, incidentally, in the administration rooms also located on these floors.
Acoustic measurements before the opening
Acoustic measurements were carried out not only during the planning and construction phase, but also before the opening. The results documenting the construction work are impressive: weighted sound insulation values of over 80 dB for the partition ceilings and weighted standard impact sound levels below 30 dB as well as partition walls with weighted sound insulation values of over 70 dB confirm both the sophisticated planning and the professional construction work.
This means that the new music venue is ideally equipped for future teaching and learning as well as for all kinds of cultural events.
