With its location opposite the town hall and the Rathausgalerie in Essen, the Haus der Kirchenmusik forms the eastern prelude to the city center. Originally constructed in the 1960s, the building served as a "mothers' school". However, the Cathedral Boys' Choir, the Cathedral Choir, the Episcopal Church Music School and the Girls' Choir have since moved into the cathedral and turned the building into what it is today: the House of Church Music.

In 2021, Brüning Rein Architekten converted and renovated the ageing building in close consultation with Ralf Meyers, the master builder of Essen Cathedral. The decision was made to restore the building to its shell state and build on this basis instead of constructing a new one. This was a good urban planning decision, as the building looks familiar with its plaster façade and cubature, while at the same time introducing something new into the urban space: the upright, emblematic gable and the first floor that opens out into the green courtyard. In terms of construction, it is a hybrid building. The existing concrete and stone shell was extended where necessary. Due to the small ceiling cross-sections and low reserves of the load-bearing structure, the façades were supplemented with timber frame construction. There are also wide-span steel frames in the new roof. This made it possible to generate the necessary column clearance for a newly created hall. Architect Wiechers explains a special feature of this hall: "It was designed for 100 people and was as far removed as possible from its smaller counterpart for 70 people in terms of construction and room acoustics. Acoustically, it found the volume it needed in the new roof truss." The demanding room and usage program confronted the Bochum architects with partly conflicting structural and room acoustics requirements: Choir versus organ lessons versus wind instruments versus early musical education ... This made it all the more important to have a sensibly arranged room layout for a parents' café, a communal kitchen, workrooms, offices, a leisure and early education room, organ rooms, music archives and seminar rooms. The walls of the rooms used for music are not built at right angles in order to optimize the acoustics. They are based on trapezoidal floor plans, which can be found in the halls and also as a quote in the façade. The furnishings and materials of the interiors are always of high quality, but always geared towards robust use. Oak wood, grey tiles and engineered stone, white acoustic ceilings and walls were used, complemented by wall-sized color fields.

www.architekten-br.de

Photos:

Florian Monheim
www.bildarchiv-monheim.de

(Published in CUBE Ruhr Area 03|23)