Location | Schadaupark, Seestrasse 45, Thun BE |
Client | Stadt Thun |
Commission | study commission on invitation 2009 |
Planning | 2009–2013 |
Construction | 2013–2014 |
Architects | Graber & Steiger Architekten, Project Architect: Urs Schmid |
Consultants | Construction manager: Gassner & Leuenberger, Structural engineer: Dr. Schwartz Consulting, Façade engineering: Metallprojekt GmbH, Building physicist: RSP AG |
Photographer | D.M. Wehrli |
The oldest still existent panorama painting in the world, the Thun Panorama, painted by Marquard Wocher between 1809 and 1814, was comprehensively renovated in 2014. The rotunda designed by the Thun City Architect Karl Keller in 1959, which has housed the panorama painting since the early 1960s, has also been renovated and enhanced by an annexe building. During this transformation, existing aspects of content, architecture and landscape were picked up on, reinterpreted and atmospherically condensed. The pavilion-like, transparent extension building, which transfers the circular geometry of the existing structures to gentle curves in the rectangular exhibition space, is like the antithesis of the introverted rotunda. Thanks to structurally similar characteristics, it enters into a quasi-symbiotic relationship with it, as old and new merge into an inextricable ensemble.
The current issue 13/2022 of TEC21 introduces the mixed-use conversion on Denkmalstrasse in Lucerne. Among others, the report highlights how the specific concept of the building achieves a lofty spatial openness despite a highly dense urban context and how the simple and raw spaces invite to a playful appropriation for living and working. Minimalism as an offer!