Construction work on the Redoute Weimar successfully completed
With the completion of the refurbished Redoute and the directly adjacent new building, the Staatskapelle Weimar now has a top-class rehearsal building. The Jena-based architecture and engineering firm pbr was responsible for project planning and construction supervision. The Dresden specialists from Müller-BBM Building Solutions were responsible for the specialist planning of the room and building acoustics for the musically demanding rooms.
Exciting, eventful history
The Deutsches Nationaltheater and the Staatskapelle Weimar (DNT) are Weimar’s most important stage company with a very long and impressive history. Founded in 1491, the orchestra is one of the oldest in Germany and one of the most traditional orchestras in the world. Its new home was built in 1974 as the officers’ house – a cultural center, theater and meeting place for the Soviet army. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, it stood empty until it was converted into a rehearsal stage and workshops for the National Theater in the mid-1990s. In 1997, the building was given the name Redoute.
Monolithic new building directly adjacent to the Redoute
Back in 2013, the city of Weimar commissioned a feasibility study for the energy-efficient refurbishment of the existing building and the addition of a rehearsal hall for the Staatskapelle Weimar, which had been struggling with completely inadequate rehearsal conditions in a repurposed sports hall until recently.
The symbolic ground-breaking ceremony for the solitary building, which impresses with its reduced form and anthracite-colored fibre cement façade and is connected to the existing building via a single-storey structure, took place in June 2018.
Outstanding room and building acoustics
The centerpiece of the acoustic planning by MÜLLER-BBM is the new rehearsal hall, which offers up to 180 musicians (including choir) a professional setting for orchestra and choir rehearsals. For acoustic reasons, the walls, ceiling and floor of the almost 5,000 m³ hall are all non-parallel to each other. The circumferential, folded wall elements and an articulated ceiling structure consisting of convex individual elements ensure the desired diffusion and sound mixing in the room. All four wall surfaces are fitted with mobile sound-absorbing curtains that can be moved individually, allowing for a high degree of acoustic flexibility during rehearsals.
With the handover on September 9, 2021, the musicians will not only have a top-class rehearsal hall, but also more than 20 new rehearsal and dressing rooms, a recording studio and adequate storage facilities for their instruments. The rehearsal rooms were highly soundproofed and planned and executed in accordance with strict room acoustics requirements in terms of form and equipment.
Within an ambitiously limited budget, the planning team has succeeded in creating a building that is both functional and architecturally impressive, leaving hardly any user wishes unfulfilled. The members of the Weimar Staatskapelle were delighted with the acoustic conditions of “their” new hall after taking possession of it.
