The company Theaterhaus Stuttgart, now in existence for 18 years, is one of the best known alternative theatre operations in Germany. For more than ten years, they held their avant-garde productions in a former factory in the suburb of Wangen, where they created performance spaces that could seat 200 and 400, but they always found themselves running to the limit of their budget, so needed larger premises, more facilities. Meanwhile, the city authorities were wondering what to do with another industrial area of the city, Pragsattel. In the course of setting up a prestigious international competition for a masterplan in 1992, they noticed a significant factory building designed by Emil Fahrenkamp in 1923. It had been the regional depot for Thyssen's steel operation, a storage house for redistribution of steel sections and components, though by the 1990s it was in poor condition with holes in the roof, reduced to a holding centre for asylum-seekers living in containers. The monumental east elevation remained, however, along with the less important north wall and an elegant steel skeleton. Listing it as a historic monument, the city sought an opportunity for reuse, but some large-scale function was needed to take advantage of the spans, respect the scale, and avoid a numbing subdivision. Director of Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Werner Schretzmeier asked Peter Hubner for a feasibility study on converting the building, and there followed some five years of exploration and development. State funds were available because of the listing, but conversion had to meet with the approval of the heritage authorities. And the important steel structure could only be left exposed by arguing for a relaxation of the fire regulations. Since the building was so large, further uses had to be found beyond the alternative theatre group, so a home was added for 'Music of the Centuries' along with facilities for sports.

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A crucial earning function is the staging of pop concerts, which had to be accommodated as well. A foundation was set up, and funds put together for a relatively economical development, the initial works involving a work-creation scheme for the unemployed. The theatre company hoped to save money by reusing its existing technical equipment, but in the event all had to be renewed, and more funding had to be found. In the end, though, a remarkably cheap building was achieved in terms of square metreage, but only through some very careful project management.

Typical of its period, Fahrenkamp's Rheinstahl-Werk consisted of a great toplit shed for steel-handling linked to a more domestic-looking side wing of offices, all in tough, naked brickwork. The shed had a central wide span and two side aisles, an order strongly expressed in the end facade, the centre being marked with seven huge vertical windows and the aisles with pairs of wide sunken arches, each sitting on a stone string-course. These details set a cyclopean scale. Internally, the central span peaked on rounded trusses. These were supported by deep lattice beams and rows of columns running back into the plan. Lower sloping roofs covered the side aisles, borne on the edge by brick outer walls. By the time of conversion only two of the original four walls remained, and Hubner chose to accommodate his new programme by relocating his new walls further out in plan, absorbing bands of daylit accommodation on the south and west sides.

The theatre director called for black boxes of various sizes with linear removable seating, and this extreme flexibility was also required for other functions, such as pop concerts. The largest performance space, seating up to 1050, found appropriate place on the central axis behind the seven vertical windows of the monumental facade. This left space for another room of the same width at the opposite end behind the west facade, this time daylit and usable as a sports hall. This light 'white box' contrasts with the black ones, toplit and beautifully decorated with fritted glass panels left over from the Finnish Pavilion at the Hanover Expo. The main approach is from the street on the north side, where a low outer wing and a narrow court belonging to the old factory complex now serve as a cafe and beer garden. It made best sense to enter in the north-western corner, using the northern aisle as foyer. A glass wall opens the end of the space completely at the west end, interrupted only by a suspended container which projects through the glass as a publicity device. The new foyer connects directly with the side court and cafe through the old north factory wall, whose scale is set by tall narrow windows.

Within the foyer, the original roof structure remains, and also the original rails for travelling cranes. This is in the end the most visibly industrial space and the point of most dramatic collision between new and old. The temptation to purify the old steelwork has been resisted and it retains some of its patina, the paint peeling in places. The new roof cladding above is grey and industrial, relieved by rooflights that also recall the idea of factory. After passing through a ticket hall and bar, the foyer rises in a great flight of steps to meet the upper end of the raked seating in the main theatre and to give access to the raised halls beyond. This allowed a small performance space, Hall 4 seating 150, to be slipped under the floor beyond the steps. Medium-sized halls 2 and 3, seating 450 and 350 respectively, were placed on the other side of the building in what had been the southern aisle, reached by a pedestrian cross-street running between the largest halls.