Anneliese Brost Musik forum Ruhr

Anneliese Brost Musik forum Ruhr, Bochum (DE)


LOCATION:
Bochum (DE)

ARCHITECT:
Bez+Kock Architekten

MODEL:
Custom

MORE INFO:
www.bez-kock.de (architect)

www.bochumer-symphonie.de / www.bochumer-symphoniker.de (Bochum Symphony Orchestra)

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For more than a century, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra yearned for a home to call its own. The Orchestra used to rehearse in an industrial building outside the center of the city with poor acoustics and insufficient space, and their concerts took place in multiple locations in Bochum, including the Schauspielhaus (Theater) and the Audimax auditorium at the Ruhr University Bochum – none acoustically suitable for music performance.

Since Steven Sloane was named General Music Director of the City of Bochum in 1994, he was determined to change the status quo for the Orchestra and the Bochum audience. Both he, the Orchestra and the City embarked on what would become a multi-year project to create a proper home for the Orchestra.

Thus, Mr Sloane introduced a fund-raising campaign, inspired by Barack Obama’s campaign some years earlier, in which he challenged the people of Bochum to produce 10,000 contributions over a period of ten weeks. At the end of the ten weeks, the Musikforum campaign had attracted not 10,000 but 20,000 contributors, some giving a few Euros, others much more.

Actually, it is a miracle that the new Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr (named after the late German publisher and philanthropist whose Foundation was a major donor to the project) exists at all – above all, this is due to the commitment of the Bochum Symphony Orchestra with its musical director Steven Sloane, the contributions of more than 20,000 local donators and the supporting alliance of the City of Bochum, the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the EU.

The Stuttgart-based architects Bez+Kock designed the building ensemble where the former 19th century St. Mary’s church would serve as the future foyer both of the new concert hall and another new small hall that Bochum’s music school would use for different purposes – even the church bell of 4.5 tons would play a key role acting as the future school bell! This creative design integrates this long-vacant, secularized neo-gothic church and gives it a new purpose housing both the large 960 seat auditorium as well as the 250 small dedicated to local music school students.

On 21st & 22nd June 2016, for the first time the Bochum Symphony Orchestra with his musical director Steven Sloane performed on the stage of the soon-to-be-completed concert hall: some of the seats were still missing and only very few of them were occupied by city representatives, architects, technicians, acousticians and employees.

The purpose of the rehearsals was to give the Bochum Symphony Orchestra not only the first impression of their new home but also to check the acoustic design and investigate any minor adjustment still required for the big opening in Autumn 2016. The small audience loved the sound as well as the acoustic experts: Müller-BBM in collaboration with Kahle Acoustics were the selected consultants and worked very closely together with the architects to achieve a perfect sound for this outstanding venue.

Note the so-called “shoebox” – i.e. a traditional rectangular room – shape of the venue gently completed with nice audience seats surrounding the conductor and the orchestra. Know the advantage of a rectangular shape? Easy: the reverberation from the side walls remarks the high sounds during the loud segments of music, then directed towards the audience so music is perceived as more vibrant.

And to complete the offer, the Musikforum is also perfectly equipped to house Bochum’s vibrant municipal music school, where people of all ages learn instruments, play in bands and sing in choruses. Bochum has the largest music school in the region, with over 10,000 people learning to play instruments.

So our particular challenge was manufacturing this chair created by the architects for this particular venue: a perfect combination of fabric and wood with 8 seat centres, 4 heights and 5 configurations that would take into account every single detail, from the location of the air conditioning outlets to the seat numbering in Braille.

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