Planning services for substance preservation and securing the circular construction of the Congress Hall on the former Nazi Party Rally grounds in Nuremberg to prepare for expansion for primarily cultural uses.

Here: Project planning - interior design

This includes the expansion to

1. Enabling spaces

2nd opera interim (priority)

3. warehouse/depot areas

It is intended to commission the services in stages, sections and, if necessary, in part. For more information, see the tender documents.

Property planning services - Interior fittings acc. to § 34 HOAI for the expansion of the circular Congress Hall building for primarily cultural uses.

In the circular building of the congress hall, the original planning exclusively provided for ancillary areas, technical areas and, for the most part, traffic areas (walkways, vestibules, stairwells, etc.) for the development of the actual congress hall.

With the exception of a few areas, the circular structure is in the structural state. The originally planned expansion with natural stone wall coverings and floors as well as ceiling coverings was never implemented at any point.

The expansion of the circular building is intended to make it safe and barrier-free to use. The explicit goal is an “developed shell construction”. Under no circumstances is a “prefabricated building” — of whatever nature — or an aesthetization in the sense of embellishment being pursued. On the contrary, the existing character of the building can also be seen inside. The few time layers that have survived in addition to the shell construction (e.g. air force aid paintings on the 3rd floor, the remains of the former “Café Königshof” on the 2nd floor and wall versions of the show “900 Years of Nuremberg”) are to be preserved.

The expansion should take place according to pragmatic principles at a simple level and be geared to functional requirements. Plastering, painting or other wall and ceiling coverings should be avoided as far as possible. For example, the installation of an industrial-standard floor that can be traveled on by conveyor equipment is considered. Higher quality coverings or floor constructions should be limited to areas that require this (e.g. ballet rehearsal, etc.). Fittings and coatings containing harmful substances are removed.

All installations must be installed in existing shafts or visibly “on plaster”.

Don't (!) The subject matter of this process is planning services that serve purely to preserve the building or to develop the upper floors. In particular, this includes installing windows, renewing the roof, securing the facades and external walls, static measures on load-bearing structures and the production of escape and rescue routes, including the installation of fire brigade lifts in accordance with the requirements of the high-rise directive. The determinants named in the above-mentioned planning packages must be taken into account in expansion planning. Interfaces must be operated accordingly.

The congress hall on the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg consists essentially of two head buildings and the U-shaped so-called round building. None of the components was completed. The current “inner courtyard” with an area of approximately 25,000 square meters was originally intended to house the covered event space for 50,000 people. In the northern head building is the documentation center Nazi Party Rally Grounds (museum use), the southern head building is used by the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. In the future, the circular structure is to be expanded primarily for cultural purposes. This includes setting up spaces for art and culture; these can be, for example: studios and studios for visual and performative art as well as for musical purposes. Another possible expansion purpose is to set up an interim for the music (opera) and dance theatre (ballet) sections of the Nuremberg State Theatre as well as the needs of the Nuremberg State Philharmonic, including the furnishing trades (mask, tailoring, props, etc.) as well as others in connection with the operation of the State theatre of required facilities. In addition, the expansion for museum purposes and for depot use is possible. The spaces that enable art and culture are to be fully represented in the inventory. The interim requirements of the State Theatre (approx. 14,600 sqm NUF) can only be accommodated in the inventory to the extent of approximately 80%. Approximately 20% require a supplementary building for uses that require very large rooms (auditorium for 800 people, stage, orchestra pit, rehearsal stage, etc.) and for uses that must necessarily be close to the stage for functional reasons. The supplementary building is not the subject of this award procedure; interfaces must be defined for it.

The circular building is an unfinished body shell (torso) which is a five-storey special building of building class 5 within the meaning of Art. 2 para. 3 sentence 1 no. 5 BayBO and the high-rise directive. The existing building is approximately 40 m high, the outer façade has a developed length of approximately 540 m, the facade facing the “inner courtyard” of approx. 410 m. In the final construction, the building should have reached a height of approximately 70 m.

The five main floors comprise the basement level accessible from the outside and from the “inner courtyard”, the arcade level accessible only from the outside via stairs and ramps (an arcade about 540 m long there connects the northern and southern head buildings), and two upper floors, which were originally used to access the unbuilt ranks of the event halls, and at the top a purely technical floor. In addition to the five main floors, the building has four mezzanine floors. These are: a continuous installation passage below the toilet cores between the arcade and 1st floors, auxiliary rooms above the toilet cores between the 1st and 2nd floors, an installation passage running around the courtyard below the lower roof (former colonnade level) between the 1st and 2nd floors and 16 large-volume former floors. Technical rooms between the 2nd and 3rd floors above the internal stairwells. Buses and trucks can also enter the “inner courtyard” from the east side via a single large gate.

The circular building is built as a masonry structure partially reinforced with reinforced concrete with various ceiling structures (reinforced concrete ceilings, cap ceilings, so-called “Remy ceilings”, etc.) on a reinforced concrete foundation slab of approx. 3.5 m thick. The exterior façade is a composite masonry made of large granite blocks and solid bricks. Numerous openings to the “inner courtyard” were walled up for reasons of weather protection. The roof structure is damaged, the roof cladding is leaking, and the simplest constructions of the post-war period are used as windows.

To clarify the question of whether the congress hall is suitable at all from a (construction) technical point of view for housing spaces for art and culture or as an interim opera, two feasibility studies were created by an architectural firm, which serve to advise the client:

1. “Congress Hall Nuremberg, possibilities of cultural use of a section, preliminary structural investigation, feasibility study”

2. “Feasibility study for setting up an alternative venue for the music and dance theatre divisions of the Nuremberg State Theatre in the circular torso of the Congress Hall of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds”

The feasibility study for setting up an alternative venue contains contributions from expert advisors and is more comprehensive. On the basis of § 7 para. 1 and 2 VgV, we inform applicants and bidders about this and make the two feasibility studies available (see appendix tender documents). The studies were dealt with by the Culture Committee or the Opera House Commission of the Nuremberg City Council.

Due to the size of the existing building, the sequence and characteristics of the planning services required and the time frame available, the awarding body does not necessarily intend to commission a property planning office with all planning services of the building and interior services (§ 34 HOAI).

Rather, the awarding body will carry out several procedures for awarding property planning services for buildings and interiors in a close temporal context.

According to the current state of the art, these procedures include:

- Project planning buildings and interiors/building envelope — doors, gates and windows

- Project planning buildings and interiors/building envelope — roofs

- Project planning buildings and interiors/building envelope — granite facade (street side)

- Project planning buildings and interiors/building envelope — facade (courtyard)

- Project planning buildings and interiors/inventory protection (interiors)

- Project planning buildings and interiors/escape and rescue routes

- Project planning buildings and interiors/interior fittings (enabling rooms, opera interim, warehouse/depot areas)

The awarding body reserves the right to bundle the above-mentioned procedures or to summarize or structure them thematically differently. The list is therefore purely informational and non-binding.

Applications for one, several or all procedures are possible.