The Haus der Musik in Innsbruck shortlisted for the Mies van der Rohe Award

Shortlisted for the 2019 Mies van der Rohe Award, Europe’s most prestigious architecture prize, the new Haus der Musik in Innsbruck has finally given the Austrian city and capital of the Tyrol region a unique, distinctive complex entirely devoted to music.
Completed in 2018, it was designed for the client Innsbrucker Immobilien GmbH & Co. by award-winning Innsbruck-based architect Erich Strolz together with the Bregenz branch of the firm Dietrich Untertrifaller Architekten, an international practice which also has branches in Vienna, Munich, Paris and St. Gallen. A major new public complex, it accommodates numerous institutes and associations that were previously scattered across the city.
The project stems from an international competition won by the architects in 2014 and occupies a key site in the cultural centre of Innsbruck adjacent to a number of important buildings including the University, the neoclassical Tiroler Landestheater (Tyrolean state theatre) and protected age-old trees.
The Haus der Musik is a 4,000 square metre complex distributed over three main levels and open on four sides. Its architecture stands out for its pure volumes with generous views and open perspectives, creating a sense of accessibility to the public and the city.
The envelope is one of the key elements of a building that stands out for its powerful contrasts. Transparency and opacity, light and dark emerge from a composition whose individual elements are organised vertically as though on a musical score. The façades consist of a sequence of large unscreened glass walls that open both outwards and inwards, large closed surfaces in colours ranging from black to dark brown, and areas that combine both aspects, where long vertical slats cover the windows behind in an elegant brise-soleil system.
The elegance and apparent simplicity of the exterior dialogues with the large-scale spatial organisation of the interior, where continuous changes of scale in terms of the subdivision and heights of the spaces allow for the coexistence of a multiplicity of functions and spaces reached via the large multilevel glazed lobby.
Combining concerts and shows with educational and research activities, the Haus der Musik is organised around a central hub consisting of the main wood-panelled 550-seat concert hall with its views onto the green foliage of historic trees, a more intimate chamber hall (Kammerspiele), a variety of smaller rooms, various rehearsal spaces and the external department set up by the Mozarteum Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Innsbruck in 1981. It also has service spaces for the nearby Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra and other spaces housing regional musical associations and the Festival of Ancient Music (Festwochen der Alten Musik), which has been held in the city every August since 1976.
There is also a ground-floor bar and restaurant, administration offices and a music library, which along with the event spaces on the upper levels faces onto the panoramic terrace with its views of the Alps and the city rooftops.
Ceramic slabs from Marca Corona were chosen for the panoramic terrace and outdoor surfaces to create safe and aesthetically attractive pavings and for the interior floors (Matrix collection, colour Silver, with thicknesses ranging from the 20 mm HiThick for the exteriors and 10 mm for the interiors), helping to maintain the sense of contrasting materials and colours that continues inside.
Erich Strolz commented: «Immersed in a privileged setting in the centre of Innsbruck, the Haus der Musik is an open building that offers generous views of its interiors. Together with the adjacent Landestheater it forms a new urban hub enclosed by the surrounding urban buildings. Its large volume creates an exciting composition with a powerful identity while maintaining a strong link with the urban context. The transparent base housing the foyer that faces onto the square and the open stage of the main concert hall on the upper floor establish a compelling dialogue between the urban space and the cultural events held inside. The large concert hall, with its sweeping glass façade, becomes a great plein air stage and the building’s entry plaza becomes a welcoming auditorium.»