The construction of the new rehearsal center took only about 10 months. The gmp bureau worked on this project in conjunction with Hochtief Solutions AG. A small building with a total area of 4500 m2 is designed for the work of 50 full-time dancers of the troupe, and it also houses a ballet school for 55 students. In addition to two large rehearsal rooms, which replicate the size of the stage of the Rhine Opera House, there are three smaller rooms, changing rooms, relaxation and physiotherapy rooms, and even apartments for invited artists.
The three-storey rectangular volume is located in the back of the block, on Copernicusstrasse (Bilk district). The industrial character of the surrounding buildings, small assorted houses around and, most importantly, the neighboring building of the former tram depot determined the main decisions of the architects: first of all, the deliberately neutral, even harsh style and "boring" color scheme chosen by them. Moreover, the almost regular parallelepiped of the ballet center with gray concrete facades corresponds in height to the residential buildings, but received a respectful ledge from the side of the lower historical depot complex.
A massive part of the upper tier with an intriguing window, which can be interpreted both as a mirror obligatory for the ballet world, and as a painting, responds to the “step”. And behind a recessed, all-glass wall is a high entrance atrium. It precedes the complexly arranged two-tier volumes of the actual rehearsal halls and the lower ones with the rest of the rooms. The architects also used open concrete surfaces and a meager color scheme in the interior decoration of the center, giving it the necessary brutality and significance, but completely depriving it of any redundancy.
