The first plans for the building, which was later to become the Künstlerhaus and today is HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, date back to 1908. The initiative at that time came from the Bourgeoisie and the artistic community, as well as the Association of Fine Artists of Styria, with the intention of creating a space for performances, lectures, and exhibitions. These plans were not realized until decades later, in the early 1950s. The postponement was due to financial and organizational difficulties and a lack of consensus on the type of implementation. After a design by the rector of the Graz University of Technology, Prof. Zotter had already been submitted in 1949, which did not receive planning permission, the construction was carried out exclusively by the municipal building authority.
The outstanding modernist pavilion architecture from the early 1950s was built as one of the first white cubes in Austria, in which outstanding artistic positions were shown in themed exhibitions over the years financed by the City of Graz, the Provincial Government of Styria, and the Federal Government. The building, then known as the Künstlerhaus, was constructed in 1951/52 according to plans by Robert Haueisen and modeled on the Vienna Secession as a free-standing exhibition building. Robert Haueisen was a municipal building inspector in Graz and lived in Graz as an architect. As the office over which he presided acted as a building inspector, it seemed only logical that he should develop the designs for the building. The interior reveals a spacious exhibition room with an apse-like extension on the north side. The main room is lit by a steel and glass ceiling.
The Künstlerhaus was the first cultural building in Austria to be built from the rubble of the devastating war. Under the auspices of the Province of Styria, the building was erected on a prominent site provided by the City of Graz in the city park not far from the provincial government, the cathedral, and the theatre, thus fulfilling a decades-long wish of local artists and the culturally interested population. This major cultural-political effort was favored by the British Allies positioned in southern Austria and Styria between 1945 and 1955, who, in their efforts to democratize the population, focused on re-education and de-Nazification and were also guided by this in their cultural commitment, for which the new Künstlerhaus building was to remain a publicly visible sign in the cityscape of Graz.
The first renovation in recent history was carried out in 2010 with funds by the Province of Styria by the renowned Graz-based architecture firm Alfred Bramberger in collaboration with the Federal Monuments Office. Alfred Bramberger is an architect based in Graz, who has been running his own office since 1988, which operates internationally and has a wide range of activities from conception to design and planning to construction supervision. Since its reopening after the renovation on March 6, 2013, the Kunstverein Medienturm, with the support of the Cultural Department of the Province of Styria, the Art Section of the Federal Ministry, and the City of Graz, has operated the building independently as an art space with a consistent curatorial line, on 670 m² of exhibition space and 1100 m² of usable space in three spacious rooms, in a completely renovated exhibition hall with significantly improved building fabric, which is now barrier-free and has adequate equipment in terms of air conditioning, building services, security and fire protection. Since 2021, the institution has embarked on a new path by transforming itself into an internationally oriented Kunsthalle. The HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark is the result of an institutional reorganization and several structural adaptations, under which the current chapter of the institution's eventful history can be summarized. In 2024, the HALLE FÜR KUNST will be made "climate-ready:" with funding from the European Union (NextGeneration EU), the lighting in the exhibition hall will be converted to LED and external solar shading will be installed to cool the building, which is architecturally equipped with many glass surfaces.
The room used for the talk is located in the basement and can be reached from the lower level of the exhibition hall through a storage room. It contains most of the controls for the building's electricity, the server structure, as well as the alarm systems, surveillance cameras, and emergency lighting. It also serves as storage for all non-flammable material.
