Architectural installation at Trauttmansdorff Castle
As part of a museum conversion project at Trauttmansdorff Castle near Merano, a small room in the historic building was transformed into a minimalist cinema seating seven people. The design responds to the museum’s existing structure with restraint and respect, creating a distinct spatial configuration: a “room-within-a-room” installation that impresses with its clear choice of materials, consistent minimalism, and reversibility.
The new interior structure stands as a black installation within the historic space. The framework is clad in black loden—a regionally rooted textile material that absorbs light due to its dense surface and provides effective acoustic absorption. The uniform lining of walls and floor creates a visual dissolution of boundaries: The room fades into the background, sharpening the viewer’s focus. The seven cinema seats are also black, simple, and without any design elements. This creates a uniform, almost immaterial darkness.
The choice of black materials is not an aesthetic end in itself, but follows a logic of content: the entire space is intended to absorb the light in order to maximize the impact of the projection. At the center is a film “about tourism” by Karl Prossliner—a cinematic exploration of the social, economic, and landscape impacts of tourism in South Tyrol. The minimalist cinema space is designed to suit the conditions of this film: not a traditional cinema, but a focused projection space that distracts as little as possible from the image.
The spatial limitation to seven seats results from the size of the room but is also intended programmatically. The reduced number of visitors creates a special intimacy between the audience and the film. The act of watching is intensified. Without distraction, a moment of quiet attention emerges. The cinema becomes a space for perception and reflection, not for entertainment.
The room-within-a-room installation does not alter the existing building structure. It is fully reversible; its installation requires no modifications to walls or ceilings. An intermediate space is created between the historic room and the new structure, serving as a buffer for technology, acoustics, and construction. The intervention is thus precise not only in terms of design but also in terms of historic preservation.
The project is not a statement about cinema as a typology, but an example of architectural restraint in the service of a cinematic experience. It represents a conceptual approach to space, material, and effect—focused, quiet, and carefully reduced.
Source (April 2026): lukasmayr.com (translated by Haidacher)
Client: © Touriseum - South Tyrol Museum of Tourism
Project: Lukas Mayr Architect
Photos: © Samuel Holzner
