on march 1st, the MUMUTH faculty building at the university of music and performing arts graz by
UNstudio will officially be open. the new music theatre design by un studio principal architect
ben van berkel is described as ‘classical with a twist’. the studio was selected from 212 entries in an
architectural design competition to design the building. construction of the building cost 19 million
euro and first began in march 2006. van berkel’s main focus was to design a building that is as much
about music as a building can be. this concept took the form of a ‘spring-structure’ that gave form to
the building and its layout. this structure was envisaged as an elongated spring, which would be
stretched, suppressed and folded up inside itself to offer structure to the various volumes through one
continuous line. this line slowly embedded itself in the final design, no longer appearing visibly.
the studio also used the idea of a blob-to-box model, altering the form of the building from movement
based at one end and unit-based at the other end. this concept provided further structure to the spring
model. the design also features a sticking concrete staircase and a glittering outer facade that makes
use of repetition.

http://www.unstudio.com

photographs by christian richters