MESO – Stadthalle Karlsruhe: Digital Flexibility für multifunctional City Hall

Work in Progress
MAKING OF
Section

Work in Progress

A project takes shape

In close cooperation with SSP Architekten and in continuation of the winning design by netzwerk-architekten, we are developing the digital level of the Stadthalle Karlsruhe for Karlsruher Messe- und Kongress GmbH.
The client will receive a user-friendly interface with which the Stadthalle staff can easily choreograph a complex network of light elements and media surfaces. This allows the tenants’ wishes to be implemented quickly, flexibly and energy-efficiently. The opening is planned for 2025.

Perspective view of the foyer area, Hermann Rotermund 1985 © Hermann Rotermund

The Stadthalle Karlsruhe was built in 1915 by the architects Robert Curjel und Karl Moser. To allow for more flexible uses, the building was redesigned by Hermann Rotermund in 1985. The façade remained classicist, but behind it a multifunctional city hall was created with an impressive interplay of geometric shapes and grids. The design – a sign of its time – is still impressive today. However, as the interior no longer met current standards and had considerable fire safety deficiencies, the local council decided to comprehensively modernize the town hall.

The original modernization concept, created by netzwerkarchitekten in 2012, stands out for its simplicity: Rotermund’s design is reduced to core elements, colored elements are discolored, the building becomes whiter and brighter. Media elements pick up on the existing geometry and develop it further. Square pixels as the design basis for lighting elements and the guidance systems quote the grids in the building and reinterpret them in a contemporary way. Color-controllable lighting elements allow flexible coloring of the building according to the customers’ wishes.

Media elements Stadthalle Karlsruhe, 2012 © netzwerkarchitekten

The guidance system developed by UNIT Design picks up on the grids and integrates the digital guidance elements into the analog ones. The lighting design by Envue Homburg uses specially developed downlights with adjustable color temperature and colored accent lights throughout the building.
The further planning by SSP modernizes all halls and optimizes the building services in terms of energy efficiency. The appearance and technology will be comprehensively renewed.

Foyer, example of light branding, rendering © Envue Homburg Licht GmbH

Experience Management System, screenshot © MESO

The Experience Management System developed by MESO makes control simple and customer-oriented. The central view for the building services arranges all event scenes as rows and all media as columns. Room signage can be changed throughout the day, and lighting and color moods can be easily switched during the event.

Among other things, the system allows the following elements to be controlled on three floors:

64 screens of the digital guidance system with control of color, graphic elements, directional guidance and displayed texts
36 additional screens for displaying the color and content of counters and rooms
approx. 1,800 downlights with adjustable brightness and color temperature
47 large-format colored pixel elements on the ceiling
23 dome lights in the Weinbrenner-Saal with a total of approx. 17,000 LEDs
2 media facades with a total of approx. 38,000 individually controllable LED pixels

The lighting and guidance system are integrated into one user interface. Corporate branding for the Stadthalle can be created in a single step.
Depending on how many rooms of the multi-storey building are used, additional columns can be added for the staging.

The spacious foyers on the three floors offer flexible usage options. They can be divided into any number of zones by creating several columns and assigning grid fields to them. Light color and animations can be set individually for each column. This allows areas in the foyers to be set with different lighting moods.