TauberPhilharmonie

The city of Weikersheim in northeast Baden Württemberg enjoys nationwide fame as a city of music, both for its Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland and its Musikakademie Schloss Weikersheim. Until now the only big performance venue for orchestras was the old civic hall in Weikersheim. Currently a new concert hall will be built, located on the western banks of the River Tauber. The design for the culture and event hall is a dialogue with its surroundings – the nearby magnificent Renaissance palace and the church of St. George. The new building integrates itself into the natural site and marks the gateway to the city. In particular the cubic volume with its lightly inclined roofs and the deliberate materiality of the chosen timber construction technique manifest the higher cultural values embodied in the concert hall and evoke the feel of the sound-emitting bodies of instruments.
The single-storey building is composed of two architectural volumes: the larger of the two accommodates the major concert hall; the smaller, somewhat lower part houses the small concert hall, the choir hall and all ancillary functions. To the southeast a deep incision in the facade signals the main entrance, with an expansive glazed frontage opening up the foyer invitingly towards the forecourt.
The small concert hall and the choir hall are amalgamated into a single cell, and can be flexibly subdivided into smaller units or opened towards the foyer. The large concert hall can be opened towards the foyer along its entire rear side, thus constituting a larger event space. The trapeze-shaped stage of the large hall, the convexly curved wall panels, reflective ceiling elements produce ideal acoustics. The exterior cladding with wooden slats lends the facade of the new concert building depth and accentuates the sculptural form of the building.

Consultants
merz kley partner (Structural engineering), Krebs + Kiefer (Fire protection), IB Hausladen (Building physics)