Student view of the Stadthalle renovation project
16.09.2025 – What could Offenbach's Stadthalle Offenbach look like after renovation? With tree-like columns that create the impression of a forest in front of the entrance? Surrounded by cubes with bars, cafés and restaurants where guests can stop off before events or while passing by?
The task of creating a design with a model for a renovated town hall that has been expanded in terms of capacity and is functional according to today's requirements, and which reflects positively on its surroundings, was completed by 22 students from SRH University Heidelberg for their Master's thesis. The work was the result of a cooperation between the university and the Stadtwerke's Geschäftsfeld Veranstaltungen and Geschäftsfeld Immobilien departments. The most successful and interesting models from their point of view will now be exhibited and awarded prizes in Offenbach. All interested parties are invited to the public award ceremony next Tuesday, September 23, at 5 p.m. on the first floor of the town hall foyer; the works can be viewed from 4 p.m. onwards. The models will then be on display until at least Tuesday, September 30.
"It is a great opportunity that young, well-trained and creative people have thought about the possible appearance of our town hall," says City Treasurer and responsible department head Martin Wilhelm. "I am very impressed by the solutions that have been developed here for the exterior and the event area. However, we must not forget that this is not a professional tender, but a student competition for ideas on how the Stadthalle could be renovated. So when we exhibit the selected models, we are not showing implementation proposals, but students' ideas for a refurbishment. Because without public funding, the renovation of the Stadthalle will not be possible in the foreseeable future.
Cooperation between GBO and SRH University Heidelberg
The idea of using the Stadthalle as an assignment for the Master's thesis was born between Boris Kupke and Andreas Bartels. Boris Kupke is one of the managing directors of GBO Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft mbH Offenbach, a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Offenbach, and owner of the Stadthalle Offenbach building. Andreas Bartels is a professor of architecture at the SRH University of Applied Sciences in Heidelberg. The cooperation did not incur any costs for the city of Offenbach.
In spring, the 22 students spent a day looking at the Stadthalle and talking to the team led by Birgit von Hellborn, Managing Director of Capitol Theater Offenbach and Stadthalle Offenbach in the Stadtwerke Offenbach's Events Businessfeld. The 1960s building is in need of renovation, but the work has been postponed until further notice due to the city's tight budget situation. However, the students were not expected to design a replacement building. They were asked to develop a concept for how the building could be renovated, extended and designed in the context of its surroundings. Both the function of the much-visited venue with its wide range of events and the architecture of the town hall, which is located in a prominent position on Waldstrasse, were to be taken into account.
Imaginative solutions
In August, Boris Kupke and Birgit von Hellborn, who was accompanied by Silke Simon and Philip Gartmann from her team, were in Heidelberg, where the students presented their work.
"According to the assignment, the students were to develop a renovation and extension concept for the existing Stadthalle on the existing and unchanged small site, which should enable a larger auditorium inside the building," said Boris Kupke afterwards. "At the same time, they had to try to preserve as much of the existing building as possible. The task was so challenging that we had firmly expected that many of the students would want to demolish the majority of the existing building. It was all the more surprising for us how imaginative and sensitive the solutions were in the end." Nevertheless, the team was presented with a wide range of diverse concepts, developed from completely different approaches.
"The students presented sensational models," added von Hellborn. "We don't judge how and at what price the designs could be implemented. Some of them were more in the Elbphilharmonie format and therefore certainly unaffordable, others were very pragmatic and had excellent ideas, but they were all very exciting. We are assessing whether we can continue to offer our visitors events in these models where everyone can see the stage well and hear everything, where entry and exit is good, safe and fast, and whether the surrounding traffic situation has been taken into account in such a way that a smooth arrival and departure is possible."