Concert Hall
Peter Haimerl was born in 1961 in Eben near Viechtach. Since 1991 he is pursuing the confines/ possibilities of existing technologies in different projects. The widely publicized project Birg mich, Chilli! a converted farmhouse in Eben was presented with the Architekturpreis Beton in 2008 and the Best Architects Award in 2009, as well as received a recognition of the German Architecture Award in 2011. With his company Hauspaten Bayerwald he preserves the building tradition of Bayerischer Wald and try to convince the regional inhabitants of the high quality of their building culture and prevent them from destroying their own history.
The concert hall represents the heart of the urban development to revitalize the new centre of Blaibach. It is located next to the new community centre and complements the space of a new village square that was realized with funds of the state urban development support.
The concert hall is a solitaire of concrete with an inclination above the slope in the village centre following the topography and linking with its granite facade to the stone carver tradition of Bailbach. The monolithic tilted building opens itself to the visitors at the new village square and guides them by a staircase to the foyer below the surface. The foyer provides not only the functional areas like wardrobe, sanitary rooms and bar, but also leads the visitor excitingly around the auditorium into the inner concert hall. The hall unfolds its acoustics within the seemingly light building. While the precised light slits illuminate the space. The building body is made of pre-cast concrete and only a highly intricate constructed formwork made the realization of the difficult form possible. The dominant tilted surfaces of the concert hall are based on acoustic specifications and include besides LED-lights also bass absorber behind the light slits as well as underneath the steps for optimal acoustics. The concrete in the hall is untreated. Its lively surfaces help to absorb the medium-height tones.
The inclination of the building based on the increase of the slope carry the gallery. The seemingly transparent seats, which are fixed on iron swords, appear to float above the light slits. The stage of the concert hall, which is only designed for its actual function not as a multifunctional room, is equipped with modern LED-stage technology.
The monolithic inner space of the concert hall was built with crushed foam glass concrete, manufactured from recycled glass bottles with the help of water powered electricity. This kind of concrete excels in good thermal insulation and low weight. Heating as well as lighting and acoustic elements are integrated in the walls, implicating the use of a lower amount of materials and making the adding of a variety of materials with different functions obsolete. The outer shell of the building consists of granite rubble stone from a nearby quarry.