New acoustics for the Church of the Holy Cross in Gelsenkirchen
The Acoustic Challenge
The former church building was built in 1927 and is a listed building. After the profanation, i.e. the end of the building's function as a church, the impressive concrete building with a clinker exterior façade was converted into a place for secular events. A particular challenge was to reduce the long reverberation times typical of churches. For this purpose, the planners resorted to acoustic measures made of various textiles.
Acoustic roller blinds, which also serve as blackout systems
In front of the beautiful glass windows, TÜCHLER acoustic roller blinds are used. As a curtain, Satin SunSat 2016 also provides the perfect acoustic properties for reverberation reduction and a degree of darkening of 98%. The lateral guides ensure that no light between the curtain and the wall illuminates the window arches in an undesirable way.
A particular challenge was the fact that the entire church building is tilted by a few degrees around 3 axes - an effect that often happens to buildings in this region due to both geology and thousands of years of underground coal mining. The 6.5m high roller blinds have been equipped with special glides that compensate for this inclination and ensure a straight winding of the fabric.
Acoustic curtains from Akustiksamt Lehar
In the 22m high church tower, which is located directly above the stage, as well as in the area of the gallery in the area of the portal window, the strongly damping stage and acoustics office Lehar shows its strongly reverberation-reducing properties. In front of the arched glass window in the portal, the curtains are electrically opened and closed by TÜCHLER's UNIVERSAL RS 3P curtain drive on the TT2 curtain rail.
Acoustic amellas and glazing strip blinds for the circumferential partition walls and entrance doors made of glass
The modern glass walls, which were only used in the course of the conversion, are clad by modern electrical slat systems with acoustically effective lamellar fabric. The glass doors were fitted with electric glazing blinds around the hall. With closed roller blinds and slats, this creates a modern and clear ambience. At the same time, the reverberant and thus sound-reflecting glass surface is concealed and reverberation times are drastically reduced.
Curtain rails and curtain pulls
In two smaller auditoriums, project curtain rails are used, over which acoustic curtains, which also serve to darken the room, are moved. In the large auditorium, a Type Universal curtain actuator moves the blackout and acoustic curtain consisting of two parts, each measuring 16x9 metres.
Control
The drives are controlled and operated via a KNX control system using a touch screen.
Project and construction site management for the above-mentioned trades
TÜCHLER was the contractor for all of the above-mentioned trades and was therefore responsible for their overall design, production and assembly.
