text: Roman Höllbacher / architektur.aktuell, no. 513, 12.2022
The Art of Fugue The International Mozarteum Foundation (ISM)in SaLzburg is the world’s most renowned institution for the cultivation of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. With a sophisticated intervention, Maria Flöckner and Hermann Schnöll have now helped the listed building ensemble on Schwarzstraße in Salzburg to a kind of architectural revival.
The first reconstruction In 1856, on the occasion of Mozart’s 100th birthday, an association was formed in Salzburg to build a Mozart House. After many unsuccessful attempts, it was possible in 1907 to acquire the Villa Lasser together with the associated property on today’s Schwarzstraße, for which an ideas competition was held in 1910. Richard Berndl from Munich won the first prize among 64 entries. In order to fulfil the required spatial programme – the Villa Lasser was to house the conservatoire, the collections and the administration – Berndl had to expand it considerably. While he symmetrically supplemented the stylistically rounded building on Schwarzstraße with two lateral risalites, the facade facing the Mirabell Gardens appears as a random staggering of differently dimensioned buildings, which he set hard against the historic bastion wall. A narrow courtyard was created between the remodelled existing building and the newly constructed concert hall, which is spatially defined by a gate building on Schwarzstraße and a connecting wing at the rear. The structural problems of the design become apparent in these components, which are open on the ground floor with Palladio motifs. Berndl can only clumsily overcome the different storey heights and levels of the Villa Lasser and the concert hall.
The only connection between the two buildings is via a steep staircase in the existing building. The terrace of the gate building cannot be entered at all due to the lack of access. The path from the Wiener Saal in the existing building to the break buffet has always been an imposition. Initially, this break room was not planned at all. During the construction phase, Berndl had to adapt a room that had been planned as a depot. It remained an emergency solution.
