The Kölner Philharmonie is a symphonic concert hall located in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It is part of the building assemble of the

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lich ...

and was opened in 1986. The Kölner Philharmonie is located close to the

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of ...

and the Cologne Main Station. The ensemble was designed by the architects Busmann + Haberer in the 1980s.

Building

The concert hall

The concert hall was made like an

Amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

, to get a close to perfect room acoustic. Therefore, there are no walls which are in parallel to each other, to produce no echo. Size and art of the

padding Padding is thin cushioned material sometimes added to clothes. Padding may also be referred to as batting when used as a layer in lining quilts or as a packaging or stuffing material. When padding is used in clothes, it is often done in an attempt ...

for the seats is selected in a way, that the

acoustic quieting Acoustic quieting is the process of making machinery quieter by damping vibrations to prevent them from reaching the observer. Machinery vibrates, causing sound waves in air, hydroacoustic waves in water, and mechanical stresses in solid matter. ...

is constant, independently of the fact if the seat is used by a person or not.

Roof

The hall has no

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s in it and has place for 2,000 people. The size of the hall give some problems: The hall is below the public Heinrich-Böll square. Walking noise from people with

stiletto heel A stiletto heel, or just stiletto, is a shoe with a long, thin, high heel. It is named after the stiletto dagger. Stiletto heels may vary in length from 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) to 25 cm (10 inches) or more if a platform s ...

s or driving noise from

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboar ...

s or trolleys can be heard in the hall. Due to this reason, the town square is closed during performance.

Pipe organ

At the original design of the hall, no

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''rank ...

was planned. Later, the pipe organ building company

Klais Orgelbau Orgelbau Klais is a German firm that designs, builds and restores pipe organs. It is a family run company, founded in 1882 by Johannes Klais senior and is now run by his great-grandson Philipp Klais. The firm is based in Bonn, Germany, and has c ...

from

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, got the contract to build an organ. The original instrument was finished in 1986. The original instrument had three keyboards, 70 stops with altogether 5.394

pipes Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circul ...

Concert

At the opening on 14 September 1986 the Rheinische Sinfonie by

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

was performed. Annually roughly 400 concerts are performed with around 600,000 visitors. The Kölner Philharmonie is the home base for the Gürzenich Orchester Köln and the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln.

North-South-Tunnel of the Stadtbahn

Currently the North-South-Tunnel of the Cologne Stadtbahn is under construction. The Tunnel is below the concert hall. In 2009 first acoustic tests have been performed. According to the Intendant Louwrens Langevoort, these tests have not been performed well.

References

External links

*
Kölner Philharmonie
Kölner Philharmonie homepage {{Coord, 50.9406, 6.9608, type:landmark_region:DE, display=title Buildings and structures in Cologne Concert halls in Germany 1986 establishments in Germany Music venues completed in 1986