New Media Centre
Pichler & Traupmann Architekten

New Media Centre

Pichler & Traupmann Architekten ZT GmbH as Architects

“OSCILLATIONS IN THE WAVE FIELD“ A response to the specific situation and the concept of urban integration are here blended with the idea of an inner building structure derived from the brief to form a synthesis.


Through the expansive gesture made by the cantilevered 1st floor the building is oriented primarily towards the central square of the campus with its lawns dotted with magnificent trees, reminiscent of English or American models. As a result the square is clearly terminated – by a university building.


At the same time the direction taken by Tongasse, which is important for the approach from outside the site, is incorporated by extending the line of this street so that the building is undercut at ground floor level and cut back at 2nd floor level.


As the line of Tongasse is slightly swivelled in relation to the longitudinal axis of the campus, starting from the south-west corner the building edges derived from these two directions begin to rotate, causing the building structure to oscillate and embedding it in a field of waves so that the originally completely rectangular structure is permeated to its innermost core by sine waves and shaped to the outermost layers of the roof and facade skins.


Naturally, these oscillations and divergences only make an impact where circulation and communication take place in the form of voids and balcony-like recreation spaces or where the special functions in the form of large halls for each institute are positioned. This inner “communicative oscillating structure” is enclosed by a functional, U-shaped layout of classrooms and offices. The external “communicative oscillating structure” in the area of the facade is found only at the movement zones between Tongasse, the film studio and the campus. In functional terms the building is layered in an extremely simple way: the ground floor and 1st basement level are, apart from the main entrance, allotted to the Institute for Composition and Electro-Acoustics.


The Institute for Film and Television, which has a close relationship to the former, is placed directly above it on the 1st floor, while the 2nd floor is reserved for the Institute for Keyboard Instruments. Out of each of the two-storey halls or studios at the centre of each institute a “Klangturm” (Sound Tower) develops, which starts on the first basement level with a recording hall accessible to the public via a flight of steps resembling a spectator stand and ends with the hall of the Institute for Keyboard Instruments that projects above the rest of building. This tower represents the inner nucleus and the heart of the building composition.


You enter the building from the west, protected by the projecting 1st floor and continue, moving either up or down, along flights of steps that follow the direction of Tongasse. The stairs leading down expand through the glass façade to a kind of spectator stand made up of seating steps, which offers a protected outdoor recreational area that can be used for presentations and performances, while also providing access to the public recording hall for those coming from outside the complex. Naturally, all the different levels can be reached barrier-free from centrally positioned lifts.

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