University of Innsbruck - School of Architecture

Lecture Hall

1994-96

Today's Lecture Hall and two of the three classrooms had been planned anew according to topical creative principles.

Buckled for acoustic reasons, the ascending tiers in the Hall are now divided into three sections. Likewise, the Hall's enclosing walls are lined with wooden slats, and the area of the lecturers' standing desk was elevated by more than a meter. The ceiling is curved according to acoustic insights and constructed with ultrafinished aluminum sheets following considerations derived from lighting engineering. In between, involute lights are integrated to give antiglare illumination.

The classrooms are connected to an open-plan room that can be partitioned as necessary. The ground plan thus consists of a rectangle composed of two quadrants of the same size. Roofing this rectangle, two dome lights, elliptical openings, face the north. In this connection, the construction is a girder arrangement over which a membrane was drawn. The interior and exterior membranes are intended as an acoustic screen and roof cladding, respectively.