“Culture is the heritage of humanity, but not a genetic predisposition. We have to acquire it through learning, everyone painstakingly for himself, just like all cultivated people before us. In that way, movement should become dance, singing should become music, language should become poetry, thinking should become philosophy, and building should become architecture. The Balletthaus Düsseldorf serves as a workshop for the cultivation of our original movement: dance.”
Volkwin Marg, Founding Partner gmp
Following the winning designs submitted by the Berlin team of gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg and Partner, this year on a historic Rheinbahn-Depot in Dusseldorf, the new Probenhaus – a rehearsal building for the Ballett am Rhein – was erected between a listed tram hall and the rear of a housing development on Steinberg as a PPP project. The rehearsal building offers more than 100 opera and ballet dancers the most advanced training facilities under the best-possible conditions.
The cubic building structure is visually dominated by grey, smooth formwork facing concrete combined with large-format glass surfaces and dark metal façades. The roughly 1,500 square meter architectural concrete façade is made by Hering Architectural Concrete in the betoShell®FLEX 40 system, a sharp-edged glass and carbon fibre reinforced concrete façade with a mere 40 mm element thickness. The finish quality, with Classification SB 4, complies with the latest facing concrete requirements.
