Curtain Up at the Hofgarten

The temporary building for the University of Bonn’s auditorium is situated in one of the city’s most sensitive locations: directly in front of the Electoral Palace, overlooking the Hofgarten. The response to this context is restraint—yet with a sense of presence.

The two-story cube matches the height of the palace wings exactly, thus blending naturally into the historic visual axis. Its shell of perforated, corrugated sheet metal in a muted sand tone—derived from the gray and golden-yellow stucco surfaces of the Baroque palace—creates a lively texture depending on the angle of the light. The curtain, as a motif of the venue, extends from the interior to the exterior: in the hall, floor-to-ceiling curtains between the columns regulate the acoustics, while the corrugated façade skin translates this image outward.