Visit a classical building

Today I went to visit the classical building I had chosen and I had a fantastic time. It was cold and I couldn’t feel my fingers after some time sketching outside – but it was worth it – and I could even go inside and warm up afterwards. Loved the building and its architecture! Plus it was raining all week and it was supposed to rain today too, but it didn’t and the pictures turned out quiet good – all in all a successful day so far! Although I was a little disappointed that there weren’t  more information about the architect or the building itself.

è Visit a classical building

Image from http://static2.akpool.de/images/cards/25/256617.jpg (Accessed 4 Dec 2011)

The neo-classical “Wandelhalle” is located in the 30 hectare park of the town Bad Oeynhausen, which is in the West of Germany. In 1847 the Prussian Director of Gardening, Lenné, made his first draft of the park that was going to be a retreat for all the people living in the city and a place for extravagant buildings, later in 1903 another architect remodelled parts of the park and in 1925/26 the architect “Regierungsbaumeister Müller” built the “Wandelhalle” and located it in the upper part of the park.

It was built to replace the old pump room. The front of the building shows the classical form of the temple architecture and in order to frame the front and make it an eye-catcher  the architect used Ionic order with its ornaments at the top. Two arched side wings were both built with columns in the Doric order; on top of each side wing there is a sculpture by Prof. Julius Hoffmann that symbolise water and health. In the 1960’s the building was remodelled and in 2002/2003 the “Wandelhalle” was again remodelled and restored. Today it is used mostly for concerts and private use (e.g. weddings). The side wings are now little shops for antiques, clothes, art and even a hairdresser is located in the right wing.

Looking at the floor plan below one can see that the side wings are mirrored and have the exact shape, the same number of Doric order columns (9 columns) and that at the front and the back of the building 6 Ionic order columns frame the main hall. Plus there are 4 block columns at each corner that maintain the feeling of a clean-cut building.

Sketches of columns (block “columns” corner, Doric column, Ionic column)

The whole building fits perfectly in the grounds. Other historical buildings are also located in the park and the “Wanderhalle” especially fits great into the landscape design. There is a small fountain in the middle of the park pointing towards the front of the “Wanderhalle” (see below) and underlines the square, clean-cut feeling of the building.

One should have another look at the sculptures on each side of the building as they point out for what purpose this house was used as they are named “health” and “water”.

The sculpture on the left side wing could almost be called a classic male nude, except for the shell that is covering the sculptures sex. The detailed muscles could be an indicator for an artist who orientated himself at Greek sculptures or Italian sculptures, but the profile of the sculptures head doesn’t show the classic fine Greek profile and the face structure more resembles the features of Northern European people.

“water”

                 On the other side wing one would find this statue:

“health”

A woman taking care of two children, the bare chest maybe indicating the nurturing care of a mother.  The composition of size/theme of the two sculptures is a perfect way to resemble the history of the building although not  many people might pay attention to them as they walk by the impressive front and columns of the “Wandelhalle” and don’t look up.

If one would take a look inside one would find a bright room with two arched windows on each side of the hall that give you a nice view over the park. 2 double wing doors where you can enter and leave the building, 2 fake doors for more light coming in to the building and 4 internal doors are the main doors on the ground floor. On the first floor open balcony one can find 2 other internal doors. The main hall has a square shape and there are 4 chandeliers hanging from the ceiling that has been divided into 121 small squares underlining the hall’s symmetrical appearance. Two basin like sinks can be found next to one of the two arched windows on each side.

The inside is very clean-cute but if one would look up to the ceiling one could see that there is also lots of detail in the little things. In every small square at the ceiling there is a bronze plate decorating it (as you can see below in the sketch), and all 4 chandeliers have 16 lamps and 32 small bronze sticks that hold everything together. On each side on the first floor balcony are 10 small lamps on each column. The walls are also very detailed with the exact same space between all columns and the small frieze on the first floor balcony. There is a very good acoustic in the main hall and concerts are held 2 to 3 times a day.

These two brochures are full of information about what kind of concerts take place in the “Wandelhalle” and what other activities one could go to in the spa park Bad Oeynhausen.