For the interim use of the Mero Hall, the former fast food restaurant and entertainment venue of the Spreepark, modulorbeat designed the spatial installation "Blue Hour". The Blue Hour as a phenomenon of evening or morning twilight marks the phase in which the perception of the surroundings shifts due to the natural light situation. Thus, it also stands as a metaphor for transformation and change. The development transition between the de-active park and the planning of what will later be public corresponds to this transition from day to night and night to day.
"It's not really architecture anymore, it's a park that takes place in an architectural fragment. And behaves the same way - there is no center, it's open, you can sit on the bench with a few people and feel comfortable; but it can also become quite dense. And in the sense of artistic research, this is really an experimentation, a sounding out of what this space can be permanently. With the luxury that first of all there's no functional constraint that you have to accommodate, but that you can completely engage with the place."
One focus is on re-examining materials, recycling them in new contexts, and thus a kind of redefinition of seemingly well-defined structures. In line with her artistic approach, the "Blue Hour" project also began already with the decision of what to preserve, what to transform, and what to add. The design uses the existing Mero Hall as a starting point and resource for the development of a new hybrid place. The existing supporting structure, with its namesake MERO nodes, was strengthened as part of the park's security measures and supplemented with a blue corrosion protection: a bright gentian blue that hardly occurs as a color in nature. The structure of the roof and its cast shadows were taken up for the transformation of the hall and can be found again in the elements of the installation. Benches invite to linger, to watch and listen. Partial canopies protect from rain or heat, but also change the view of the sky and play with light and shadow. Meanwhile, the curtain elements, which form individual sections within the hall like an interior, thematize the boundary between inside and outside. The structure forms a hybrid between the formed park and nature. This intervention creates a spatial framework that allows different program uses and is in dialogue between space and use. The "Blue Hour" is a multifunctional space that functions as a host and enables new formats of encounter.
modulorbeat Speicher II, Atelier 3.3 Hafenweg 28 D-48155 Münster info@modulorbeat.de +49.(0)251.628 566 50 www.modulorbeat.de
