During the spring semester of 2025, architecture master’s students Lisa Knobel and Hussein Wanas analyzed the debate surrounding the competition project for the New Lucerne Theater. In their design, they combined the existing competition program with the various theater schools (private and public) in the city of Lucerne. From this, they developed the idea of a “theater campus” that would be housed in the current theater building and in the city administration offices that will become vacant in the summer of 2026, thereby revitalizing the city center.

Task

In democracies, public construction projects tend to be shaped by social negotiations rather than by decisions made by a small group. Cost-benefit debates often lead to the failure of projects for cultural institutions—they become ruins before they are built—or are significantly altered. These changes often affect public-private partnerships. This type of relationship is expressed through typology and space. Using the debates surrounding the “Salle Modulable” and the “New Lucerne Theater” as examples, the students analyzed the spatial phenomena and typologies of controversial or unrealized projects.

Stacked from 2 images. Method=A (R=8,S=4)

Module: Focusproject SS25 Lecturers: Joni Kaçani, Didier Balissat Assistant: Tobias Furter