This multi-purpose hall stands in the centre of a relatively rural suburb of Pforzheim. To provide an urbanistically appealing solution despite a meagre budget, the boxlike form of the hall was broken up with a roof projection extending across the entire façade and a freestanding cylinder in front of the building with changing rooms and equipment spaces for the building’s services. In front of the main entrance, we laid out an area intended for open-air ceremonies. All excavated material remained on site for reasons of economy and later served in reshaping the grounds.

Together with the structural engineers, we developed trusses out of flat-rolled steel to serve as roof supports, which have wooden beams screwed to their sides to prevent buckling. As it was not possible to fit windows on the eastern side – due to the arrangement of the kitchen, the auxiliary rooms and the spectator seating above them – light is here directed into the house through a large shed roof spanning lengthways over the hall. This is divided up internally into individual light wells by bulkheads, whose side walls also reflect the daylight lengthways. On the opposite side, glass doors open up a view across the lawn to the west.

The hall’s façades are covered with render of a light blue colour. By contrast, the round structure is fitted within dark wooden cladding and white battens.

The multi-purpose hall shows how a meagre budget not only necessitates the simplest means of construction, but can also lead to increased outlays for maintenance. Many representatives of public works are not willing or not able to recognise this connection.

Client:
Stadt Pforzheim

Architects:
Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei Architekten, Stuttgart

Team:
Roman Adrianowytsch, Stefan Raab, Reinhard Staub

Gross Volume:
10,330 cubic meters

Effective Area:
1,500 square meters

Competition:
1988 – 1st prize

Construction period:
1989 – 1991

Location:
Zum Nagoldblick 2-4, 75181 Pforzheim-Huchenfeld, Germany

Awards
Auszeichnung guter Bauten, BDA

Auszeichnung Beispielhaftes Bauen
Architektenkammer Baden-Württemberg

Publications
Bauwelt
32 | 1992

Deutsches Architektenblatt
9 | 1994

Deutsche Bauzeitung
7 | 1994

Egon Schirmbeck (Hg.):
Zukunft der Gegenwart.
Stuttgart 1994

Wolfgang Bachmann (Hg.), Haila Ochs (Texte):
Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei.
München 1995

Baumeister
1 | 2000

Falk Jaeger (Hg.):
Lederer + Ragnarsdóttir + Oei.
Berlin 2008

Lederer, Arno / Ragnarsdóttir, Jórunn / Oei, Marc (Hg.):
Lederer   Ragnarsdóttir  Oei 1.
Jovis Verlag Berlin 2012

Photos
Roland Halbe, Stuttgart