Expansion of the congress hall in Leipzig by HPP

The community hall in the vicinity of the Leipzig Zoo had to be closed in 1988 due to the danger of collapse and waited for decades for a general renovation. The neo-Romanesque building, designed by architect Heinrich Rust at the beginning of the 20th century, served as an exhibition space and conference hall after World War II. In 2009, a competition was held for the reconstruction and expansion, in which the local branch of the HPP studio led by architect Gerd Heismann won. The main part of the work consisted of the restoration and return of the magnificent community hall to its original state. The historic walls are decorated with exotic, Oriental, and neo-Baroque motifs. All halls are equipped with state-of-the-art technology, which must not disrupt the period character in any way. In addition to the original halls, new spaces have been added, which now offer a total of fourteen rooms for organizing social events. Two new wings with additional halls and a restaurant have been added to the courtyard. The outer shell of the newly built sections consists of overlapping, fractured concrete arches that reference elements in the historic building.

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