Architect Richard Dougherty on the design of the festival centre

The British architect Richard Dougherty (The DisOrdinary Architecture Project) was already responsible for the design of the festival centre for the last festival edition in Braunschweig in 2022. This year we invited him again to create a new and unusual festival centre for us. For this we have pitched our tents on the Prinzenstraße in front of the Schauspielhaus and our motto was: MAKING WAVES!

With this year's festival centre, we wanted to make waves, to create change, but also cause a stir. And create a vibration that carries energy and information from one place to another.

The DisOrdinary Architecture Project took up this impulse and designed a platform for performances and encounters, for silent discos and conversations on the closed Prinzenstraße.

Based on Deaf Space and Disability Pride, Deaf architecture experts Richard Dougherty and Chris Laing have deliberately placed the curved shape of the wave at the centre to express the performative and social dynamics of sign languages and Deaf culture. In doing so, they have once again created an extraordinary festival centre that has become an artistic and social meeting place in Hanover - characterised by a Deaf architectural aesthetic.

In the video you will find below this text, Richard Dougherty explains his design concept for this year. In American Sign Language with English subtitles.