CLOUD TOWER (open air theatre)

GRAFENEGG, AUSTRIA
•Architects: the next ENTERprise Architects

•Area: 651 m²

•Year: 2007

•Location: Grafenegg 10, 3485 Grafenegg, Austria.

Technical data:
seats: 1.670 auditorium seats, 300 lawn
seats
height of stage roof: 23 m
stage width: approx. 20 m
stage depth: approx. 11 m
Construction:
Stage structure: concrete; stage roof:
steel/glass; auditorium: prefabricated
concrete; stage backdrop: double-layered
lightweight structure.
Coming from the main entrance, the visitor is The staging of views and spatial sequences,
enticed to proceed by the silhouette of the stage the framing and hiding of points of
roof, visible behind an artificial mound. attraction, often achieved by the
Immersing himself into the incision, he tunnels meandering layout of paths in the
through the hill and – after passing this deep and traditional landscape garden, is a theme
narrow space – enters the wide arena of the taken up by varying the elevation of the
auditorium and the stage, the stage roof incision to achieve these effects.
suspended above it.

Artificial hillocks are created

by further excavating the
depression and subsequently
redistributing the soil at its
perimeter, thus creating the
auditorium tiers. Clearly
distinguished from the
natural terrain by their
geometry, stage and
auditorium nonetheless
merge fluidly with the
topography of the site.
As a spatial figure the pavilion is
Through its topographical configuration it
generated from elements of the
The pavilion is inserted into the existing reinterprets formal elements of the landscape
landscape – the depression, the
slope, the incision, the hillock relational field of entrance gate, riding school, garden – the play with perspective and visual
and the architectural folding of castle and in the process re-contextualizes the relations, with contraction and expansion, with
network of views in the landscape. enclosure and opening.
the roof.
 Section AA

Situation plan
Plan

Section BB

Structural system Axonomteric view Section CC

diagram