Temporary interim venue for the Kassel State Theater—modular, sustainable, and featuring state-of-the-art technology. During the multi-year renovation of the opera house, NUSSLI, acting as the general contractor, built a fully-fledged theater featuring state-of-the-art stage technology, flexible spatial concepts, and seating for up to 850 audience members. The INTERIM demonstrates that temporary theater structures today can combine lasting quality, architectural sophistication, and maximum functionality.
With the INTERIM at the Staatstheater Kassel, one of the most ambitious modular cultural construction projects in Europe was completed in just about a year and a half. While the main theater on Friedrichsplatz is undergoing extensive renovation, the new interim venue ensures that opera, theater, dance, and concerts can continue without interruption. As the general contractor, NUSSLI was responsible for the entire project—from planning and construction to stage technology, acoustics, and building services.
This project is one of NUSSLI’s complex special projects. Unlike traditional event structures, these are full-scale buildings designed for use over several years, meeting the highest technical standards and featuring sophisticated architecture. NUSSLI has already demonstrated its expertise in this area with the Gasteig HP8 with the Isarphilharmonie in Munich impressively demonstrated. The INTERIM in Kassel builds on this experience and consistently further develops the concept of a modular cultural building.
From the very beginning, the INTERIM was designed as a versatile theatrical space. The stage area, measuring approximately 25 × 50 meters with a clear height of up to 18 meters, offers virtually unlimited possibilities for a wide variety of productions. Five different stage and audience configurations allow for classic proscenium stages as well as immersive stages or 360-degree arenas, in which the audience and the performance become part of the same production.
The centerpiece of the venue is a heavy-duty turntable integrated into the hall floor, measuring 18 meters in diameter and with a load capacity of 80 metric tons. It can support both complete stage sets and entire audience stands, enabling spectacular scene changes during a performance. The design is complemented by a variable orchestra pit, a fly system with 28 hoists spanning the entire length of the hall, and a four-story gallery that can serve simultaneously as a spectator tier, performance area, and lighting level.
This extraordinary combination of architecture and stage technology has created a theater that can be reconfigured for every production and offers virtually unlimited creative possibilities.
Learn more about the project, the specific requirements for the modular theater construction, and why NUSSLI, as the general contractor, was awarded the contract for the new interim venue.
For the INTERIM project, the modular construction approach was much more than just a method for rapid implementation. It forms the basis for a sustainable building concept. Numerous components were prefabricated and produced in parallel, which significantly shortened the construction time and allowed workflows to be optimally coordinated.
In addition, more than 160 containers were set up around the main theater building to serve as dressing rooms, makeup rooms, technical rooms, storage areas, and break rooms. Together, they form a complete theater infrastructure that meets all of the operational needs of the Kassel State Theater during its multi-year renovation.
The grand opening in October 2025 marked the beginning of a new era for the Staatstheater Kassel. Even the opening production, “Aida,” made impressive use of the venue’s extraordinary capabilities and demonstrated how flexibly the auditorium and stage can be integrated. Since then, the INTERIM has proven its versatility in its ongoing season with operas, plays, dance productions, and concerts.
This project exemplifies NUSSLI's expertise in the field of temporary theater construction, Temporary venues, modular Indoor Facility Construction and Custom Designs. When complex requirements, ambitious schedules, and the highest quality standards come together, the result is solutions that go far beyond a traditional stopgap measure.
