A new museum dedicated to the renowned German composer Carl Orff has officially opened in Diessen am Ammersee, Bavaria, following an extensive renovation and expansion project completed by Munich-based Meck Architects. The museum, housed in the composer's former residence where he lived for nearly three decades until his death in 1982, offers visitors an immersive experience into Orff's life and internationally acclaimed musical works.
The composer lived in Diessen am Ammersee for almost three decades, not far from his birthplace of Munich. After his death in 1982, the ensemble consisting of his residential house and a smaller work house was transferred to the Carl Orff Foundation, which was later managed by his fourth wife, Liselotte Orff. Her testamentary wish was to find a new purpose for the property, with the foundation envisioning a museum dedicated to Orff's work and international influence.
Meck Architects won the non-public competition in 2019 for the renovation of the heritage-protected property and its expansion. The winning design was developed by current office manager Axel Frühauf alongside Andreas Meck, who had contributed to the competition entry as one of two second prizes. The commission became a formality when the other awarded proposal - a largely underground construction - could not be reconciled with landscape protection requirements.
The result is a visibly newly composed address that has emerged amid the hilly landscape with sight lines to Lake Ammersee, Andechs Monastery, and extending to the Zugspitze. Carl Orff himself had already renovated the Alpine-traditional residential house from the late 19th century in the 1950s, removing regionalist features in favor of a more modernist approach. The recent renovation measures sensitively build upon this historically reduced heritage from the post-war architectural period.
The former residential house now contains a museum café and the so-called living room, where civil wedding ceremonies can take place, with direct access to the new building section. The upper floors continue to house the foundation's administrative offices as before. The set-back work house contains the exhibition's highlight: the original preserved study with the grand piano on which Orff composed Carmina Burana.
The new construction forms a connecting element around both houses and along the connecting pergola. The architects paid particular attention to the height development of the expansion, ensuring that the silhouette of the existing ensemble remains clearly recognizable. The new building consists of a foyer, a taller event hall, a flat building with a large exhibition room, and auxiliary spaces in the basement level.
The break with the existing structure is deliberate, both formally and through the choice of materials. High thermal insulation infralight concrete enabled monolithic construction with reduced concrete content and simplified building services. Inside, built-in furniture and door and window frames made of oak wood serve as warming anchors within the omnipresent exposed concrete. The floor is made of polished cast asphalt, while dominant concrete ribs on the ceilings appear to trace musical staff lines.
In the tall multifunctional hall, which can be used for temporary exhibitions and events, the ceiling ribs are more delicate. They adorn the lined barrel vaults, which also prominently emerge externally as segmented vaults. Large-format windows throughout frame the third compositional element alongside the existing structure and concrete monolith: the landscape itself.
The permanent exhibition, designed by von Wolffersdorff Studio from Diessen am Ammersee, targets music, theater, education enthusiasts, and cultural researchers who can immerse themselves in multimedia presentations or participate interactively. It explicitly addresses families and children, as the music pedagogical concept of the Orff Schulwerk is often the first point of contact with the composer for many young people worldwide. The museum has also openly addressed Orff's controversial activities during the National Socialist period, presenting the topic in a nuanced manner, as explained by Judith Janowski from the foundation's board.
The outdoor spaces around the heritage-protected park facility are being handled by lohrer.hochrein landscape architects and urban planners from Munich. The project, encompassing 2,340 square meters of gross floor area, required construction costs of 11 million euros in cost groups 1 to 7, which are largely borne by the foundation. The museum represents a significant cultural addition to the region, preserving and presenting the legacy of one of Germany's most influential 20th-century composers in a thoughtfully designed contemporary setting.
