Culture and Congress Centre

Thun, Switzerland

Photo © Roger Frei

Siteplan

Ground floor

Elevation, Longitudinal section

Conference + Congress Centers

Architects: EM2N

Location: Seestrasse, 3602 Thun, Switzerland
Year: 2011
Client: City of Thun
Type of Commission: Competition
Competition: 2005, 1st prize
Planning: 2005 – 2009
Start of construction: 06.2009
Completion: 04.2011
Space Program: Additional multi functional space
Size: Gross floor area: 6’400 m2 (new part)

Upgrading the town meeting hall in Thun into a culture and congress centre posed two major challenges. These were the restrictive general framework of the project and the question of how to deal architecturally with the existing building from the 1980s. The spatial situation at this location – a residential district with heterogeneous building typologies of varied graining interspersed with largescale public uses – is confined and the restricted financial resources additionally limited the designers’ room for manoeuvre. However the intention was that the extension should condense the complex in both spatial and programmatic terms and strengthen its public character. As the strategic use of resources was essential, we reduced the interventions in the existing fabric to a minimum, leaving the meeting hall with its fixed seating practically ‘untouched’. Alongside it a new, functionally neutral hall was placed. The new foyer and the existing one combine to form a richly modulated spatial figure. Carefully positioned openings establish a relationship between it and the heterogeneous surroundings.