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Karl-Heinz Klopf :
Nebel

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Unrealized
Orth a.d. Donau, 2004

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The design for the project entitled Mist, which was not realised in the end, envisaged a surface in the centre of the courtyard with a pool lined with course gravel from the Danube embedded in cement. A thin mist was to have risen from the pool and shrouded the courtyard to create a contrast to the solid substance of the Schloss with the impression of weightlessness.

The management of Schloss Orth, where the information centre for the Donau Auen National Park was established, wanted a new design for the Tournament Courtyard in the course of the conversion carried out by the architects noncon:form & MAGK synn. The artists invited to submit concepts were expected to address the theme of water as well as to take the national park into consideration – appropriately for the setting. The brief was to create an attractive and playful symbol, but one that also had utility value. Karl-Heinz Klopf presented a very reduced concept that nevertheless promised to create an overwhelming atmospheric impression. His design envisaged a surface with a small elongated pond of water in the centre of the courtyard, clad in course gravel from the Danube set into concrete. Jets set into the pond continually emit a thin mist that envelops the courtyard to create an impression of weightlessness that contrasts starkly with the solid walls of the castle. The effect evokes images of fairytale-like dreamy Danube wetlands in the minds of the visitors. The fine steam creates a transitory space with new acoustic and tactile qualities, but also a defined closed one because as soon as the jets are switched off, the pond can be used as a place to hold events or as a refuge. The initiators considered mist, which evokes a feeling of calm and tranquillity to be an unsuitable expression of the Danube, which is very choppy along the stretch by Orth.
(Katrina Petter)