Concept
The design for Tempora adapts Scharoun’s vineyard principle literally: an opera as a “wine-building.” The vineyard structure merges identity, urbanism, function, time, and aesthetics. It reflects Baden-Württemberg’s wine culture, creates terraced visitor levels that extend into the auditorium for acoustics and sightlines, integrates water management, and can be dismantled and reintegrated into MakerCity after 2037. The aesthetic ondulated terraces communicate elegance and originality.
Urban Strategy
Three spatial ideas shape the masterplan: Breaking the Box, Common Ground, and Vineyard. Large blocks are broken into clusters, creating courtyards and pathways—a “Maker Village.” Opera functions are embedded to ensure reuse after 2037 (e.g. rehearsal halls as studios, sports halls, or schools). Common Ground links housing, opera, and MakerCity through terraced gardens, flexible pavilions, and diverse housing types (co-housing, townhouses, ateliers, apartments).
Architecture & Construction
The opera’s core—auditorium, stage, tower—is steel, fully demountable and reusable. The foyer and façade are modular timber and glass, leased and returned after use (materials as a service). Three “operas” are conceived:
- Spatial Opera (auditorium, foyer, stage) – demountable and reusable elsewhere.
- Technical Opera (MEP systems) – integrated as service contracts, dismantled after 10 years.
- Facade Opera (vineyard structure, timber, glass) – designed for this site, remaining as part of MakerCity.
Landscape & Access
The project enhances biodiversity with green façades, planted staircases, and tree islands. Recycled wood and permeable stone create plazas and retention zones. Entrances serve both public and backstage needs; housing cores connect to bike garages and parking.
Experience & Acoustics
The stepped vineyard form ensures intimacy, visibility, and rich acoustics through reflective balconies and ceiling geometry. The auditorium offers varied “neighborhoods” of seating with consistently high acoustic quality, full accessibility, and integrated technical balconies.
Energy & Sustainability
Tempora will be the world’s first hydrogen-powered, CO?-free opera. Solar energy produces hydrogen for heating and cooling, anticipating 2045 energy goals already by 2027. Systems operate under as-a-service models (“TGA as a Service,” “Light as a Service”), allowing dismantling and return to suppliers.
Philosophy
Tempora embodies “materialized temporality” and RE-sponsibility: designing for the Here and Now, the Here and After, and the Elsewhere After. It creates architecture that is reversible, adaptive, and accountable to future urban, ecological, and cultural needs.
