Insight

The blue shimmering Kunsthaus floats above the glazed ground floor like a bubble of air. Its soft forms fuse organically with the older buildings on the adjacent lots. The nozzles, the prominent skylight openings sloped northward for ideal lighting, emerge from the plexiglass skin.

On the upper floors the 23 metres high new structure is linked via bridges to the so-called Eisernes Haus whose cast iron construction which is under monumental protection—the oldest in Central Europe—has been carefully and skilfully renovated in the course of the construction of the Kunsthaus.

The glazed ground floor is a meeting place for artists and art enthusiasts. It has two main entrances, one facing the Lendkai and the other the Südtirolerplatz. This floor is a versatile space with information, communication and entertainment facilities: the Medienkunstlabor as well as the reading and media lounge, the art bookstore/museum shop, a 24-hour café; the large multipurpose event space lying at the rear of the building can be linked to the café, expanding it into one vast public area.
On a 30-meter-long travelator known as the pin, visitors can penetrate the skin of the mysteriously shimmering bubble, cut through the area designated for children and young people (space 03), and land at the level of the first exhibition area (space 02).

A second travelator takes visitors to the upper exhibition deck (space 01), with its impressive structural shell, 8 meters at its highest point. The exhibition area is equipped with adjustable daylight and artificial light sources, the cones of the nozzles giving the inner surface of the building’s skin its distinctive structure. One of them frames the Schloßberg with its clock tower and the impressive roofscape of the old town across the river.

At the end of this tour, the visitors leave the bubble and enter into a remarkable cantilevered glass structure: the needle. An unforgettable view of Graz, comfortable seats, journals and books, and a small bar create an atmosphere for relaxation and reflection, for public readings, sponsorship events and small private occasions.