Adapting the Existing
location
Marstallplatz, Munich
year
2007 - competition/ special prize
client
City of Munich
size
--
architect
Muck Petzet Architekten with Mathieu Wellner
team
Muck Petzet, Mathieu Wellner
Luise Angelmaier
Zhuoying Zhou
The competition brief called for investigating the possibilities for converting the Marstall into a concert hall or into a multifunctional event space.
Our contribution ignored the requirements of the space allocation plan, because in both cases fulfilling the requirements would lead to overloading and destroying the historic riding school by Leo Von Klenze. Rather, a spatial plan was developed that fit with the existing content of the building (e.g. the Marstalltheater) and the spatial potential of von Klenze’s building. In this approach, interventions into the existing are minimised and ephemeral furniture takes over essential functions: Stairs, Elevators, cloak rooms, box office, public toilets, technical rooms, gallery, tribune, projection space, projection surfaces, bar, storage room and shop. An element that changes, renews and surprises with each use and each performance. As the building is cleared out and all built-in’s removed, a central yet flexible multifunctional structure connects three venues in one: the Marstall theatre, the Marstall hall and the light-flooded Marstall atelier. The design basically proposes the modern and realistic solution of an intermediate cultural use.
Despite the deviation from the program described in the brief, the jury appreciated the radical approach towards the historic building and awarded the proposal with a special prize.