Workmanship: Working Philosophy and Design Practice 2000-2010. RKW Architektur+Städtebau 9783034610766, 9783034604819

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workmanship

Klaus Dieter Weiss

workmanship Working philosophy and design practice 2000–2010

Birkhäuser Basel

Foreword

6

Harmony

14

Urban development in the retail crisis

16

URBAN DEVELOPMENT Revitalisation of the Spiegel plot, Hamburg Ruhrbania, Mülheim an der Ruhr Continuity and change  Helga Sander BioCampus Cologne Marienplatz, Darmstadt Master plan Jana Sobieskiego, Warsaw Zhenru Vice Centre, Shanghai Campus West, Aachen

24 28 30 32 34 36 37 38

Sensory city 

40

Klaus Dieter Weiss

TRANSPORT AND COMMERCE Oberstdorf Station Mannheim Central Station Botteling and Logistics Building at the Krombacher Brewery, Kreuztal Facade design for the Mainz-Wiesbaden Coal-fired Power Station

46 50 52 54

Serenity

56

An excursion into tradition – a phase of reorientation in home building

58

Housing Haus Hardenberg, Düsseldorf Karlshof, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel Othmarschen Park Residential Development, Hamburg Sophienhof, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel Exclusive Apartments on Szafarnia Street Residential Development in Rackowiecka Street, Wohnhaus Salierstraße, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel Villa Konstancin Jeziorna, Warsaw Hansaallee Residential Quarter, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel Mörsenbroicher Weg Residential Quarter, Harbour Island, Berlin-Tegel

66 72 74 76 80 81 82 83 84 86 88

Openness

90

Open systems of communication and exchange

92

SCHOOLS International School, Bonn Jewish School Centre, Düsseldorf Community Secondary School, Düsseldorf-Benrath Franz-Mehring-Schule, Leipzig Quadruple Sports Hall, Marie-Curie-Gymnasium, Düsseldorf Triple Sports Hall, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel

100 102 104 106 112 114

Office environments: at the centre of ecological transformation 118 ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING DB Cargo, Duisburg ARAG Tower, Düsseldorf Vodafone Tower, Düsseldorf Debitel Headquarters, Stuttgart Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf, 1st building phase Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf, 2nd building phase Collaboration  Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe IKB International, Luxembourg Tersteegen Office Center, Düsseldorf EnBW-City, Stuttgart Mülheim Town Hall Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg, Oldenburg

126 130 134 136 144 150 152 154 160 164 168 170

The integrated approach

178

Implantations for creativity, communication, flexibility and expandability in industrial buildings

180

RESEARCH Audi Electronics Centre, Ingolstadt Audi SE Forum and Research Centre, Ingolstadt Audi Transmission and Emissions Centre, Ingolstadt

188 194 198

Communicative science 

204

Klaus Dieter Weiss

Sports stadiums – Amphitheatres for cultural exchange

208

SPORT Königpalast, Krefeld ISS Dome, Düsseldorf Olympic Stadium in Sochi PGE Arena, Gdansk

216 218 220 222

Continuity

226

Commerce in the transformation of the city and of urban life

228

TRADE Trommsdorffstraße Office and Commercial Building, Erfurt Sevens Shopping Centre, Düsseldorf Waterfront Leisure and Shopping Centre, Bremen Stadtpalais Potsdam Revival and continuing existence  Matthias Platzeck Karstadt, Leipzig Waldach-Passage, Nagold Wilmersdorfer Arcaden, Berlin Meilenwerk, Düsseldorf Lookentor-Passage, Lingen Trier Galerie, Trier s.Oliver Flagship Store, Würzburg

236 238 242 244 248 250 254 255 256 262 264 266

In this day and age, I think that tolorance is a very worthy goal  Friedel Kellermann

268

Interior design as an integral component of architecture

272

INTERIOR DESIGN Douglas Central Offices, Hagen Offices for Freshfields & Partner, Düsseldorf GAP 15, Düsseldorf NRW-Bank, Düsseldorf KfW Main Building, Frankfurt Aachen Town Hall Neuss District Court Düsseldorf Opera House

280 282 286 288 290 294 298 300

Innovation

302

APPENDIX Catalogue of works Biographies The firm’s history Prizes/awards Competition victories The firm’s structure Bibliography Picture credits Imprint

306 320 322 322 323 324 326 328 328

Foreword

The competition to design the Horten headquarters in Düsseldorf in 1960, ten years after RKW’s founding, set the stage for the firm’s long-term success, which at the time of publication has lasted for over 60 years. The “Haus am Seestern” was Helmut Rhode’s (1915–1995) and his small firm’s passport to the executive suites of major businesses. With this hurdle behind it, the firm itself developed into a substantial company. The architects began with stylistically confident, consistently simple homes and later moved on to modern multi-storey accommodation integrated into the existing infrastructure; the former ARAG main administration building in Düsseldorf (1956); a spectacular high-rise design for the Phoenix-Rheinrohr main headquarters building in the same year; and the Phoenix-Rheinrohr exhibition pavilion in Hanover (1958). Helmut Rhode studied architecture with Hans Poelzig, Hermann Jansen and Heinrich Tessenow at the TU Berlin, and first worked at Helmut Hentrich’s Düsseldorf firm. In 1950, he started out on his own. When Friedel Kellermann and Hans-Günter Wawrowsky joined the firm (in 1960 and 1963, respectively), the scene was set for the RKW (Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky) partnership, concluded in 1971. The Horten main headquarters was Helmut Rhode’s breakthrough. After being awarded second prize for the Thyssenhaus (formerly Phoenix-Rheinrohr) design, he won his second competition to design a large administrative building – seeing off high-profile competitors Egon Eiermann, Cäsar Pinnau and Paul Schneider-Esleben. Due to the focus on keynote high buildings set by Düsseldorf’s urban planning targets (which were also influential in the acceptance of the Thyssenhaus design which had already been completed) it was not surprising that all four architects involved in the Horten competition designed “crowning tower buildings” amid fairly low buildings. When Helmut Horten (1909–1987), an influential post-war captain of industry and sole shareholder of the Horten department store company, then the fourth-largest in Germany, chose Helmut Rhode’s design, the concept had not been fully defined. So client and architect travelled together to the USA to investigate the newest developments in office building construction. This protracted and – despite the foregoing competition – open-minded fact-finding mission also allowed for more discussion between the two men. The piece of architecture that left the greatest impression on the pair was a corporate headquarters building in open country created by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1957: the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut (a small community in northeast USA).

1950 – 1990

ARAG headquaters, Düsseldorf 1956

Phoenix-Rheinrohr exhibition pavilion, Hanover 1958

Horten headquarters, Düsseldorf 1960

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This unprecedented modern company headquarters in a park-like landscape had many innovative features: a rambling, strictly geometric building with only three storeys, arranged like a campus around two large courtyards, with separate buildings for the directorship team and for the cafeteria. Its real power stemmed from its horizontal, interconnected organisation, which, then as now, was an asset in facilitating communication in a complex commercial organisation. This fresh approach to flexibility in office spaces and the great potential it represented for efficient labour organisation, economic expansion opportunities, building construction and building maintenance stimulated the architect’s imagination and fed into the Horten headquarters. Just as the SOM Bloomfield architects were inspired by the principles of Mies van der Rohe and turned his stylistic formal language into a realistic everyday solution, the much-publicised and award-winning Horten headquarters was built with maximised performance in mind rather than a unique formal repertoire – exactly as the client would wish it. Helmut Rhode kept closely to his usual system of listing the functions required by the client in a simple form, and then implementing them architectonically, in a restrained manner. His planning maxims from all those years ago are still used at RKW today. In the 21st century, architects’ and city planners’ first aim is to find “simple solutions to complicated problems”. Their second aim is, naturally, to “handle materials, manpower and construction and operating costs intelligently”. The third and most important aim is to achieve “harmony between all the individual parts and within the whole”. The fourth and final maxim is: “quality of spaces over form – in a building, the arrangement of rooms, in urban planning, the arrangement of streets and plazas”. Helmut Rhode was fundamentally opposed to aiming solely for a remarkable-looking building, just to get oneself known or to outshine the surrounding buildings. Following a technical overhaul of the facade in 1997, the listed former Horten headquarters is still an ideal flexible office centre today – half a century after it was built.

1  Michael Mönninger: Tauschen und Konsumieren, in: Deutsches Architektur-Museum, Romana Schneider et al. (eds): Architektur im 20. Jahrhundert. Munich/London/New York 2000, p. 199.

Galerie Kleiner Markt, Saarlouis 1982

Realistic everyday solutions The rise of the Horten department store company began in the post-war period with a reopening in Duisburg in 1950. In 1958, Horten asserted itself architectonically with a new building. This first branch of Horten, the Merkur department store, with its characteristic Helmut Rhode outer skin, was a significant early example of modern “corporate architecture”, “a symbol of the fulfilment of the German economic miracle”.1 Constrained by entirely different functional requirements, architecture can be seen here achieving what had been attempted with Erich Mendelsohn’s S. Schocken department store in Stuttgart, with its more dynamic working method: subordinating the formal tools to a dominant overall form that typifies the firm. In Duisburg, a cube floats over the non-compact ground storey, housing an arrangement of storeys behind a grid of small rectangular artificial stone frames in a staggered pattern (the stylised “H” ceramic elements by Egon Eiermann had not been invented at the time). Again, there were direct influences from the USA, but the major influence was Rotterdam’s highly regarded “De Bijenkorf” (“the beehive”) department store by Marcel Breuer from 1957, a compact cube of hexagonal travertine panels. It was rapidly followed by museum buildings such as the Kestner Museum in

Carsch-Haus, Düsseldorf 1985

Nordwest-Zentrum, Frankfurt 1989

2  Bauwelt 15, 1958 (Special issue on department stores), p. 339, quoted from: Marco Kieser: Vom Kettenhemd zur Wabe. Zur architekturgeschichtlichen Bedeutung des ehemaligen Merkur-Kaufhauses in Duisburg, in: Denkmalpflege im Rheinland, issue 4/2006, p. 149, 150.

3  Dieter Bartetzko: Die Chirurgie der Wende. Deutschlands Verpflichtung zum Bauen im Bestand, in: RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky. Architektur 1950 2000, Ostfildern-Ruit 1998, p. 16/17.

Hanover, the Kunsthalle Köln in Cologne and the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne, which used the same typology, based on the function of the interior. In 1958, even the critical “Bauwelt” could not help noting: “When the floor plans of large department stores are extended, natural light is generally insufficient to light the deep spaces involved, even if the facade is completely glazed. On the minus side, one must light the sales space artificially, but on the plus side, one can also set up shelves on the valuable front walls.”2 Without a doubt, commercial architecture frequently comes in for cultural criticism – since the days of Ancient Rome, in fact. On the other hand, this kind of construction assignment contains very few possibilities for reinterpreting the public’s tastes or the economic conditions, either typologically or architectonically. But RKW has accepted this challenge repeatedly, for instance with the residential and commercial district “Stubengasse” in Münster’s old town (2003), which is divided into individual buildings. Before the current urban department store crisis, the focus was on the dimensions of what was on offer – with an extreme case being the commercial themed “city” on wasteland model (the 1996 CentrO Oberhausen, unique in Europe). But the department stores that really write architectural history are the ones redeveloped from historic infrastructure: the Galerie Kleiner Markt in Saarlouis (1982), the Carsch-Haus in Düsseldorf (1985), the Specks Hof in Leipzig (1995), the Stadtpalais in Potsdam (2004), and the Meilenwerk car dealership in Düsseldorf (2006). “Only in this way, with an almost millimetre-by-millimetre sensitive restoration of damaged infrastructure while making it functional and recognisable, can ‘construction involving existing infrastructure’ preserve and further develop the architectonic heritage returned to us by the reunification,”3 commented Dieter Bartetzko, editor of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, ten years ago. Today, special-purpose real estate like the Düsseldorf Meilenwerk is a positive boon, despite the relatively high investment (15 million euros) required by a listed round engine shed dating from 1930: this piece of architecture is an important part of the “Forum für Fahrkultur” corporate identity. This makes the new version of the 80-year-old engine shed just as much a perfect example of the interpenetration of form and function as the old one – an effective networking of historical building culture and modern spatial concepts. From product design to urban planning The highly complex planning required for commercial architecture was a fundamental change in direction that led to the development of the RKW Architektur + Städtebau firm we know today – now represented in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Leipzig and Munich and in Gdansk, Warsaw und Moscow, after its first successes in the USA. After all, no other kind of construction assignment provides more insight into and experience in dealing with politics, administrations, urban factors, logistics, organisation, coordination, tight deadlines, a wide range of users and very varied planning assignments, not to mention listed buildings – while, admittedly, commercial architecture is also considered architectonically questionable, because of its narrow formal range. For over half a century, Friedel Kellermann made

1990 – 2000

Gasgesellschaft Aggertal, G

UCI

Specks Hof, Leipzig 1995

8 | 9

extensive strategic projections based on commercial architecture, enabling successes in new fields through new partners and international contacts. As a founding shareholder, he saw this as his most fundamental task to the end. In the last ten years, RKW’s field of activity has included research buildings for Audi, the RWTH Aachen’s new science campus, the Vodafone, Debitel and ARAG company headquarters, urban renewal projects, homes, schools, sports halls, stations, town halls, banks, innercity business premises and shopping centres, and the football stadium for the European championships in Gdansk in 2012. Over the past decade, the process depth of projects has been consistently extended with the help of the company’s own team of interior architects, from urban planning to product design. From the start, RKW has used the positive long-term relationship between Friedel Kellermann and Helmut Horten that began with the Horten headquarters as a gateway to working for other large companies as an independent, conscientious advisor concerned with long-term business success – not just as architects/designers concerned with short-term success. Supported by his partners, Friedel Kellermann succeeded in making the growing in-house community pluralistic. His aim was always the same: to harmonise motives and criticism while placing the needs of the client at the centre of the firm’s philosophy. The list of companies that rely on RKW’s understanding of their needs as clients is undeniably high-profile – they include Allianz, ARAG, Audi, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Börse, Douglas and Vodafone, to name but a few. Workmanship All the signs are that there is no other German architecture firm of a similar size as well placed to meet the strategic and organisational challenges of the future as RKW, which currently employs about 200 architects and urban planners. The secret lies with the people behind its success – the RKW architects, whose projects successfully combine creativity and craftsmanship, method and implementation. In this way, RKW’s working ethos brings together the works and the team, skill and experience, technical and craft implementation in a unique way, making it hard to find a word for this very broadly defined and people-oriented architectural/urban field of activity. For RKW, the key players during the early stages of a project are always the clients, people concerned with urban planning, the politicians and local administration, with the directing architects, interior architects and urban planners of RKW taking over only in the second stage. RKW’s internal communications are also broadly based. With seven active shareholders at present plus associated partners, expertise in multiple aspects of architecture is guaranteed, as is extensive discretionary competence. This diversity, unique to RKW, is matched by its business culture, which facilitates multigenerational dialogue and learning processes. Young colleagues provide valuable creative impulses while profiting from 60 years of experience in research and development and from

Rathaus-Galerie and apartments, Dormagen 1995

CentrO Neue Mitte Oberhausen, 1996

DB Cargo customer services, Duisburg 1998

the experienced competence directly and personally demonstrated by those running the business. RKW’s relationships with clients are also long-term, often lasting for generations. This is part of the firm’s philosophy: from the start RKW has endeavoured to offer something more comprehensive than just creative building ideas. Just as once upon a time Helmut Rhode accompanied his customer Helmut Horten on a journey through the USA to search for the best concepts, RKW sees itself as a long-term companion and advisor to its clients. For this reason, the focus is on sustainable solutions – the best architecture for the future as well as present needs. And it is this kind of innovative everyday solution that RKW provides for major commercial admini­ strative buildings. Once all technical, office organisational, energy and ecological problems have been overcome, these projects are increasingly dedicated to the free topics of city, space and form, as recently demonstrated by the grandiose interior and exterior of the Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg’s headquarters. Oldenburg has an urbanistic principle of layering, the extendible close interlocking of exterior and interior space in an interplay of stairs, walkways, galleries and light-flooded halls to match our modern nomadic society, that incorporates both the bright, white and glazed central hall and the claustrophobic Raum der Stille (silent place) in the larger of the two garden courtyards, with their regular, serene design. The central hall, however, is the strongest element in this design. Its view of the “Mann im Matsch”, a larger-than-life bronze sculpture by Thomas Schütte, impresses itself indelibly on the memory. After 60 years, the long-term success of RKW can be seen in a single, central project, just as it was in the beginning. RKW’s finest hour to date was the symbiosis of living and working expressed in the urban planning and architectonic implementation competition for the preserved old buildings of the Spiegel and IBM high-rise block in old Hamburg (Werner Kallmorgen 1965/1968). The competition to create a high-quality ensemble consisting of historic infrastructure and new offices and accommodation in an attractive location (not exactly an easy task) was won by RKW, despite high-profile opposition. International players such as Delugan Meissl, Massimiliano Fuksas and Ben van Berkel took part. The successful design was highly sensitive in urban planning terms, and succeeding in creating a structure with a horizontal dynamic at the foot of the historic “crowning tower building” and combining the two harmoniously. But the really successful feature was the new architectonic image for the urban society – one that maintains continuity with the pre‑existing urban structure. The overall profile struck a balance between living, working, urban culture and free time. Its structuring elements are largely transparent, and it avoids forcing people to migrate en masse.

2000 – 2010

ARAG Tower, Düsseldorf 2001

Debitel headquarters, Stuttgart 2002

Audi Electronics Centre, I

10 | 11

As this project shows, continuity is very important to RKW. An attentive reader will find further key terms that characterise RKW in this book: harmony, serenity, openness, a fully integrated approach, and innovation. But ultimately the success of the architects is founded on a notion that applies to the process rather than to the end result: workmanship.

Klaus Dieter Weiss

Meilenwerk, Düsseldorf 2006

Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg, 2009

Revitalisation of Spiegel plot, Hamburg 2009

Harmony

It may no longer be fashionable for architects to describe themselves as artists, but the constant demand for originality still often turns architecture into sterile self reference – extravagant gestures where what is needed is a functional artwork. It is true that the architect’s working style, thoughts and methods have a crucial influence on an architectonic design, but for those who live in the building the architecture is also undoubtedly a plan for living. “Architecture seems to have returned to providing buildings to live in rather than buildings to marvel at. And a good thing too,” writes Gerhard Matzig in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, praising architects’ change of direction as they tighten their belts on formal aesthetic issues in the face of the economic crisis: “Fortunately, architecture is again becoming unoriginal. The time-honoured battle between tradition and modernity is 1 Gerhard Matzig: “Ein Haus ist ein Haus ist ein Haus. Es wird wieder unoriginell gebaut – und das ist auch gut so: Neun Thesen zum diesjährigen “Tag der Architektur”, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung 26/27, June 2010, p. 17.

clearly running out of steam.”1 But what should we make of theories such as “the celebrity-driven model of architecture is in crisis”, “conservatism is showing its better side as the brother of sustainability”, or “after the solo approach of the last few years, the ensemble is again gaining ground”? These daring predictions should still be accompanied by a question mark. By “harmony”, architects generally mean well-ordered structural proportions or an urban planning concept that clearly defines the space. Apparently, architecture does not stand out without distinctive features that set it apart from everyday buildings, without new formal messages, daring construction methods or materials. And a harmonious overall city profile has now been abandoned as a goal or persuasive argument. Fundamentally, architectonic development should strike a balance between manifesto and co-determination – in competitions in particular, consultation is not in demand. Grete Tugendhat opposed her architect Mies van der Rohe’s design for the bedroom, but his spatial composition was eventually used for her house after all. When asked whether one could actually live in such a new­fangled structure, the mistress of the house replied cheerfully

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that one could learn to live in a different way – a better way – in the Tugendhat house. For this to happen, the client has to engage in dialogue with the architect, to produce a personal “signature” as well as an artwork. Madame Savoye and Mrs Farnsworth failed to realise the importance of this dialogue: as a home, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye was purely an exhibition piece, and Farnsworth’s dispute with Mies van der Rohe actually resulted in a court case. This did not stop both houses becoming icons of modernity. Both architects took their assignments as an opportunity for an architectonic manifesto. Taking the needs of the client seriously does not necessarily conflict with architectonic experiments – as long as the architect sees himself or herself as an advisor to the client. RKW’s working approach – which is, unusually, directed towards the client in a long-term way – sees “harmony” not primarily as a quality of the proportions of the building, but also – perhaps above all – as something to be achieved on a human scale, in the everyday functions and highly complex coordination and communication tasks that fall to architecture. Harmony becomes a design element in interpersonal communication – for the employees in the office, as well as for everyone else involved in the project, not least the building owners and clients. Architecture is not predictable. It is not a science by numbers. But the way out of this indeterminacy in architecture is not solely through art – it needs the help of the people involved. For a building to be really fit for purpose, agreement is needed – agreement on how the building is built and why it is being built. The task and the art of architecture are to retain both aspects in the design of the completed house.

“It was possible to find a simple, clear and natural urban planning solution for this assignment because the city defined the goals before setting the competition.” .

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Urban development in the retail crisis Klaus Dieter Weiss interviews Matthias Pfeifer and Professor Johannes Ringel

What is the aim of your town planning work, which is very different from defined architecture projects? Matthias Pfeifer: For us, urban planning always means inner-city urban planning – primarily areas where the city was either never completed or has been severely disrupted. We can work with confidence in this inner-city arena – particularly in a commercial context, because commerce is among the most ancient driving forces of urban life. Our firm has been active in commercial architecture for over 60 years. It should therefore come as no surprise that we have a profound and undogmatic approach to inner-city revitalisation that produces to good results. Johannes Ringel: Over the past 30 years, structural change has inflicted a lot of wounds. Inner-city uses have gone from being primarily industrial to being a totally different economic urban world. There are disused industrial sites, abandoned goods yards and barracks sites. By now, everyone is familiar with the concept of the shrinking city with gaping wounds revealed by vacancy – overgrown wasteland sites. These wounds are our area of interest. The simple urban growth solutions that were still practicable in the 1970s are no longer available today. How does a modern road infrastructure assignment fit into a historical context? M.P.: “Everything must change in order that nothing change” – this phrase of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s from the novel “The Leopard” is often quoted in support of the need to change our welfare state. But our cities also need constant change. As with any other change, opportunities and risks are closely associated. No one can seriously think that the European city in its present form represents the final product – the pinnacle and conclusion of centuries of development. And contrary to what is often believed, this process of change is not exceptionally rapid at present. During industrialisation in the 19th century, cities often doubled their population within one or two decades. J.R.: Düsseldorf, for instance, increased in population from 90,000 to 450,000 between 1880 and 1925 – i.e. the population quadrupled over 45 years. Even when you take into account that part of this growth was due to amalgamation, it is clear how radical the changes must have been at the time. If we look back 45 years, we see only small changes in the populations of cities. Numbers aren’t everything. But other social processes – politics, culture, commerce and industry – were often more dynamic in the past. If you compare the year 1914 with 1934 – a timespan of only 20 years – you realise that this period contains the last days of the Wilhelmine Empire, the Roaring Twenties and the beginnings of National Socialism, combined with enormous upheavals in technology, culture and society. Compared with this, the changes from 1990 to today look modest – within West Germany, at least. This puts our fears about changes in our cities into perspective – showing that recent developments represent only a quantitative shift, not a qualitative transformation. Risks are naturally a part of change, but we must not lose the opportunities. Finding these opportunities is worth the effort.

Campus West, Aachen

How does the present structural change in cities and commerce express itself, and how can cities adapt to them intelligently? J.R.: In the context of urban planning and retail, there are two significant processes acting on our cities today. On the edges of city centres, areas formerly used by industry, transport systems or the postal service are now freed up for other uses because the amount of space the users need is now less, and their needs are better met in traffic-friendly outlying areas. Retail has been going through a difficult patch for some years. The smaller shops are particularly badly affected, especially when they are not in a prime position. To enhance their attractiveness and efficiency, the chain store owners try to increase shop space, which is almost impossible in structures that have accumulated over time, especially in historical cities. Some cities have realised that combining both situations – i.e. the creation of new retail spaces in order to implement large-area, modern retail facilities fairly close to the inner city – represents an opportunity. In particular, public and cultural uses must be part of these developments if they are not to be deserted areas. The space that the local council itself needs, if inner-city development is to be taken seriously, cannot be provided by building a high-tech town hall on the ring road. The town hall must be built close to the city centre, in a new inner-city development area. How do you believe cities and municipalities should approach successful development? M.P.: Before an urban plan or use plan can begin, a city must have a clear picture of its present situation and its position in the competition between cities. How do outsiders see the city? What are its strengths and weaknesses? These thoughts create a general picture, which can then be used to pinpoint the commercial areas. Where are there spaces available to implement uses that match the overall plan? Can the uses that migrated out of the inner city in bygone years – such as retail and administration – be restored to the inner cities? This is an economic question as well as one of urban planning. As wide a political consensus as possible must be created. The public discussion can be supported by measures like contributions from experts or workshops. The results are incorporated into the planning framework and the defining of goals, rather than the solutions. Campus West, Aachen, development scenarios

You describe Mülheim an der Ruhr as a good example of a graduated approach to the political and planning process... J.R.: Exactly. People realised that Mülheim’s inner city has been becoming steadily less attractive for years now. Given the high density of retail outlets in Mülheim, it was also clear that it could not be made more attractive by simply adding more of these in the inner city. So the city discovered an asset that had always been part of its name but which it had never known what to do with – namely the Ruhr. Mülheim’s inner city only appeared to border on the river. In reality, it was separated from it by a four-lane road. Another barrier was a small and rather unattractive park on the bank. The city

18 | 19

decided to redirect the traffic so that the road could be dispensed with, and to replace the park with more attractive uses. M.P.: Once these factors had been defined, the city was able to hold a focused urban planning competition. The inner city was to be brought right up to the river, using the space taken up by the park, the road and several public buildings – which were due to be replaced anyway. Retail was largely ruled out as a use scenario. The idea was to factor in a high degree of flexibility for subsequent decisions about office or residential use. In 2004, we won the competition with a very simple idea. We extended the existing road system up to the Ruhr, which was given a fairly narrow promenade with an urban character. After all, the idea was to bring the city to the river, not the landscape into the city. The highlight of the project is planned for the junction between the existing inner-city area and the new urban development area – a harbour basin for tourists with boats on the Ruhr. It was important that, as well as being approved by the jury, the plan and planning framework should be passed by the city council with a large cross-party majority no more than a few weeks after the jury made their decision. The project is presently being implemented. J.R.: It was possible to find a simple, clear and natural urban planning solution for this assignment because the city defined the goals before setting the competition. The role of a competition is to find a solution to a pre-defined problem, not to set goals of its own. This is sometimes written into the competition terms. Urban planning is much too political for elected representatives not to be involved in formulating urban planning goals. What would you say to the prophets of doom who believe that the existence of the European city is under threat? M.P.: That cities are merely undergoing change – just as they have always done. They have survived industrialisation and de-industrialisation, but will not remain unchanged. The centre of town in a late 18th-century city is significantly different from a town centre 100 years later, at the height of industrialisation. Did we really think the destruction of the Second World War, the subsequent transformation of cities into automobile paradises and the partial reversal of this in recent years were the final act in

Ruhrbania, Mülheim an der Ruhr bankside site

Krefeld, urban planning study

20 | 21

the history of changes to cities? Of course not – instead, the city will continue to change and develop in the future. J.R.: The survival of the city is ensured precisely because of its ability to adapt. Freeing up large areas close to the inner city is an opportunity for adaptation to take place. Attractive inner-city accommodation represents a significant positive structural change. The same should, as far as possible, apply to public administration and education facilities, which should if possible be located in the inner cities. Like commerce, they are sources of urban activity. Oversized traffic areas could be removed. Thanks to its remarkable adaptability, the European city model still has a future in the new millennium.

Urban Development

Urban Development

Revitalisation of the Spiegel plot, Hamburg

Client IVG Immobilien AG   Planning area approx. 8,400 m²   Planning completed projected to be completed in 2011   Competition 1st prize

In 2010, Spiegel-Verlag will be leaving its present

and shops, with two-storey offices in between.

headquarters and moving its operations to the

The entrance areas for the standard storeys create

Hafencity – leaving the so-called “Spiegel island”

attractive lines of sight between the street and the

vacant for new uses. In supplementing the existing

court, and the apartments are arranged so that

Spiegel buildings and the IBM skyscraper, the task

they have a view south towards the warehouse

was to create a quality ensemble to house offices,

district. Luxurious maisonette ground plans fit well

with some areas for residential apartments.

into this exclusive site. The varied use of the new main building’s ground floor provides the IBM

The heights of the three new buildings fit dynamically into the Spiegel ensemble, and the block takes its shape from the existing axes and relationships within the site. The new, eight-storey office building at Messberg – taken together with the older IBM skyscraper – corresponds with the massive buildings around the Chile-Haus. The new eight-storey residential building is a bridge to the row of storehouses on the Alter Wandrahm, which are of the same height. Both of the existing high-rise buildings are left clear; contained by the new building, they look like an enclosed city. The new development creates a striking court area, with many connections between the interior and the exterior. The office building to the north and the residential building to the south are connected by the inner courtyard, a subdivided mixed-use area. The heavily frequented areas are full of restaurants

skyscraper with a wide range of services.

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Urban Development

Ruhrbania, Mülheim an der Ruhr

Client the city of Mülheim   Planning area approx. 6.5 ha   Planning completed 2010   Competition 1st prize 2004

Looking for a clear contrast with the present,

to create a new, attractive leisure area for central

rural character of the competition area between

Mülheim. Water, boats and outdoor cafés and

the Schlossbrücke and the railway bridge, RKW

restaurants will present an unusual picture for a

planned a striking urban shape for the site –

city in the Ruhr.

continuing and rounding off central Mülheim. The city moves its lively urban quality towards the river,

This project was designed in co-operation with GTL Landschafts­

but the calm of the countryside is not moved into

architekten.

the city. An urban promenade running north to south pulls the area together. It is tied into a network of routes extending well beyond the city into the country, gradually becoming denser towards the urban space, then opening up again into the countryside. Given that it has the Ruhr and the parking facilities running along it, Mülheim is well endowed with green open spaces. The density of use by the river and the city centre’s relationship to it were to be strengthened, by bringing streets and squares close up to the river. “Mülheim – the city on the river” has the only big city centre that actually is on the Ruhr; this will mean that the city really has connected up with the waterway. The new harbour and its adjacent harbour square are the living heart of the planning area. Here, water as an element combines with urban activity

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Continuity and change

The challenging task of high-quality urban planning where there is existing urban infrastructure is to combine continuity and change – to incorporate historic buildings while creating spaces for the future. The award-winning urban planning design for the new riverside promenade Ruhrbania in Mülheim an der Ruhr achieves this in an unconventional way, extending the urban structures accumulated over the years towards the river, treating historic infrastructure respectfully and recognising structural change: this is what make this rather unspectacular design so valuable. Over the past 100 years, the bank of an economically significant river has transformed from being primarily a place to ship coal into a desirable residential and leisure district, and RKW Architektur + Städtebau’s planning responds to this in its own special way. RKW’s presence during the planning phase – and especially the essential public discussion facilitated by the firm – has been a great help and an asset to us. RKW’s architectonic design for construction area 1 (currently being implemented) also consistently applies the goals of the urban planning competition. Near the new Ruhr promenade district are several significant historical buildings from the early 20th century, reminiscent of grand waterside palaces from past centuries. These buildings once gave rise to the name “Venice on the Ruhr”. it is worth mentioning an extraordinary family connection between these buildings and the promenade: after the competition, it was discovered that Matthias Pfeifer’s grandfather, Arthur Pfeifer (1879–1962) and his partner Hans grossmann had designed most of these buildings – undoubtedly excellent architectural projects, and prominent parts of the cityscape to this day. These buildings include the Rathaus, the Stadthalle and the

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Raffelberg hydroelectric power station, the well-known transregional Wasserbahnhof, the Ruhrnatur building and RWW’s administrative building. The concept of the future building on the past has seldom been so well demonstrated as it is here! Helga Sander Councillor of the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr Director of the Dezernat Umwelt, Planen und Bauen (department for the environment, planning and construction)

Urban Development

BioCampus Cologne

Client the city of Cologne   Planning area approx. 25 ha   Planning completed development plan shown 2007

The BioCampus Cologne was proposed to stimu-

parked vehicles and the technical infrastructure.

late innovation. It has become one of the largest

The overall idea is based on Paul Klee’s idea of

biotechnology parks in Germany. It is focused on

the designed picture. Individual elements work

the needs of the newcomer and established bio-

by themselves and are also part of an ordered

technology firms that have settled here since the

structure. The result is a microcosmos with high

park opened in 2002. The pre‑financed infrastruc-

recognition value.

ture and individual development concepts suggest novel options for this growth industry. The BioCampus Cologne in north-west Bocklemünd covers about 25 hectares and was built by a public-private partnership based on a development master plan, with the intention of the BioCampus Grundbesitz GmbH & Co KG being to develop the site and to create an attractive and economically competitive site for life science businesses. The whole area was to be given its own distinctive identity, kept coherent through every phase of the project, and a high-quality open space design was to give the BioCampus Cologne its own unmistakeable character and high recognition value. The strategy is based on the campus’ specific circumstances; it defines recurring elements that can grow with the campus (such as the individual building modules), the overall modular geometrical structure, the access structures for traffic and

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PROJEKTE 2007 RKW . 03

BioCampus Cologne. Modellfoto

Urban Development

Marienplatz, Darmstadt

Client FOM Future Office Management GmbH   GFA approx. 30,000 m²   Working period July – Sept. 2006   Competition 1st prize

The project’s goal was an appropriate urban plan

In a way, the volumes are building blocks in the

for the Marienplatz, treating the whole area, with its

structure. A basement, most of which is used as

rounded building developments and open spaces.

an underground car park, connects the structures,

The existing fragmented structure, which included

turning them into a single ensemble. The individual

listed buildings and others that deserved preser-

buildings can be reached via the terraced roofs,

vation, was extended and filled in; in future, the

and areas with similar uses are connected func-

development will contain a mixture of hotels, com-

tionally, making it easy to orient oneself within the

mercial buildings and houses, with priority given

building ensemble.

to sheltered housing for the elderly and to medical practices, administration buildings, leisure facilities and restaurants. The design impressively balances development and open spaces. The building ensemble is aligned with the parks, responding to the existing urban structures and solitary city landmarks (the Georg-Büchner-Anlage, the Staatstheater, the Marienplatz, the Albert-Schweitzer-Anlage and the Fachhochschule) and creating an axis for future city renewal developments. Clear spatial edges, a variety of buildings and the new Zwillingsplatz inner urban zone provide clearly structured urban spaces. The Zwillingsplatz’s chain of open spaces is the urban heart of the whole quarter. Varied ways of traversing the space and long lines of sight provide a hinge between Darmstadt the “cultural city”, the neighbouring residential districts and Darmstadt the “science city”.

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Urban Development

Master plan Jana Sobieskiego, Warsaw This site presented an enormous challenge to the architects. Idyllic suburban development came right up against major roads; solitaire buildings petered out into nothing or ran along a parking facility in an unstructured way. A planning solution was found in the idea of a garden city. This offers space for sophisticated living and working structures, and presents an image of living at high comfort levels. Fan-shaped street geometry, skilful division into four quarters, and the continuation of neighbouring green areas create a harmonious open space and link town and country together.

Planning area approx. 46 ha   Public space 85,500 m²   GFA 348,000 m² Residential 303,000 m²   Offices 29,000 m²   Master plan study 2006

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Zhenru Vice Centre, Shanghai

Client Putuo planning authority, China   Planning area 1.6 km²   Working period Feb. – Nov. 2005   Competition 1st prize

Four sub-centres were developed for the metro­ polis of Shanghai (population: 16 million), each a dense inner-city area serving one to two million people. Zhenru in the northwestern district of Putuo was the fourth of the sub-centres. The typical services – retail, entertainment and arts – were combined with office and hotel buildings. RKW based their design on spaces in European cities, creating a high-density development while preserving the proportions. The Cao Yang Road’s southern section meets a green zone at right angles, creating a contrast between a dense urban area and an open landscape.

Urban Development

Campus West, Aachen

Client BLB NRW Niederlassung Aachen   Planning area approx. 32 ha   Planning completed plan expected to be shown late in 2012   Master plan study 2005 / reworking from the beginning of 2007

The RWTH – the Rheinisch-Westfälische Tech-

from all over the world and from a whole variety of

nische Hochschule – Aachen University is one of

faculties meet here.

Germany’s most distinguished universities. It is an elite university of technology that sets standards

The third section is the “Campusquartier”, with

in training engineers, and is seen as an important

apartments for staff and students. Student shop-

growth engine, which is why it is building on three

ping, residential and leisure centres are coming

sites. One of these is the 32 hectares of disused

into being as a “community” on the Republikplatz

railway tracks at the Westbahnhof. A new college

and in the Campusquartier. The campus runs into

campus with 10,000 new jobs will be created here,

an extensive tract of countryside at the northern

bringing together competencies that are recog-

end; the Campusband links up with Aachen outer

nised throughout Europe. The design is proving

ring road.

to be as innovative as the institutions that will be housed here at a later date.

In this way the two curves of the Campusband come to symbolise the interdisciplinary seat of

The campus is in three sections, each with a clear

scientific learning, and become a dynamic hub for

identity of its own. The heart is the Campusband,

living, where people meet, relax and exchange

a dynamic boulevard 25 to 35 metres wide, which

ideas.

connects everything and forms both a backbone and a green relaxation zone. The first phase, the “Campus-Cité” with events hall and hotel, is also the entrance to the city; the Campus Tower marks the new centre in the Aachen cityscape. The research centres with institutes, labs and production facilities are arranged as a cluster following the Campus Band. They also include the listed Aachen-West maintenance centre, a former engine shed with turntable. Researchers and students

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Sensory city Klaus Dieter Weiss

No city operates without money – and this is true on both sides of the shop counter. In his novel “Jahrestage”, Uwe Johnson described New York Broadway west of north Central Park as a kind of market square for the multilingual secretary and bank clerk Gesine Cresspahl. With its neighbourly, relaxed atmosphere, the West Side of the late 1960s contradicts the grim picture opponents of globalisation paint of this greatest of all cities today. 1968: City of plenty Forty years ago, the small traders and restaurateurs of the West Side seemed about to create worldwide trade single-handedly. There was nothing you couldn’t find in its multicultural and industrious delicatessens and general stores, from Irish honey to Düsseldorf mustard. And then there were the “lubricants” of trade and commerce that create customer confidence: words and gestures that go beyond the prosaic objectives of buying and selling. Plenty of things were for free: outstanding Shakespearean performances in Central Park, concerts in museums and public spaces, books from public libraries and records from the music library in Lincoln Center, coffee for cinema patrons waiting to get in. In the thrift shops, society ladies played shopkeeper for no wages, turning haute couture from rich houses into money for good causes. Food markets, drugstores, haberdashers and bookshops all stayed open until midnight. Everything and anything could be ordered by telephone – including the New York Times special Sunday edition – and there would always be a clearance sale somewhere. Goods could be returned to stores within five days. Perhaps the supermarket is not solely governed by the laws of capitalist marketing – perhaps it is also a place full of intangible information, a temple of higher cultural interactions? “To consume in America is not to buy; it is to dream ...” And yet the standard of living of the average American family has barely risen since the 1960s.

2000: Network city It was all the Pentagon’s fault. It was from the Pentagon that global electronic networks emerged in the late 1960s to conquer the world behind our screens. The first host computer went online in 1969; an economical, decentralised and secure way for the Pentagon’s researchers to communicate. At the beginning of this century, Jeremy Rifkin described the hypercapitalist virtual world as an epoch-making transformation of economy and society. “The new commerce occurs in cyberspace, […] to make room for an era in which culture becomes the most important commercial resource, time and attention 1 

Jeremy Rifkin: The Age of Access, New York 2000, pp. 19/17.

become the most valuable possession, and each individuals’s own life becomes the ultimate market”1 Today, knowledgeable web users can buy their tea directly from China, have the few stamps they still need delivered by the postman, book flights and hotels via anonymous price cutters, get hooked on virtual auctions and virtual gambling, order digitised music, films and news reports for free, check their bank accounts, and print vouchers and tickets out for themselves. They can do all this at any time of the day or night, in any place – even, when necessary, in a moving car. The ability to check through all the antiquities in the world in seconds merely appears to be one of the more intelligent instances of this controlled data explosion on our home desktops. Turned into an e-book and sold off a virtual shelf, a book can stay in the store while its data content is evaluated – without tangible sensations, but with mechanical precision.

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On the other hand, more and more of the virtual sales counters maintained by virtual firms choose not to produce anything themselves, preferring to concentrate on planning and marketing. Fewer and fewer retailers actually hold their goods in their hands. At the end of 1997, 41 million people were using virtual payment methods to shop electronically – with 1.9 billion dollars moved this way in New York in a single day. In the USA, the highway shopping centre culture is already seeing a fall in shopper numbers. Is this a way to loosen the stranglehold of the green fields on urbanity and city culture? But what exactly is it that is traded in a post-industrial city, amid this constant electronic bombardment? Mostly services in the communication, mobility, leisure, culture, education, health and recreation sectors. Product platforms become vehicles for services, while material goods are now interesting principally as media of knowledge. The customer who previously had to be wooed and won anew with each sale becomes a client who has been won for the long term. At a pinch, he or she may even be given the product needed to create this tie for free. 2015: Knowledge city The shorter lived products become, the more intensive the connections between the business and the customer (who is exposed to increasing levels of personal service with increasing levels of electronic surveillance) – and across the whole social structure of the city. Businesses like VW and Siemens use the metaphor of a city to cement customer communities and try to create new innovations under banners like: “the revival of the ‘polis’” and “models, wall paintings, miniature pictures and computer 2  Helmut Volkmann: Wandel der Innovationskultur mit der

animations of the cityscape”, using an open-plan office or old factory hall to provide the background.2

“Stadt des Wissens als Stätte der Begegnung”, Henn Akademie

This strategy uses the city’s qualities in a purely virtual way – “the apparently alternative route of emo-

1/1998, pp. 60/61 (see Gabler-Magazin No. 3/1995, pp. 25–29).

tionalism”. Even so, this line of reasoning by managers has significant urban development potential: “Nothing is more effective than a human encounter. Visitors and users acquire knowledge that they

3  See note 2.

never knew they were looking for – but which, on reflection, turns out to be useful.”3 Saskia Sassen stays within a strictly economic viewpoint while expanding the spectrum of observation. It is the city’s social infrastructure and the necessary social embedding that allow us to realise the true value of global networks. At the end of 1997, 25 cities were contributing over 80% of worldwide

4  Saskia Sassen: Powerquake. Where is globalisation going?,

capital.4 Jeremy Rifkin, on the other hand, sees the city primarily as a cultural challenge. In this era

Stuttgart/Munich 2000.

of cultural capitalism and trade in experiences, memories and knowledge, the market’s absorption of the private sphere, the purposeful shaping of human relationships by businesses and by electronic surrogate social worlds in commercial packaging must be compensated for by real communities and playful spaces – the kind that can only be provided by a historically rooted, unique city, a real community with a geographic basis. If being human means being in contact with some kind of human society, then culture must not become a commodity for the culture industry. Political tools must be used to balance culture and commerce, in the interests of all parties. This means less emphasis on entertainment and fun, and more on art and play. We should, however, remember that self-contained, minority “public spheres” have always been part of the city, and that consumption should not always be equated with plundering and laying waste to cities. Thomas Cook has been trading in ready-made European travel experiences since 1856, and the structure used by modern-day communities was created over 100 years ago, for Ebenezer Howard’s Letchworth Garden City. And last but not least:

even ancient Rome had entertainment opportunities and shopping centres integrated into its urban fabric. Sensory city When the economic system is in the process of transforming itself from a huge factory into a huge theatre, a city does not have to make a spectacle of itself in order to benefit. Whatever any fiscal authorities may say to the contrary, a resilient (urban) culture is the essential condition and “lubricant” of economic development – and not the other way round. Humankind in the year 2007 is an urban species. Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and every year, the planet’s urban population increases by 60 million people. In just two decades’ time, two thirds of humanity are expected to be living in cities – in spite of the earth’s huge population growth. The same figures suggest that by 2050, Lower Saxony could be empty of people – as could Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. This “urban transformation” is totally without precedent – and demands highly innovative and strategic urban planning and urban organisation. A world that is well designed in functional and emotional, formal and ecological terms is a more beautiful and more contented one. A positive living and working environment eliminates the long-term needs that give rise to daily commutes, long-haul holidays and migration: people are encouraged to stay where they are, rather than dashing around the globe to find something better and more beautiful, thereby making the ecological balance ever more fragile and destroying all belief in the possibility of a well-designed world. But this task cannot be achieved by state ordinances – or by those of architecture theorists. A change must take place in the insight and judgment of each individual, something which can only happen slowly, in gradual steps. This means looking at people’s needs, and, rather than treating architecture and urban planning as theoretical remedies, making them vibrant and practical parts of the city’s everyday life. Urbanity is created by a dense network of functional interactions in a favourable urban environment, not by impressive architectonic spectacles. But the functions and spaces must be planned. Every provincial city has its marketplace, which, in the right conditions – on market days, at least – becomes full of urban life. For this, the marketplace’s size and proportions are just as important as its architectonic style – as is the mix of shops, restaurants and market activity. While the look of individual houses is not a central concern, many people find the Plaza Major in Salamanca in Spain a much more attractive urban focus than its equivalent in Herne, even though the populations of the two cities are almost equal. What is important is that the city’s public sphere should enable an atmosphere of open exchange for people of all nationalities and languages by creating the right spatial and sensory conditions – like Cees Nooteboom’s description of a spontaneous dance in the Plaza Major in Salamanca: “A quadrangle with no pavements or elevations of any kind, surrounded by a single building resting on four long arcades of columns. It was really more like a large, stone room with the sky for a roof. People were moving from north to south and from east to west in a more or less chaotic way, emerging from shops in the gallery of columns and from the narrow alleys that open onto the square. Then, at a random moment, everything changed. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, a circle of living people formed within this square and slowly began to turn. Somehow, I was certain that this was

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5  Cees Nooteboom: Unbuilt Netherlands: visionary projects by Berlage, Oud, Duiker, Van den Broek, Van Eyck, Herzberger and others / Cees Nooteboom Architectural Press, London 1985 (1980), p. 19.

how the world ought to look. Overwhelmed, I sat at a window, consumed by a desire to join in. But if the world were to look like this, there would need to be cities with this kind of square, and the square would have to be at the heart of each city.” 5 To be absolutely clear, this is an argument for qualities that – even today – are usually controversial, or even blacklisted, in specialist architecture and urban planning circles: “commerciality” as a motor for cities, galleries and arcades of “columns”, “a homogeneous, large-scale building structure” enclosing a simple, uniform, quadratic city square – a square that Cees Nooteboom is not alone in considering the best in the world. It would be no easy task to accomplish, but the architectonic and urban planning tools would be simple and easy to implement.

Transport and commerce

Transport and Commerce

Oberstdorf Station

Client Deutsche Bahn AG   GFA 2,804 m²   Planning period Aug. 1998 – Jan. 2001 Building period Sept. 2000 – Aug. 2001   Award Traffic Design Award 2003

The spa and resort of Oberstdorf im Allgäu is a

give the building the look of a contemporary

popular holiday destination, with 2.5 million over-

functional building. Asymmetrically arranged pairs

night stays a year. For German holidaymakers, it

of lean-to roofs and the striking “station tower” fit

is the southernmost point on the Deutsche Bahn.

well with Oberstdorf’s Alpine panorama and are

The new building, which received an award for

architectonic expressions of a modern transport

the best small-town station in 2006, replaces an

company’s identity. Together with the redesigned

outdated 1963 station building.

station square, it creates a gateway to the inner city, and upgrades the Marktstraße, which opens

The new station is a terminus is aligned north to south. Its modernised platforms see about 70 trains a day. A two-storey arrival hall with large windows is aligned with the rails, connecting the concourse and the station forecourt. Travellers are greeted by an expansive station, flooded with light – and the view of the surrounding landscape enables them to get their bearings. Inviting shops and an information centre are arranged around the sides. The station harmonises with its surroundings and looks good as a part of Oberstdorf without slavishly imitating traditional building types. The material – white plaster surfaces, untreated larchwood – was chosen to match the regional architecture while making it look like a “station of the future”. The glass facade, framed by graphitegrey aluminium strips, and the wooden roof, which is held up by steel supports and appears to float,

onto it.

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Transport and Commerce

Mannheim Central Station

Client Deutsche Bahn AG   GFA 22,100 m²   Planning period 1996 – 2001 Building period May 1999 – Nov. 2001   Award Bahnhof des Jahres 2005, awarded by the “Allianz pro Schiene”

Mannheim central station is one of the German

construction providing plenty of flexibility for

railway network’s largest ICE and IC junctions. The

individual shop units. The mall is given overall har-

listed building dating from 1876 was redesigned so

mony by regularly spaced pillars with natural stone

the station could fulfil its role in the future. It was

cladding, alternating with openings. A glazed wait-

given more urban features, shops and facilities,

ing room and cafe are strikingly modern touches.

turning it into an attractive, multifunctional public place. Mannheim’s Kaiserring traffic axis runs directly to the building’s main entrance via the front plaza, ending at its bright, newly designed entrance hall. The station now centres on a prominent steel and glass dome over the entrance area, while the historic elements of the entrance hall – the facade, massive walls and projecting roof – were preserved. The existing flat ceiling was removed and replaced with a dome – based on a historical construction that was demolished in the 1920s, and with the same T section and insulating glass structure. The wings to the left and right of the entrance hall were restored to their original height. A mall – also with a glass roof – crosses the entrance hall, connecting all its functional elements and route systems. Aside from its role in the rail network, this station presents the 100,000 visitors it receives daily with a variety of businesses, boutiques, restaurants and services, with its regular

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Transport and Commerce

Bottling and Logistics Building at the Krombacher Brewery, Kreuztal

Client Krombacher Brauerei Bernhard Schadeberg GmbH & Co. KG   GFA 12,300 m2   Planning period from Oct. 2002   Building period Jan. 2003 – Jan. 2004

The Krombacher Brauerei in north Siegerland on

the hall optically lighter and less dominating. The

the south border of the Rothaargebirge is among

extensively glazed stairwell and the large windows

the most modern breweries in Europe, and has

in the facade allow people to see what is going on

been privately owned since its founding. Today one

in the building.

of the largest private breweries in Germany, the Krombacher Brauerei was in existence in the year 1803. Krombach itself, today a district in Kreuztal, can be traced back to 1300. It has been home to various breweries for much of its history. After undergoing the brewing and maturing pro­ cess in the south building, the fermenting cellar and the storing cellar, the filtered beer reaches the filling and logistics centre through an underground system of pipes. Every day, up to 5.5 million bottles are filled on the seven production lines and loaded onto up to 450 trailer trucks. The logistics department contains 3.5 kilometres of transport technology for loading pallets. In addition to this, there is a “keg” facility that can fill up to a thousand 50-litre barrels per hour. A residential area that encroaches on the site made it necessary to carefully plan the height profile of the new hall. The architects stretched the body of the building high, clearly separated the facade from the foundations and made sawtoothed sections in the window reveals, making

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Transport and Commerce

Facade design for the Mainz­Wiesbaden Coal-fired Power Station

Client KMW Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden AG   Competition 2009

The Mainz-Mombach industrial site, directly next

is inspired by the processes of energy produc-

to the Rhine, has a history as a power station site

tion. The energy colour spectrum – the colour

stretching back to 1899. The new coal-fired power

temperatures from embers to flame – runs from

station, which is among the most modern in the

light grey to mid blue to Bordeaux red, and these

world, was built close to the existing gas-fired

colours are arranged vertically on the boiler house,

power station. The cooling tower is 60 metres high.

the machinery building and the chimney, while

It was built much lower than the 110-metre boiler

the fuel’s transformation process – from raw coal

house to allow water from the Rhine to be used for

to ash – is reflected in the parts of the building

cooling. It is used only for a few weeks during the

surrounding the centre, which are coloured from

summer. The chimney will be 150 metres high – as

anthracite to white.

high as the chimney of the existing combined gasfired power station. Part of the steam generated by the burning coal is additionally utilised by a combined heat and power system; it heats up water for a district heating system that supplies the university, the university hospital, the cathedral, the town hall, regional ministries and several museums, hotels, office blocks and residential buildings. The electrical output is 800 megawatts. Including the district heating extraction (up to 300 megawatts), the fuel utilisation ratio is 60 %. The operator has voluntarily committed to restricting fine particle and nitrous oxide emissions to at least 50 % below the legal limits. The facade design for the new coal-fired power station in the Ingelheimer Aue industrial area

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Serenity RKW’s non-dogmatic architectonic approach enables a considered Platonic serenity. From the start of every project, RKW resolves not to use architecture as an ideological conduit and ignore real-world conditions. In this sense, architecture is not Utopia – it is reality. Potential changes should stop at unalterable facts that it makes no sense to try to change and when circumstances cannot be influenced and do not directly affect human lives. You can’t make a plan to make people happy – this is not the objective. The objective is to live in the present moment and to give it a human atmosphere. Martin Heidegger believed that the central, most important point of human existence was not to commit oneself to a specific design, but to free oneself of such designs. This quest to open things up and to extend and trans­ cend the limits of our finite existence is what Heidegger calls “serenity”. A retreat to serenity enriches our existence, because it lets us be what we have it in us to be. Our predominantly cool and informal present-day zeitgeist, however, interprets this freedom in an overly personal way. Its unassailable certainty – its stubborn and almost pig-headed adherence to a solipsistic point of view, totally unimpressed by the real world – risks failing to recognise current conditions and the modifications required to meet them. Not to be perturbed by adverse circumstances, however, is only one aspect of serenity. To change what can be changed, serenity must be combined with alertness and a willingness to act and take responsibility – a very different attitude from actionism, fatalism or indifference. It is also important for architects to realistically assess the possibilities and needs of an assignment without ideological preconceptions. A free, open-minded way of working is needed to create solutions that are both distinctive and adapted to the existing conditions – one that does justice to continuity as

56 | 57

well as innovation and change. In other words, coal-fired power stations and shopping malls also need to be designed. But the best way to respond to the widespread desire for a Classical or Neoclassical home is not to pass over such “unprofessional” dreams in favour of modern principles of architecture that failed last century. The history of architecture shows that even for great figures like Le Corbusier, the boundary between careful consideration and ideological zeal and an artistic disregard for reality can be very thin. RKW aims to achieve the best solution for a specific set of circumstances, in a specific place and for a specific client, whose long-term satisfaction is the ultimate test. As the American critic Richard Ingersoll once observed, people must not be made to feel that they have to put up with a building. Freedom from the pointless task of competing in the media battle of architectonic images creates the serenity needed to answer essential questions. Space is far more essential to truly luxurious architecture (of a house or of a city) than form. Many impressive rooms and spaces created without the aid of a professional architect exist to demonstrate this.

“I doubt that it makes any sense to look for the basic needs of human habitation in an architecture of exclamation.”

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An excursion into tradition – a phase of reorientation in home building Klaus Dieter Weiss interviews Wojtek Grabianowski and Joachim Hein

Why do you use historical facades in 21st-century home building? Joachim Hein: Classical home architecture has a tragicomic aspect. This architecture is popular with home owners. On the other hand – and this makes me sad – it makes it seem as if our modern home designs can find no solutions to the problems that the general public think are ideally solved by houses with the “traditional” look. I hope that by looking to the past, we will be able to discover distinctive qualities for modern homes, keeping in mind the needs of the home owners. It is clear that people’s basic faith in home constructions was lost in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, thanks to technical and formal rationalisation. Today, home owners want to invest in something with enduring value. I think that one day, once we have defined these qualities, we will be able to transfer them to houses with a modern appearance – and that this excursion into tradition will be merely a phase of reorientation and research. Where is the main problem? In the form? The material? The function? Or in value stability, as you say? Wojtek Grabianowski: The problem is complex – perhaps it has to do with all these. Let us begin with the function – a basic requirement for any building. But functionality is not enough for any discerning home today. The core factors for people include spatial transitions, the dramaturgy of spaces, and the connections between the interior and the exterior. The home owners want to feel they are in their home not when they reach their front door, but when they step onto the plot. Coming from a garden, they enter a roofed-over area, and move from there into the hall and onward to the stairwell. This is a deliberately staged element, an emotionally effective gesture of welcome. For instance, we now hardly ever use balconies, which are simply a way of extending the living area beyond the actual house. Another quality of a loggia is that it provides both protection and a view. The radical neoclassicism of the 21st century tends to polarise opinion among art critics. It is also seen as dubious by critics who value authentic old buildings. What is your view? J.H.: This specialist critical opinion is diametrically opposed to the wishes of home owners. I see this return to traditional spatial formations and a traditional “look” as the basis for a rethink – a single moment in a process whose end result remains to be seen. We can see similar developments in music, photography and car manufacturing ... Revisiting old territory provides an opportunity for new developments; there are an unbelievable number of things that one can learn by looking with one’s

Lindenstraße, Düsseldorf

own eyes, without filters or prejudices. It is a question of understanding what people need to live, and of providing the space for it. I think that we need these episodes in order to take a step forward and be able to offer something really new. One significant factor is the height of storeys: 3.20 m clearance space feels very different from 2.55 m. It takes the right height for large rooms to have the right impact and for the proportions of the room and the windows to be correct. How important is the home’s outline? J.H.: The “old” building ground plans advocated by Alexander Mitscherlich in his book “Die Unwirtlichkeit der Städte” (The inhospitability of our cities) in 1965 offer a high degree of flexibility. This has shown itself impressively in the way the “new old” houses have sold. People know they can depend on a fundamental and recognisable type of building, and they enjoy a flexibility and a freedom that allows them to present themselves in their own space in an individual way. It works wonderfully in old houses. Why should we have to do without all this in new houses? Then there are the transitions and lines of sight inside the apartment – the separation between private and “grand” rooms, which are connected via a hall. In Düsseldorf’s Haus Hardenberg, the axial connections between the cooking, eating and living areas and the loggia contribute significantly to the quality of the house for the inhabitants. Other sources of intrinsic value include the materials and the precision and craftsman’s attention to detail. The skirting board, for instance, is a perfect example of cultural decay in home building. A 60 cm piece of work in stone or a wooden imitation a few centimetres high arranged around the corners any old how – this kind of decision has implications for the whole space. You market your range of traditional homes on their “exclusive” nature rather than on their competitive prices. Why is their appeal so much higher than that of modern homes? W.G.: At the moment, modern home architecture is not in a position to supply similar value that would make the home owner willing to pay a comparable amount. This, of course, is the bottom line for our buildings: we have a client who has to make money. They have to make the same profit they would from standard homes, but with less living space, and this can only be done with a higher price per square metre. For it to work, the architecture must reflect this exclusivity. Georg Baselitz, who was the master of Schloss Derneburg for 35 years, now lives in a glazed house by Herzog & de Meuron,

Bankstraße, Düsseldorf

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because he is enthusiastic about the potential of modern architecture. But this kind of thing is a no­table  exception – an individual architectonic experiment in a free individual situation. Exclusive modern glazed houses are difficult to realise in urban apartment complexes, although we did succeed in doing so in the urban planning competition for the Hamburg Spiegel plot. Our Düsseldorf Mörsenbroicher Weg project represents a compromise. How much is the occupant willing to pay for this added value? W.G.: One concrete example is the Karlshof in Düsseldorf’s Lanker Straße, which closes a gap in the urban structure, barely 100 m from a modern residential project. Our apartments – 33% dearer than a comparable object in an identical residential situation – were all sold before building began. Those concerned are ready to pay significantly more for traditional objects (with modern technology) than they are for standard homes. This will be painful to any architect and sad in terms of what it means for Modernist ideals and the Bauhaus. For myself, I am not exactly pleased that modern apartment complexes in cities today generally fail due to this “exclusivity” barrier, and that the social aims of Modernism never became a reality. As far as I am concerned, it is perfectly normal and legitimate to use the traditional models of urban apartment complex buildings. Why should we, in architectonic terms, ban the inhabitant from “grand” living? Don’t people really just want the new building to imitate an authentic old building? J.H.: Despite their up-to-date technology, these buildings can be mistaken for real old buildings. But what is being offered is more than popular “old” buildings. They also have all possible comforts and security measures: underground garages, parking spaces, a lift and every kind of comfort. The charm is in their combination of a traditional appearance and modern technological equipment, but also in their utility value. The details and their realisation are simplified enough that they diverge significantly from the traditional styles. This transformation and the use of a few significant “quotations”, does not make it a copy of a historical building. Instead, it is a further development of the type of building that meets a modern home owner’s requirements. In this sense, a traditional “old” home is not the objective. What is the home owner’s main aim? J.H.: In my opinion, the main factor is the “grand” nature of this traditional type of house. This prestige, which also suggests durability and value, is what the buyers want. I think it is essential to be certain about this – it is important that what I build now will still be pleasing in ten or twenty years. As the buyer, I don’t want to feel I am living in a totally outdated building any time in the foreseeable future. I would like to know whether someone living in a building from the 1980s still feels well provided for. I think the average human being feels left behind by the tempo of our times – with the disintegration of beliefs and convictions. He or she is not comfortable with us developing a new architectural language

every day, a new fashionable trend. No one feels able to keep up with this. We have to find suitable long-term architectonic solutions. We are talking about the basic essentials of living as defined over millennia – things that cannot be changed overnight. I doubt that it makes any sense to look for the basic needs of human habitation in an architecture of exclamation. Do you have difficulty finding suitable skilled craftspeople to satisfy these requirements?

Rheinauhafen Cologne, residential project

W.G.: Traditional craft skills are in great demand today. A normal tendering process is useless here. With so much having been forgotten, craftspeople and architects have to agree on what is needed. This can be a tedious process – for both parties. Ultimately, there is more to the durability and value of these homes than a reliance on tried-and-tested materials. This is useless without craftspeople who see their work as an art. Do you use old publications to study the classical formal vocabulary? W.G.: Yes, you have to educate yourself intensively about this kind of architecture. Colleges provide barely any information on this subject. Historical examples are a great help in understanding the principles of construction and the variety of different possible exteriors for the building. How much demand would you say there was? How many projects are you working on at present? J.H.: At present, we have twelve projects either in planning or being executed. But we can expect the market to settle down. For one thing, the target group for this kind of value at this price range is not inexhaustible. Also, not every site is suitable – the urban planning and architectonic context has to be right. Two of our projects are sited in Berlin’s Grunewald, which is an ideal setting. Berlin always had great potential for this kind of home building. The old buildings there are also particularly fascinating – their age is often considerable and they are in good enough condition that it is worth renovating them. And, above all, land is cheap in Berlin. Anyone with the money to convert a building like this will have a very suitable home with a high standard of technology.

Library

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Lindenstraße, Düsseldorf, floor plan sketch

Housing

Housing

Haus Hardenberg, Düsseldorf

Client Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft   GFA 3,285 m² Planning period 2005 – 2007   Building period 2007 – 2008

In one of the most up-market and desirable neigh-

Haus Hardenberg is a new, 21st-century interpre-

bourhoods of Düsseldorf, a villa district steeped in

tation of the traditional up-market apartment. All

tradition, a luxurious multi-storey residential build-

the apartments have large terraces on the garden

ing has been built that looks like a town villa. Haus

side. The apartments on the mezzanine each have

Hardenberg on the Tiergartenstraße contains six

a roofed terrace and a private garden.

exclusive apartments with expansive ground plans – between 250 and 350 square metres in size. What the buyers particularly want is an architecture that combines the comforts of a new building with the atmosphere of an old one – complete with tall rooms and open fires. These are people who like the security of an apartment building and enjoy the infrastructure of the regional capital – the urban environment outside their front door. RKW’s Haus Hardenberg plan picks up on the history and look of this traditional, bourgeois environment, using shapes and materials derived from Classicism. The symmetrical stone facade is dominated by loggias, projecting attics, pronounced cornices and window niches. The elegant ground floor, with wide halls and stairs, is the interior’s centrepiece, and this classical structure is also reflected in the apartments’ floor plans. A hall connects the apartments. Traditional individual rooms and open living concepts are both possible.

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Housing

Karlshof, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel

Client Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft   GFA 6,500 m² Planning period 2003 – 2004   Building period 2004 – 2005

This popular building with an eclectic Wilhelmine

period. It is sophisticated but simple – with none

facade on the left bank of the Rhine was con-

of the ascetic functionality of later periods. The

structed at the end of the 19th century in a specu-

striking basement storeys, windows, bay windows,

lative project by the Rheinische Bahn­gesellschaft.

balconies and loggias give a symmetrical facade

The originally tiny village of Oberkassel experi-

more depth and make it a layered, spatial, useable

enced a rapid renaissance as an attractive resi-

structure. The understated pillar shapes, cassette

dential area for well-off citizens – officials, artists

vaulting, cornices, window sashes and decorative

and people of independent means.

bands give the architecture a Classical profile.

Drawing on the neoclassical vocabulary of its impressive, listed neighbourhood, Karlshof intelligently extends this historic and varied urban panorama (more concentrated and significant here than anywhere else in Düsseldorf), thereby filling an unsightly gap in the urban planning structure. It was not just that there were architectonic, urban planning and historical reasons for preserving the locality’s character. The public clearly wanted a synthesis of classical spaces, an impressive look, solid precision and modern comfort – and this was a neighbourhood into which all of these could fit harmoniously. The proportions and internal structure of the centrally symmetrical Karlshof were inspired by neoclassicism – the last formally unified historicist style, which gradually gave rise to the technical and formal principles of the classic Modernist

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Housing

Othmarschen Park Residential Development, Hamburg

This very sculptural high-rise apartment block has 77 residential units, each with a surface area of approximately 56 to 117 square metres. The building has a distinctive structure: a six-storey main building and a separate block. The proportions are those of a tractor pulling a wagon – an impression reinforced by the main building’s stair tower. The north side is a perforated brick facade that shelters the building from the urban rail system, while the south side looks open, light and metropolitan, with loggias, terraces and wide windows. This quieter side of the building is where the living and sleeping areas are located. The glazed stairwells are on the north side, connecting the apartments in threes. The main building and the north side are made from black brick. The south facade has inset loggias made from white fair-face concrete and coloured separating walls; these heighten the contrast between the north and south, black and white, closed and open, loud and quiet sides of the building. The individual apartments each have a car parking space in the mezzanine at the base of the building.

Client Nordrheinische Ärzteversorgung Düsseldorf   GFA 10,200 m²   Planning period 1998 – 1999   Building period 1999 – 2000

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Housing

Sophienhof, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel

Client Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft   GFA 6,400 m² Planning period 2005 – 2007   Building period 2006 – 2007

Oberkassel, with its charming combination of

changed, and even if impressive residential build-

different historicist building styles – neo-

ings of this kind inevitably have their price. The

­Renaissance, neo-Baroque, neoclassical and Art

Sophienhof’s upper-class, “noble house” charac-

Nouveau – is still one of the best residential and

ter – moderately raised buildings, turret-like roof

commercial addresses in the regional capital.

details and a statue in the “grand courtyard” – is

When confronted with fragmentary, uncoordinated

more than a 1920s building style. It is a reaction to

modern architecture, local people clearly wish to

the loss of the city’s periphery through increased

rediscover the old city’s quiet residential streets

subdivision.

and catch a breath of Paris in the “boulevards” and street restaurants. A monumental, strictly symmetrical residential complex with Classical elements of the city palace is bound to be controversial. But this contradiction has existed since the 1920s – as demonstrated by the classical modernist period and the “Volks­ wohnungspalästen” (people’s apartment palaces) of socialist Vienna. A new Vienna would have meant a radical break with the city’s traditional structure, and that was something neither the city authorities (who desired grand, monumental buildings) nor the architects of Otto Wagner’s academy class wanted. Even the socialist working class did not want to destroy the iconic, heroic and monumental buildings of the city. The same applies to disordered cities today – even if the clients for old town projects have

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Housing

Exclusive Apartments on Szafarnia Street in Gdansk This building was erected on one of the premier sites in the historical city centre of Gdansk. The apartments offer highly attractive views of the Motlawa River and Długie Pobrzeze – the famous, picturesque quayside. The local spatial development plan and municipal conservation guidelines both influenced the shape of the design.

Client Pirelli Pekao Real Estate   GFA 18,633 m² above ground, 7,504 m² below ground   Planning period 2006 – 2007   Building period 2007 – 2009

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Residential Development in Racko­ wiecka Street, Warsaw

Client VITERRA DEVELOPMENT Polska Sp. z o.o.   GFA 11,483 m² above ground, 3,395 m² below ground   Planning period 2006 – 2007   Building period 2007– 2008

“Mokotow” is one of the most desirable addresses in Warsaw. After completing “Mokotovia”, RKW has now masterminded a second residential building. It is surrounded by a mix of buildings from the 1950s, ’60s and ’90s, in the range of styles that implies. Its clear shapes and restrained lines introduce more harmony into this picture. By Polish standards, the shapes used are very minimal, and the choice of materials is clear and distinct: white plaster, red clinker and wooden shutters to protect against the sun. All the flats found buyers before construction had even started.

Housing

Wohnhaus Salierstraße, DüsseldorfOberkassel This site, at embedded in the extensive grassy areas on the curve in the Rhine, offers sweeping views over the river with its promenades down to the historic Schlossturm. A building type that could have a crucial part to play in the future was developed to do justice to the prestigious requirements of this urban quarter: an urban Wohnpalais – a residential palace. The floor-toceiling window determines its exterior appearance, which is rhythmically and continuously structured to stress the vertical, as it allows a particularly generous connection between interior and exterior and gives the building its prestigious appearance. The apartments take up the traditional elements of grand civic housing.

Client Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft   GFA 3,050 m² Planning period 2008 – 2009   Building period 2009 – 2010

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Villa Konstancin Jeziorna, Warsaw

Konstancin was created as a typical urban extension for prosperous citizens near Warsaw city centre. The villa quarter is embedded in gardens and avenues. Symmetry, a dominant attic storey, cornice strips and recessed window reveals give the villa its formal refinement and balance. A Classical entrance with two-storey entrance hall provides access to a sequence of luxuriously furnished rooms. The formal language relates to the upper middle-class living tradition, and yet its reduced forms and colours seem timelessly modern.

Client private   Planning period 2006 – 2007   Building period 2007 – 2008

Housing

Hansaallee Residential Quarter, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel

Client FRANKONIA Eurobau Hansaallee GmbH   GFA approx. 58,000 m²   Planning period April 2007

This new residential area, originally a sealed com-

is reserved for the living spaces. Wide entrances

mercial brownfield site, lies between Hansaallee,

between the villas make it possible to provide

Heerdter Lohweg and the Prinzen-Park. Placing

extensive gardens.

high-rise apartment blocks as an outer ring of closed structures between the inner, intricate

The four-storey town houses and urban villas,

solitaire buildings, the busy Hansaallee and the

staggered between high-rise apartments and low

commercial areas to the west creates a sound

urban villas, mean that maximum natural lighting

insulation barrier. The buildings break down into

is possible. Several family generations can live

four different types and housing groups.

here. This particular arrangement of the buildings means that all the addresses are in the “best

The staircases and lifts are accessed via spacious, barrier-free entrance lobbies. This opens up extensive sightlines into the individually designed inner courtyards, and also contribute to a positive energy flow in the spirit of feng shui. An interplay between architecture and nature has been staged to create visual links with between architecture and nature. There is a small shopping centre to supply everyday needs. The arrangement of the staircases allows dwellings of various sizes on each floor. Emphasised corners function as succinct markers for the quarter as a whole. The larger dwellings will be sited here, while the small ones face the Hansaallee. The lavish urban villas contain two to three apartments per floor. They are arranged around the central square. All the staircases face north, while the south side

location”.

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Housing

Mörsenbroicher Weg Residential Quarter, Düsseldorf

Client Düsseldorfer Wohnungsbau GmbH   GFA 5,240 m²   Planning period July 2007 – April 2009   Building period Nov. 2007 – April 2009

These two grand residential buildings, each with

parapets. Staggered window openings create a

three storeys and with a shared underground

lively exterior and give the interior a variety of floor

garage, were built for Düsseldorfer Wohnungsbau

plans. Heat pumps were installed, as a climate-

GmbH. The second upper storey is a penthouse

friendly and low-energy way of heating the building.

storey, recessed by about 1.5 metres. Both buildings are divided into three layered volumes and can be accessed by two staircases. The structure allows the buildings to be separated into two to four apartments per storey. There are two apartments on the ground floor, two on the upper storey and two in the penthouse. Each of the expansive apartments has between 130 and 260 square metres of living space. The proportions of the apartments and the number of rooms in each was tailored to the individual user. This flexibility and users’ freedom to create their own apartment and divide up the rooms to suit their needs led to a range of very different spatial and atmospheric solutions. Each ground-floor apartment has a large terrace with a garden. Every upper storey has a balcony of at least 20 square metres, as well as good-quality fitments. The apartment’s intrinsic value is heightened by attention to detail, such as a horizontal pattern of bands of natural stone and wooden block windows with integrated roller blinds and glass

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Housing

Harbour Island, Berlin-Tegel

Client IQ Martrade Holding und Managemenges. mbH   GFA 20,000 m² Planning period study, 2006

This residential area is in the west part of Berlin,

scenery, while the new trees enhance the area’s

close to the city centre. Its position on an island in

natural character, making the individual build-

Lake Tegel allowed it to be planned as a separate

ings seem isolated. The houses, trees and topiary

world, with luxurious houses, villas and apartments

sculptures are accentuated by floor spotlights.

near and on the water. Beach volleyball courts,

Instead of a garden, each type of building has its

specially designed playing fields and attractive

own individual access to the water, where boats

recreational zones are scattered over the open

can be moored. The terraces in front of the living

park landscape – an entrance that sets the tone

rooms, conservatories and loggias increase the

for this particular address: a private club, a gated

feeling of freedom given by living here on the

community.

river. Shared functional areas like the reception at the entrance gate and the park landscape on the

A main road laid with natural stone running paral-

island provide a frame for this exclusive residential

lel to the bank connects the seemingly randomly

paradise.

arranged car parking spaces, which are marked with gravel and crushed stone. Evergreen hedges screen the estate from neighbouring areas, creating a separate, quiet world. Garages are available off the island for cars that are not used every day. From the main road, walkway-like roads made from wood or natural stone paving lead to the houses and jetties. A new quay wall emphasises the shoreline. Within the estate, various types of house were planned: floating houses, walkway houses and villas. The houses are stylistic objects, with the compelling, stark landscape as their setting. The trees that were already in place provided a framework for the

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Openness An open philosophy – as opposed to a traditional, conservative, conventional, routine and incurious philosophy – is the essential precondition for exchange and innovation. Creativity cannot survive without tolerance and openness, and an open society is essential to economic prosperity. Innovative architectural teams have the same needs as competing innovative cities, and the two can cross-fertilise. Their need is for something that Berlin, London and Amsterdam have and that Detroit and Duisburg presently do not: plenty of innovative energy and creative talent. This is a form of capital essential to the future economy. According to Richard Florida, if the working class created the industrial age and the service sector created the post industrial economy, the “creative class” 1  Richard Florida: The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, New York 2002.

have now initiated a new age – the creative age.1 Once, creativity was the domain of artists; today, economists pin their hopes on it. Cities vie to attract this “creative class”. The economic significance of these “creative industries” is said to lie somewhere between that of the automobile and the chemical industries. Since the EU Commission declared 2009 to be the European year of creativity and innovation (if not before), even sceptics have become familiar with the idea that the economic future of industrial societies lies in their creativity – and the openness to new and foreign ideas that is essential to creativity. “Creative activity is essentially ideas work,” writes Wolf Lotter, editor of the economic magazine “Brand eins”. The form of capital most essential to the ideas economy is diversity – not least, diversity of opinions. “Economy is always about more than just economy. Art, culture, the community, society – all outmoded as rigid categories – come together to create a new whole. What this means, above all, is that we have to foster the ability to see and accept differences in a much more focused way than we do at

2  Wolf Lotter: Die kreative Revolution: Was kommt nach dem Industriekapitalismus? Hamburg 2009, p. 12.

present. An ideas economy thrives on diversity.”2 In the future, anyone who confuses open concepts and diversity of opinions

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with chaos will be destined to fail. Management has become the art of dealing with the unexpected. “Anyone who succeeds in finding a use for something that unsettles other people, and is able to explain this use, has good prospects in the age of the 3  Wolf Lotter, loc. cit., p. 9.

ideas economy.”3 Industrial production is presently geared to individualised products and services – a niche that should be familiar to creative architects in particular. The aim, according the Lotter, is “to satisfy needs as exactly and precisely as possible”. The ideas economy produces perfectly tailored ideas. It is constantly refining industrial products and ideas in response to individual, detailed and unmistakeable needs. The standard of industrial production is no longer the top priority: ideas are more important than products. At the same time, the rising creative class is drawn to places that are tolerant and open. Conformity and assimilation have been displaced by individuality, self-realisation and tolerance. Pluralistic, open cities have a distinct competitive advantage in fostering creativity and creating innovation, prosperity and economic growth. To benefit from this change, businesses and employees and pluralistic architecture firms based on the RKW model need to create the methodical and intercultural conditions required for creativity rather than demand creativity from their employees. Richard Florida claims that what must be created is not a “business climate”, but a “people climate”. In the contest to attract creative minds, only an “open borders” strategy can be effective.

“Building schools means creating an atmosphere that helps integrate individual students into the school community and motivates them to be ambitious and to achieve more.”

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Open systems of communication and exchange Klaus Dieter Weiss interviews Dieter Schmoll and Dirk Tillmann

Schools and sports halls are a relatively new assignment for you. How did you approach the unaccustomed subject matter? Dieter Schmoll: I’m not often taken aback by unfamiliar subject matter. The Jüdisches Schulzentrum Düsseldorf from 2003 and the Bonn International School from 2006 provided me with solid experience. Thanks to the details of the working method we apply to projects, and our good fortune in being able to engage a young colleague with good ideas like Dirk Tillmann for this project, we produced a groundbreaking triple sports hall for the Comenius-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel. This is a perfect example of our activities in school buildings. As an old-timer, influenced by the 1980s and an education at the RWTH Aachen, I initially had doubts and objections. I was very pleased with the drawings of the halls, but I perceived a lack of classical construction and consistency in the details. In spite of this, I decided to go along with the new and surprising suggestions from my young colleague. I had a feeling I could trust him. To my surprise, the idea was implemented very quickly and with precision, down to the last detail. The first idea is often the best, and the building we see today is the result. This is what I think is really wonderful about this object. The sports hall on the Hansaallee, with its restrained, elegant language, instantly became an exemplary project, enthusing students and teaching staff. Colleagues and visitors often come from other cities to study this highly successful project. Dirk Tillmann: What makes our working method unique is an abstract quality that goes beyond experience of specific building assignments. If we had been planning school buildings for a long time, we would be sticking to certain systems and rules for this building type – and missing the inherent possibilities for innovation in the design, which should be the whole point of the assignment. A certain degree of unconcern is liberating. The elliptical Gemeinschafts-Hauptschule in Düsseldorf-Benrath is completely unusual for your architectural language. Was this dynamic solely a response to the assignment? D.S.: Today, Hauptschule (secondary modern schools) unfortunately increasingly means “Restschule” (lowest-grade school). Our first thought was to strengthen the Hauptschule and its community and give the students a new self-confidence. This was something our building had to broadcast. We wanted the students to feel they were associated with a really good building. This was the thinking behind

Quadruple sports hall Düsseldorf, building structure study

the ellipse, which was eventually approved by everyone – despite, or because of, being atypical for a school building. We played with the basic elliptical form. Our composition turns it into an interesting, open space, with the interior and exterior alternating. Of course, unlike a right-angled system, it is not always easy to apply the formal idea to every last room. But everyone, including the clients, knew that. A flagship project in the difficult field of Hauptschule buildings is important. D.T.: The key idea was to support the students by giving them good architecture to identify with as well as good teaching facilities, so that they could be proud to say they attend the MelanchthonSchule. This will also be important to their future career. In concrete terms, the recurring elements of our school building are the playful use of colours in the interior, and the round shapes and brickwork for the exterior. This allows us to integrate buildings into historical contexts well. Was this choice of materials a conscious decision – to define a trademark style? D.S.: It is important to consider whether the material is suitable, durable and resistant – with dirt and cleaning taken into account. For the triple sports hall, we chose a dark, angular brick. We were so pleased with the result that we continued to use this brick for other projects, perfecting the technique. Originally, there was no intention to create a distinctive “trademark” for our school buildings – as a side effect of our working process, we just came to be associated with the material automatically. We went so far as to include students in the creation of individual mosaic artworks for the walls at the Grundschule in Benrath. This kind of art initiative is also an important way of helping individual students to think of this as “their” school. Building schools means creating an atmosphere that helps individual students integrate into the school community, and motivates them to be ambitious and to achieve more. D.T.: To encourage the students to identify with their school, we had to expand our usual spectrum of working methods. We thus used high-value materials for the interior and exterior, even when this was not required by a public building assignment. A good learning climate where the building is valued requires an environment in which the students feel comfortable and at home. Playing with colour surfaces is perhaps the best (or at least the most economical) way of differentiating interior areas. What have you learned from this? Can this kind of concept be successful without further elaboration? D.S.: It is easy to create a colourful environment, but it requires a great deal of sensitivity. We followed the same principle in designing the two buildings for the quadruple sports hall at the Marie-CurieGymnasium – the largest sports hall in Düsseldorf – and other additional buildings for the school. Colour played a major role in both buildings, helping to harmonise the interior and exterior – another carry-over from the triple sports hall. We wanted there to be an art competition, but we were unable to realise our architectural art plans without creating too much bureaucracy and exceeding the budget. In the end we came up with a more economical solution – providing both the ideas and the design

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Colour studies of the Jewish School Centre Düsseldorf

ourselves. The result was impressive, and has been acknowledged. Colour concepts are a recurring feature in all our projects – including the Jüdische Schule, our first dedicated school building, built on a courtyard site from the 1960s. Designing spaces means living out dreams and making them accessible to others. How does the Bonn International School feature in this development?

Working model of Marie Curie Gymnasium, Düsseldorf

D.T.: For the International School, the idea was to represent the different nationalities of the students in colour terms – a kind of synthesis of different national flags. The colours for the facade facing the street were more subdued. On the other side of the building, the introverted inner courtyard opens up – it has a carefully chosen colour scheme of orange and red. I think the International School was the breakthrough that helped us achieve success in other public-sphere schemes. The budget was very tight, but the building was well received. Our other successful sports hall buildings include the recent Olympic Training Centre in Potsdam, with a large hall with seating for 3,000 spectators. This project included special facilities for judo and fencing. What do you think the best chance is of relieving the emotionless, rectilinear functionality of our existing school buildings? D.S.: Where it comes to high schools, there are already significant changes being made. In Aachen, there are 320,000 square metres of college real estate on the market – five times the dimensions of the RKW project EnBW City, constructed for 2,200 employees. The RWTH is presently building for 10,000 students, in Aachen alone. A large number of high-rise buildings are presently being worked on in Düsseldorf as well. Almost all German college sites are facing a huge wave of new construction work. This is another theme with which we will have to concern ourselves in future. Germany will be seriously disadvantaged if its higher education buildings are not brought up to the same standard as those abroad. This makes school building construction possibly the most open field in which one can work at present. But not always. Sustainability with regard to future third-party use can be a stumbling block for ambitious spatial designs, because in this case the schools are not built solely for pupils or students, but are to be converted into functional buildings after a certain “shelf life” has elapsed, with the future functional requirements having to be factored in from the beginning. This is a very important factor in the distance learning university in Hagen. The building functions like an office block. The important thing about an institutional building, however, is communication. In schools and universities, just as with industrial research and development, this exchange has to be enabled and encouraged by the spatial relationships. This is something that is still not taken seriously – or even considered. D.T.: At a certain scale, you tend to lose sight of the human perspective. A higher education institution makes it very clear where this approach leads. A large system is hard for an individual to identify with. This means that other factors need to be included in the discussion as well – such as haptic qual­ ities, atmosphere, character, mood and narrative. These issues are not part of the classical definition

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of architecture, and anyone concerned with them tends to be pigeonholed as a “decorator” or “event designer”. In spite of this, your design for the Benrath Gemeinschafts-Hauptschule (community secondary modern school) shows this change of mood clearly … D.S.: The working title was always “Hula-Hoop”, because the interior access system is not orthogonal. Like the figure itself, it develops its own dynamic. There were a number of functional reasons for this, but it also has to do with lines of sight and with the feel of the interior space. Many of the spaces are singly fitted-in areas for classrooms, aligned to face the morning and the noon sun. But some functions need larger spaces – e.g. specialist classes and rooms for the noon and evening supervised activities. These special areas are situated on a hall with uses on both sides. The Hula-Hoop also creates a situation of there being no functions on the street side, only the public thoroughfare. In the inner space’s central focus, various lines of sight are created from the public hall area to the school rooms opposite and the other way round. This creates an unusual building, but one that every user can feel at home with every part of.

Colour study of Marie Curie Gymnasium, Düsseldorf

Schools

Schools

International School, Bonn

Client VEBOFUTUR GmbHâ•…â•… GFA 9,630 m²â•…â•… Planning period Jan. 2004â•›–â•›Aug. 2004 Building period Oct. 2004â•›–â•›Dec. 2005

Bonn’s International School brings together

and€orientation point, providing access to

different nations, cultures, religions and genera-

everything else.

tions beneath one roof. It is a place for learning, work and research; for play, communication and

Two white plaster strips in the windows’ lintel

exchange; for moving, exercising and relaxing.

zones show where the storeys begin and end

Small-scale group activities take place here

and give the facade a horizontal pattern, project-

alongside large-scale events. The school building

ing roofs and steel flights of steps mark the end

embraces contradictions – it combines expansive-

of each finger and the transition with the outside

ness and seclusion, quiet and loud noise, subdued

space, and the facade is subdivided by areas of

and vivid colours. It encourages people to dream

coloured plaster and delicate profiles. The colours

and provides space for diversity. Its position on the

of the landscape and the building melt together,

Rhine, near the former Bundesgartenschau site

creating a unique, distinctive composition.

and a listed American settlement, gives it a unique panoramic view – and a special atmosphere. The design’s elongated, flowing shapes result from the synergy between the building and the€landscape. The building structure seems to draw the greenness into itself, while the cheerful energy of the architecture extends into the green space. The building begins with a compact, straight-edged facade facing the school’s car park, before flowing in waves into its natural surroundings. The€meÂ� anderings of this three-fingered figure enclose an inner courtyard with an old oak – where the central entrance and its generous recreation hall are located. This focal point is a meeting place

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Schools

Jewish School Centre, Düsseldorf

Client Düsseldorf Jewish communityâ•…â•… GFA 5,400 m2, 3,000 m2 of which historic infrastructureâ•…â•… Planning period 2001â•›–â•›2003â•…â•… Building period July 2002â•›–â•› Sept. 2003

The Jewish school centre on the grounds of the

routine as a source of interest, awareness and

former vocational school in the Schwerinstraße

fulfilment. This is particularly true for children from

includes daycare centres for children, a primary

the former Soviet Union, who have previously

school, a youth centre and a public religious

learned very little about the Jewish religion.

school. This inner court, surrounded by a block development and planted with trees, is a varied

Jewish religious studies are a state-recognised

but unified complex, uniting old and new. Build-

subject. They are taught centrally at the Schul�

ings with light, cheerful designs, painted in three

zentrum for two to three hours per week, in the

colours and with greened roofs go well with the

afternoon. Achievement is graded, and the subject

restored vocational school from the early 1900s

counts towards pupils’ further progress as a

(a brick building), creating a charming ensemble.

subsidiary subject equivalent to Christian religious studies. Children in classes 1 to 4 who do not at-

The Jewish community of Düsseldorf believes that

tend the state-recognised primary school run by

every community is unique, including religious

the Jewish community (this is the first and so far

communities, but that no religious principle is

the only such school in North Rhineâ•‚Westphalia)

more important than respect for one’s fellow

come to the religious school to receive religious in-

human beings. The immoveable theological, psy-

struction. The community does not presently have

chological and cultural boundaries of a religious

the means to set up the needed secondary school.

community are accompanied by a perennial obligation to engage in dialogue and build bridges. This dialogue is the particular responsibility of the Jewish community’s outreach department, and is also central to the lessons given in their own institutions – the kindergarten, the Yitzhak Rabin Grundschule (primary school), the Religionsschule (religious school) and the Jugendzentrum (youth centre). Hearing daily about Jewish religion adds another dimension to the children’s everyday

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Schools

Community Secondary School, Düsseldorf-Benrath

Client City of Düsseldorfâ•…â•… GFA 5,000 m²â•…â•… Planning period 2008 onwards Completion 2012â•…â•… Competition 1st prize

The elliptical, solitaire school building is set in

an IT room are located. More classrooms are to be

open country, surrounded by trees, and draws its

found on the second floor, along with chemistry,

powerful charisma from within itself. The succinct

technology, mechanics and science rooms, and a

architecture makes it possible for the pupils to

large terrace.

identify with the building and the location and not primarily with the secondary school as a type. The

Rooms used for different purposes at different

three-storey circle faces the low morning sun on

times of day are positioned so that they are sunlit

its long axis, so that the open playground is sunlit

for as long as possible. Linked views through

throughout the day. The inner courtyard is both

the inner courtyard and open staircases create

the lungs and the heart of the building: it ventilates

three-dimensional connections. Multifunctional

the rooms from the side facing away from the

rooms that can be divided up in various ways give

street, and also serves as an auditorium that can

pupils the opportunity to learn outside the narrow

fulfil a number of functions.

class structure. Special sound insulation on the north side offers protection from road noise. The

The ground floor is broken up to create fluent

character of a “school in the park” was created in

transitions between interior spaces, courtyard

combination with the existing trees, which were

and exterior space. The raised entrance area and

well worth preserving.

a forum facing the playground provide access to a play room and a common room, a music room and a multi-purpose space, as well as a continuous corridor running in two directions. The dining room, quiet room and home economics room are accessible from here, along with a textile room and an art room. The exciting spatial sequence, alternating from rooms on one side to rooms on two sides, makes it easy to get one’s bearings. This to the upper floors as well, where the classrooms, staffroom, offices, a mediatheque and

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Schools

Franz-Mehring-Schule, Leipzig

Client City of Leipzig building department   GFA 4,980m²   Planning period July 2005 – Sept. 2005 / June 2007 – Dec. 2007   Building period March 2008 –  Aug. 2009

A polytechnic high school built in 1973 was turned

side were left untouched. A new, airy foyer on the

into a primary school in 1992. The 30-year-old

ground floor of the old building provides easy ac-

prefabricated building was comprehensively reno-

cess for all to the new buildings, allowing the pre-

vated and given improved access in 2009. At the

vious position of the main entrance to be retained.

same time, a new building was added to supply

The foyer connects to a large auditorium; the first

the functions, qualities and spaces the old build-

and second floors contain a spacious art room

ings lacked. Installing new windows, an external

and new areas for music and all-day education

thermal insulation system and a new heating

purposes. The 350 students and 25 teachers have

system significantly lowered running costs, and a

been given bright, light-flooded, sunny spaces. The

new photovoltaic system on the roof helps reduce

additional rooms, including a multi-purpose hall,

CO2 emissions.

are ideal for the school’s teaching philosophy.

This sophisticated, bright and colourful extension building, placed in front of the old building’s light plastered gables and elegant window strips, gives the school a new face. Its bright green facade and modern rooms in friendly colours improve function and create highlights. The addition improves the whole school site, which fits naturally into its surroundings. This composition of old and new is highly flexible, and the spaces are so clear and compact that pupils can orient themselves easily. The quick routes to the new and renovated spaces are a help to teachers and students – as are the new rooms, which are a welcome extension of the existing facilities. The wide open spaces on the south-west

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Schools

Quadruple Sports Hall, Marie-CurieGymnasium, Düsseldorf

Client State capital Düsseldorf   GFA 3,450 m²   Planning period Oct. 2005 – Oct. 2007   Building period Sept. 2006 – Aug. 2007

The Marie-Curie-Gymnasium’s new sports hall

cubes housing the building’s secondary functions

is the first quadruple sports hall in the regional

are integrated into the hallway zones.

capital. On an area of 27 × 60 metres, groups of pupils can engage in different sports without

Coloured patches on the walls mark the accesses

disturbing each other. The four individual pitches

to the terraces and the individual accesses to the

can also be separated acoustically by lowering

individual sections of the hall.

partition curtains. The terraced seating for 350 spectators is divided between the three parts of

Large-format signs highlight each access. The

the hall, but can be combined to create a sports

colour scheme helps people to find their way, and

venue for tournaments, while the participants can

also gives the building its identity.

prepare in the fourth section of the hall. The roof is constructed from three laterally glazed blocks that also house the partition curtains. The sports hall has eight changing rooms with showers, a first aid room, and a partitioned gym and fitness space on the first floor. The large entrance foyer and the terraced seating for 350 spectators make the hall suitable both for school and popular sports, as well as for contests and tournaments. The building’s materials are brick and stucco – meaning that it fits into the landscape architectonically. Its design harmonises with the existing school complex and with the small units of the neighbouring residential development. The brick

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Schools

Triple Sports Hall, Düsseldorf­Oberkassel

Client Capital city property management department   GFA 2,960 m² Planning period Dec. 2004 – June 2006   Building period Sept. 2005 – June 2006

The city of Düsseldorf invests extensively in

The colour concept extends the two colours

competitive and school sports. The demolition of

central to the design – brick-red and green – to

the sports hall in the Lanker Strasse left a serious

the building’s interior, creating a homogeneous,

shortage of space for indoor sports in the Düs-

restrained look. The roof is an orthogonal lean-to

seldorf region on the left side of the Rhine. This

roof constructed from wood and steel truss

was the reason to build a triple sports hall as an

girders, and the visible wood shuttering matches

extension to the Comenius Gymnasium in Ober-

the perforated wood panels in the deflection wall,

kassel – a school that maintains excellent sporting

while glazed side panels make the inner space

standards.

light and sunny.

This sports hall has an area of 27 by 45 metres, and is intended as a competition venue, with bleachers for 300 spectators. Its ground storey has changing facilities with showers and toilets, apparatus and technology rooms, and toilets for visitors. The upper storey includes three additional training rooms of about 100 square metres each for gymnastics, strength training and fitness. The design is adapted to the three tiered brickwork blocks of the school building and the old trees along the street front. Three glass bars span the hall’s full depth and project from the facade towards the street, expanding the upper terrace levels at treetop height. Exposed concrete pilaster strips create a continuous band around the ground floor, patterning the brickwork facades and imposing human proportions on them.

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“In contrast to the sixties, when a direct connection with nature was replaced by machines, we can now create architecture where a connection to the natural world is integrated. However, contrary to what you might think, this need not be reflected in the way the architecture looks. Instead, our long years of experience and our know-how in energy issues give us the freedom to focus on pure architecture.”

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Office environments: at the centre of ecological transformation Klaus Dieter Weiss in conversation with Friedel Kellermann and Lars Klatte

For a long time, energy issues were not particularly important to most architects. Are they now taken seriously by all concerned? Friedel Kellermann: The best gift I received as a schoolboy was a set of building blocks that were actually small bricks. You could mix mortar and construct buildings from them. For the whole of my working life – from apprentice bricklayer to student and architect – I have been interested in how people live in their buildings, and this has led me to study a range of disciplines. I first worked as an architect in 1958. I soon learned that it takes more than a design idea to gain the confidence of the client. An architect has to know all the elements of construction inside out and understand them if he does not wish to be at the mercy of external influences. This applies with particular force to technological and construction innovations – including energy issues. Lars Klatte: This readiness to take responsibility for all areas, from urban planning to interior architecture and product design, and for all phases of the project, from design to construction management and deficiency checks, is a key characteristic that sets us apart from many other firms. This is also the best way to take full advantage of 60 years of experience.

Design study for DB Cargo, Duisburg

F.K.: Of course, 50 years ago, when we built the Horten headquarters, we didn’t have the advantages we have today. When Helmut Rhode won the competition, we had to come up with very creative solutions, particularly for the building systems. The project also required a new kind of organisation; it was the first open-plan office space to be built in Germany. We knew we had to work everything out in depth, to cover the whole range of operations that would be needed. The new workspace organisation for DB Cargo in Duisburg in 1996 and the double facade in six-storey individual sections for the ARAG headquarters in Düsseldorf (developed in collaboration with Norman Foster) show how we are still benefiting from this success today. What new qualities have you created in the DB Cargo workspaces? L.K: In office buildings with flexible partition wall systems, altering the office space generally involves relocating or rebuilding walls; an exacting and time-consuming process. And our client company regularly has small groups of people handling large amounts of small goods traffic, but may suddenly have to manage nuclear waste transport, which involves a large number of people working together. This meant that working group sizes would have to be changed constantly at short notice. We therefore developed a totally neutral workplace where, like the inside of a car, the users could adjust everything: the heights and the positions of the worktables in the room. Each user has a moveable storage container for storing his or her own personal materials and a wall system onto which he or she can attach items as desired so as to create an individual atmosphere – just as such things create an individual atmosphere in a car without any need to change the bodywork. This idea also influenced

the architecture, resulting in large-scale and small-scale chains of linked cells: a sculpture made from modular elements resembling a backbone. This concept was rapidly picked up and imitated. What energy concept did you use? F.K.: We used very small and efficient building systems supply units, avoiding the conduction loss associated with long supply distances. The building is ventilated naturally and has a night storage cooling system, enabled by the push-out awning windows installed in the facade. These are windows that can be opened outwards in such a way that they are still secure against break-ins and keep the rain out. They allow the building to take in cold air at night and store it effectively in its solid construction elements. Wall-oriented workspaces at DB Cargo, Duisburg

What was the development process for the ARAG double facade like? L.K.: When we tested how the double facade worked, there was a single testing building in existence and no computer program available that could simulate air currents. We therefore conducted special wind tunnel tests at the RWTH Aachen and at a place near Toronto. Using a 1:10 model of this type of facade and a mixture of gas and air, we tried to test how air would flow through the double facade: an laborious but rewarding method. The way this double facade functioned – with a ventilation element spanning six storeys rather than just box windows on a single level – made it markedly superior to other double facades. F.K.: The building has had this double facade for ten years now, without any problems. We are responsible for deficiency checks and warranty monitoring, and so far we have detected no system faults. To be able to hand over an innovative project of such complexity with no defects at all is a major achievement for the collaboration between Norman Foster and ourselves, which has excelled in all areas. What insights have you gained from these projects for the future? F.K.: What our experience tells us is that in this day and age we have to offer buildings whose construction is flexible and reversible and can accommodate different types of workspace. This is fundamentally a positive thing for us, because it means we can design general-function spaces that create scope for other, equally important new approaches. Arriving at this strategy in 1996 allowed us to focus wholeheartedly on how to base the plan around the building systems. We weren’t the only firm working in this area, but we were particularly well placed to design and build structures in line with this principle. In the 1970s and ’80s, problems in office environments included significantly higher levels of illness among staff because there was no way of ensuring fresh air and comfortable temperatures in high-rise buildings. We wanted to improve this while planning for the future. We have always tried

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to add new technological and abstract elements to architecture, and to reflect this appropriately in the design. L.K.: For a long time, the principle of “form follows function” – a concept popularised largely by Fritz Haller and his modular structures – has influenced office buildings. In the last ten years, workspace climate technology has come to influence the architecture, and we started consciously using this as the basis for the space’s design and appearance. This was true of the ARAG high-rise building, for instance, where the strategy of the individual stacked small structures with the double facade and the air chimney spanning six storeys also provided us with a successful design solution. We also developed the internal communication and access concept and the environment’s social functions from this central idea. From a climate system concept grew a design concept, an internal organisation principle and a fire protection principle – and the actual construction, involving prefabricated modules with steel composite loadbearing structures, was developed from a combination of the last two factors. And what had originally triggered this chain reaction was the supply of natural fresh air to the workspaces. This concept was further refined for the headquarters of Debitel and EnBW. What would you describe as the next step? L.K.: At Debitel, our goal was to develop a high-rise office building with natural ventilation for the inner areas as well as those close to the facade. We achieved this by means of a solar chimney running through the whole building. In contrast to the 1960s, when a direct connection with nature was replaced by machines, we can now create architecture where a connection to the natural world is integrated. However, contrary to what you might think, this need not be reflected in the way the architecture looks. Instead, our long years of experience and our know-how in energy issues give us the freedom to focus on pure architecture. All this has gone to making up the attitude with which we approached designing the headquarters of the Landessparkasse at Oldenburg and the competition design for the Spiegel high-rise building in Hamburg – not forgetting the workplace organisation and energy-related advances mentioned above. So architecture has already fulfilled its energy-related requirements in some office buildings? F.K.: When you think how much potential for change architects have set in motion, it goes far beyond the progress in energy issues made in other sectors – for instance, the much more powerful automobile industry. There has been a real energy revolution in the construction sector – which, unfortunately, has received comparatively little attention. And the potential economic advantage for the client is not

reflected in the fee. All the same, we are proud of our success – not just the quality of our creations, but the contribution they make to society. How do you measure this success? L.K.: By the numbers. Our EnBW-City project’s annual energy consumption, for instance, is around 45 kWh/m2a. F.K.: When we converted the KfW, the German Association for Sustainable Construction (Deutsche Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen, DGnB) did not yet exist, but there was a “Solares Bauen” or “solar building” directive at federal level that specified the conditions for a project being considered a “Leuchtturm” or “beacon” project. There had to be no more than five projects using similar technology. Certain target values had to be predicted at the planning stage, and then tested by the engineering firm doing the planning and by an independent and certified academic institute. Our project fulfilled all these requirements. The high standard that we achieved then, four years ago, is now the highest standard in the DGnB’s primary certification system. In other words, we fulfilled the conditions for the “Green Building Award” before this award actually existed.

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Design sketches for the Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf

Administrative Building

Administrative Building

DB Cargo, Duisburg

Client DB Immobiliengesellschaft mbH   GFA 29,000 m²   Start of planning Oct. 1996   Building period March 1997 – July 1998   Awards Auszeichnung guter Bauten 1999 des BDA Rechter Niederrhein, Office 21 Award from the Fraunhofer Institut für innovative Bürogestaltung

Railway reform and the founding of the market-

for flexible spatial structures that can be turned

oriented Deutsche Bahn AG have divided respon-

into subdivided cell structures, combination or

sibility for the rail network among a number of

open-plan offices. Multi-functional, wall-oriented

subsidiaries. DB Cargo is responsible for all freight

workspaces and flexible furnishing can be rapidly

services, while all customer services for Germany

adjusted to the needs of each new team. This

and western Europe are run from Duisburg-Wedau

innovative workspace concept prioritises con-

– a major inland port that has always been an

centration and communication. DB Cargo’s office

important place for the transit of goods.

structure is very new to Germany.

The site, on the edge of a local recreational area, is more rural than urban – and the structured, noncompact architecture suits it well. Nine threestorey office blocks are docked onto either side of a slightly curved main thoroughfare 220 metres long in a staggered formation. The large foyer in the middle of the steel-and-glass construction is the central feature. From here, employees can reach their flexible office modules. The foyer is flanked by two building tracts that house community facilities, a training and conference area, a kitchen and a cafeteria. Due to the staggered arrangement of the buildings, the access route provides the facades with natural light. It is possible to see out of almost every part of the buildings. Rapidly and flexibly implementing tasks that change with the season and with the market calls

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Administrative Building

ARAG Tower, Düsseldorf

Client ARAG Allgemeine Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs-AG   GFA 33,000 m² above ground, 5,100 m² below ground   Planning period mid-1997 – early 2001 Building period 1998 – 2001   Design and planning by Architekten Gemeinschaft ARAG 2000 Foster + Partners, London and RKW Architektur + Städtebau, Düsseldorf

More than 100 metres high, the new high-rise

or large open spaces. Internal staircases connect

headquarters of ARAG-Rechtsschutz-Versicherung

up to three storeys at a time, providing convenient

stands at one of the busiest junctions in North

internal communications for large divisions of

Düsseldorf. The building has a curved facade

the building. At the two access cores, the glass

reminiscent of its predecessor, which was built in

of the offices gives way to ceramic slabs. This

1956, and is a striking city landmark that can be

innovative high-rise concept, where technical,

seen from a distance.

constructive and design objectives fit together like clockwork, was developed in collaboration with

The tower’s exterior form is dictated by its 32 floors, organised into groups. Four vertical sections above the lobby contain three pairs of two-storey gardens and the decentralised technical rooms. These break up the facade into groups of eight storeys, six of which are office levels, a formal and functional division that gives the classic double-glazed facade a special impact. The space between the facades contains ventilation shafts extending over seven storeys, creating an updraught that naturally renews the air on all levels. All office windows can be individually opened. The building’s external shape also makes itself felt in the interior. The centre of each storey has a lenticular inner zone with meeting points and little islands where people can talk. Office units are grouped around this central space – flexibly enough to be altered as needed. They can be turned into individual offices, combination offices

the British architecture firm Foster and Partners.

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Administrative Building

Vodafone Tower, Düsseldorf

Client Vodafone Holding GmbH   GFA 17,200 m²   Planning period March 1999 –  July 2000   Building period Dec. 2000 – Dec. 2001

The former Mannesmann high-rise building by the

aluminium facade, in the original colours, but with

company’s former head office (by Peter Behrens,

modern heat insulation – and therefore 8 centi­

1911) is one of the first office buildings in post-war

metres deeper.

Europe to be built on the steel skeleton principle: a “beautiful lady with hidden corsets” (Louis Kahn).

The backbone is formed by the off-centre building

This filigree tower was realised in 1958 by Paul

core with lifts and staircases; the corridors and

Schneider-Esleben. It has 22 floors and reaches an

offices are arranged around it in a U-shape, thus

overall height of 88.5 metres. This building on the

ensuring a great deal of natural light. The build-

Rheinuferpromenade has stamped its presence on

ing technology has been automated, and this new

the city silhouette for over 50 years.

system is controlled by a data bus. The interior climate is now controlled by cold ceilings; ventila-

But the listed building, which now has a different

tion technology has been added off-centre. Careful

owner, was beginning to show its age in terms of

refurbishment that retains the building’s former

technical, physical and ergonomic detail. There

appearance made it possible to create modern,

was no adequate fire prevention system, and the

ergonomic workplaces using minimal resources in

facade did not comply with current heat insula-

one of Düsseldorf’s best locations.

tion requirements. The brief was to refurbish the building in conformity with current building regulations and to bring the office standards up to an appropriate level for its exposed location. Office buildings dating from the 1950s and ’60s have very out-of-date technology, but this makes it much simpler to update them technically because their structure is so clear. The tower was stripped back to its shell, including the facade. A sheet steel facade with tar-soaked corrugated cardboard became an identical-looking

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Administrative Building

Debitel Headquarters, Stuttgart

Client L-Bank, Staatsbank für Baden-Württemberg StEP GmbH   GFA 45,000 m² Planning period 2000 – 2001   Building period 2000 – 2002

The university areas are concentrated in the

striking solar chimney for the high-rise building – a

Vaihingen district of Stuttgart, and so it made

thermally driven ventilation shaft introducing and

sense to establish a science forum there. When

expelling air – is a feature that cannot possibly

the Stuttgart Engineering Park (StEP) came into

be overlooked. The same applies to the specially

being, Debitel moved its headquarters to this new

designed high-rise facade, intended to use as little

suburb as well. The high-rise building, accom-

material as possible for ecological reasons. A box-

panied by long low-rise structures, has created a

type window with optimised structural elements

landmark that is visible over a considerable dis-

was developed, and also a window with classical

tance. A glazed access area connects the build-

opening leaves. The facade’s high efficiency level

ings to each other. The structure is compact, and

minimises the service technology needed for the

offers the possibility of extension in varied ways.

complex, and thus meets the aim of constructing a sustainable building.

The planners felt it was important to keep creating lateral links between the individual building sections so that employees could communicate with a minimum of walking. The concept includes a public square that provides the Engineering Park with a centre and thus an urban communication area. The building client, the Staatsbank für BadenWürttemberg (L-Bank), wanted to erect a central infrastructural building for all companies, providing a meeting place for the entire area with its range of conference, catering and shopping facilities. The owners and the users agreed that a sustainable energy concept should be developed. The services and facade technologies make up the essentially invisible part of this idea, while the

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Administrative Building

Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf

Client Client’s association “Haus der Ärzteschaft Düsseldorf GbR”   GFA 56,517m²

1st building phase

in total (above and below ground)   Planning period April 2000 – Dec. 2001   Building period June 2001 – June 2003   Awards Auszeichnung guter Bauten 2003 des BDA Düsseldorf, Office of the Year 2004, Innovationspreis Architektur und Bau­ wesen (for producing the loadbearing system in spun concrete with drainage pipe)

To save money and to achieve maximum syn-

to Tersteegenstraße to the south-west. Their lavish

ergy, the four professional doctors’ associations

volume gives a sense of fluent transition from the

in North Rhine-Westphalia decided to join forces

public street to the services offered inside. As half

in a single location. The compact, cubic figure

the facade surfaces face inwards, the office build-

and clear structure of their joint building in the

ings, which are up to eight storeys high, benefit

Golzheim district of Düsseldorf conveys a sense of

from a high level of thermal comfort with low

unity to the outside world. It is only in the interior

energy use.

that differentiation becomes visible through the skilful arrangement of four L-shaped buildings with different heights. Three hall areas, used and run communally, are created under the glass roof, which is at the same height throughout, unifying all three parts of the building. At its heart is the naturally air-conditioned, inner hall with reception and waiting areas, cafeteria, canteen and the large function hall, which is inserted as a box. Slender, freestanding columns support the glass roof with its cofferlike structure, and at the same time articulate this impressively high space. Two air wells, not recognisable as such at a first glance, supplied by underground ducts, provide natural ventilation and equalise temperature peaks in summer and winter. The two outer halls play the part of climatic buffer zones. They provide foyers for the entire complex on Wilhelm-Bötzke-Straße to the north-east and

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Administrative Building

Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf 2nd building phase

Client Nordrheinische Ärzteversorgung Düsseldorf   GFA 12,722 m² in total (above and below ground)   Planning period July 2002 – Dec. 2003   Building period June 2003 – May 2006   Award Auszeichnung guter Bauten 2006 des BDA Düsseldorf

The new building and the extensions to the North

The rectangular office ground plans meet the

Rhine-Westphalian Medical Association complex

client’s demand for the best possible space avail-

show how an urban district can raise its profile.

ability. Up to 400 workstations, organised as users

Here the design of the two buildings is just as im-

desire, can be set up here. Materials have been

portant as the urban space between them. Materi-

reduced so that the light, white office space shifts

als, planting and the proportions of space-creating

into the foreground. The details were refined, as

structural edges move from the interior into the

shown by the flush finish for the floors, walls and

outside spaces.

ceilings. The sensually motivated design promotes lively communication.

Despite its smaller size, the form of the “Black Building” creates an exciting state of equilibrium with the existing “Silver Building”. The smooth facade in polished black granite reinforces the sculptural effect of the sharply cut ashlars. The large windows, offset against each other, are flush-framed in granite. This creates a shining, reticulated structure in the interplay between the two buildings, enclosing the black block like a tightly fitting skin, and making its powerful physical presence seem light and elegant. The colour and material concept creates an illusion of extra space in the simple foyer: the black, polished granite floor becomes a mirror of the translucent stretch ceiling, whose free form, like the lavishly planted garden, contrasts with the strict geometry of the architecture.

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Collaboration

Medicine and architecture belong to different areas of human culture, but both have a long history, and they have one very important characteristic in common: their success depends upon the quality of the encounter – between patient and doctor, or between client and architect. The type of interaction, of course, is very different. While a chronically ill person needs a lifetime of dedicated attention, the relation between architect and client is compressed into a small space of time. Its focus is the creation of a building, and, as we can see from this case, it can be a very intensive relationship. While the results of a doctor’s efforts are largely subjective, the result of an architect’s work is visible to all – although a good doctor and a good architect share certain qualities: empathy and a capacity for dialogue and vision. An architect’s task is to be receptive to the client’s hidden wishes, fears, notions and germs of ideas, i.e. to act as a kind of midwife to them and to prevent the overall vision suffering due to timidity. The “Haus der Ärzteschaft” (house of the medical profession) in Düsseldorf – which features prominently in the cityscape – is the result of architects from RKW Architektur + Städtebau participating in a high-level dialogue. It fulfils its political function as part of the state’s communication network, while emphasising the profession’s vital role in healthcare and supporting its highly qualified and creative employees.

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This building is the tangible result of a planning and building process – demonstrating that function, form and efficiency can be seamlessly combined. The end result of this process is a building with a unique atmosphere that provides space for working and living. Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h. c. Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe President of the Federal Medical Association President of the North-Rhine Medical Association

Administrative Building

IKB International, Luxembourg

Client IKB International   GFA 6,505 m² overall (above and below ground) Planning period 2001 – 2002   Building period 2002 – 2004   Colour concept Gotthard Graubner

The need for more floor space and the desire

gleaming pigments means that the areas of colour

for high-quality, up-to-date architecture were the

mutually enhance one another’s effect.

ideas behind the new IKB building in Luxembourg. This unostentatious, five-storey cuboid with its

A surprising aura envelops the building in the

anthracite-coloured natural stone facade is near

evening and particularly at night, when the glass

the centre on the high plateau in Kirchberg, which

joint starts to glow in every shade of yellow and

is particularly succinct in architectural terms.

red. This makes the architectural and artistic con-

This makes it part of an urban ensemble that has

cept intelligible and the functional division of roles

developed into an city quarter for EU institutions

obvious: below is the open communication level

and financial institutions over the last two decades,

and above it a compact space for the services that

and distinguished architects have made their

are to be provided.

mark there. The compact-looking building derives its character from a perforated facade running continuously round it, with self-confidently large, recessed windows. The shadow-patterned structure they create is transformed into a flush, matte but shimmering surface when the sun-shading panels close after opening out from the deep window reveals. The glass base is an embodiment of lightness, contrasting with the powerful grid facade. A dense arrangement of glass elements with narrow frames provides enough space for the art installed there to show itself off. Professor Gotthard Graubner designed the ground floor as a sequence of colour spaces. Painting the walls all over with intensively

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Administrative Building

Tersteegen Office Center, Düsseldorf

Client Nordrheinische Ärzteversorgung   GFA 19,468 m² above ground, 14,806 m² below ground   Planning period June 2005 – Dec. 2007   Building period June 2006 – Dec. 2007

After the doctors’ organisations moved into the

The fact that the building is broken down into

“Haus der Ärtzteschaft”, which RKW had planned,

separate function zones accommodates KPMG’s

the former location was given up and the plot left

complex spatial programme to a considerable

for a new building. This new building, for which a

extent. The entrance court in Tersteegenstraße

user was quickly found, was also planned by RKW,

leads to spaciously arranged, semi-public special

as the “Tersteegen Office Center”. KPMG Audit

areas such as lecture hall, cafeteria, conference

Tax Advisory moved into the building, which offers

space and the central administrative areas. A prin-

20,000 square metres of floor space.

cipal route through the entire length of the building provides access to all rooms on the upper floors.

The building, 100 metres long, with wings sticking

This is a combi-zone, distributor and backbone for

out like fingers on both sides, is completed by a

office organisation.

cube at the northern end. This basic figure made it possible to respond to the traditionally developed quarter in north Düsseldorf that links living and working functions very closely. The old trees are present in lavish numbers for an inner-city location, and are integrated very skilfully without making the architecture take a back seat. This is taken care of by the gable sides of the wings, which are accentuated as atmospheric images. The blackmetallic facade with its circular apertures that reflect light during the day and glow deep-blue at night make the five- to six-storey office building look imposing. The facade development on the courtyard side, a facade structure using floor-toceiling glazed elements, is structured horizontally by light-coloured, wing-like bands with built-in sunshading devices.

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Administrative Building

EnBW-City, Stuttgart

Client EnBW-City GmbH + Co. KG   GFA 83,270 m² above ground, 30,300 m² below ground   Planning period April 2005 – Oct. 2008   Building period Oct. 2006 –  Dec. 2008

In order to bring its various locations together un-

probes. Heat pumps activate the concrete core of

der a single roof, the Stuttgart energy supply com-

ceilings and floors. The energy concept also in-

pany built a large headquarters in south Stuttgart.

cludes sophisticated daylight technology and an

The 16-storey high-rise building in the Fasanenhof

independent facade concept for the high-rise

industrial complex it a landmark that is visible from

building, based on a development of the double

a considerable distance. Three long office build-

facade principle, which also makes a consider-

ings, each six storeys high, and a seven-storey

able creative impact. This means that about 40 %

forum were constructed for the new office city on

of heating energy and 60 % of cooling energy

a site encompassing about 35,000 square metres.

are saved in comparison with required office standards.

The complex looks quite closed from the city side, while the courtyards open up to the adjacent forest. The extensive piazza in front of the high-rise building defines the entrance area for the whole complex. The reception hall is the centre of the forum, which represents the public area, and also serves the internal office sections arranged along the principal thoroughfare on the first floor. The restaurant and cafeteria on the ground floor of the forum provide a place to meet, with access to the piazza. The floors above offer multi-functional conference rooms for meetings and presentations, and there is also space here for meetings and exhibitions. As an energy supplier, EnBW was obliged to build an environmentally friendly office complex. Energy for running the offices is supplied by geothermal

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Administrative Building

Mülheim Town Hall

Client SWB Service - Wohnungsvermietungs- und Baugesellschaft mbH   GFA 25,000 m²   Planning period 2006 – 2011   Building period 2009 – circa 2011 Followed Ruhrbania

Architects Arthur Pfeifer and Hans Grossmann

up-to-date IT facilities. The foyer rotunda, widely

designed Mülheim’s Rathaus (town hall) in 1910 in

praised from the outset, was rebuilt according to

a competition, with judges who included Martin

the old floor plan. As part of the original design

Dülfer and Friedrich von Thiersch. It was given

concept, it creates a reference point for the

a new urban planning layout in the early 1960s

modern-day architecture – created by the grand-

based on designs by Gerhard Graubner, and is in

son of architect Arthur Pfeifer. The redesign of the

the tradition of the 19th-century Rathaus, which

Ratssaal (council hall) actually incorporates three

was in the process of becoming the modern

historical stages of planning – including post-war

administrative centre we know today. The building

rebuilding.

was first completed in 1916, and both its historical features – its very striking neo-Renaissance tower

Like the rest of the grounds, the floral design for

is reminiscent of a campanile – and the success-

the terraced garden was planned by GTL Land-

fully integrated urban plan for the Rathausmarkt

schaftsarchitekten.

have ensured that it is still part of the city’s identity today. For consistency, the same philosophy of combining strict urban planning with a Mediterranean informality was extended by RKW to a project in the immediate vicinity – Ruhrbania. After numerous alterations and extensions in the 1950s and ’60s, the original Rathaus – bombed in 1943, but with significant areas preserved intact – had to be fundamentally renovated and modernised. The aim of the architects was to keep all the changing faces of this listed building visible and vital, and to combine the historic aspects with essential new features such as modern building systems, fire protection and office workspaces with

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Administrative Building

Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg, Oldenburg

Client Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg   GFA 23,967 m² above ground, 10,021 m² below ground   Planning period March 2005 – circa July 2007   Building period Nov. 2006 – April 2009

The site of the former goods station near the

concerts and exhibitions. The building’s self-

city centre was just the right size to accommo-

­confidence in embracing transparency is continued

date a new building for the headquarters of the

in the office areas. The corridors look lively

Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg. The building,

because there is so much daylight and many

developed from a comb structure, makes a power-

opportunities for looking out.

ful stand against the large scale of the surrounding area. The courtyard structure, partly open and

The inner courtyards formed by the comb struc-

partly closed, is complemented by a ten-storey

ture are designed as gardens and offer employees

high-rise building at the northern end and two

views of a meditative green, even a retreat into a

other solitaires. Large glazed halls and a glass

“silent space” – lit only by daylight from above.

linking section tie the two parts of the building

Great store was set by the open-air concept in this

together. The new headquarters building, with its

large complex. A kind of carpet with an irregular

long facades and austerely orthogonal quality, also

woven structure provides the basic theme for

lends firm support to the adjacent quarter.

all the garden planning. The motif creates links between the wide open outdoor spaces along

Visitors approach the complex between the high-

the public streets and the intimate garden courts

rise building and the office wing that accompanies

inside.

it with the large reception hall directly in front of them. The clear contrast between the dark, incisive granite facade, which glitters in the sunlight, and the bright interior surprises people as they come in, then accompanies them through the building with a reticent material quality provided by stainless steel, leather and glass. The wall that concludes the large meeting room on the office section side is clad in light-coloured leather, placing an elegant accent and ensuring muted acoustics. Here the bank offers events, lectures,

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The integrated approach

“Oh, my God! Look at that picture! Here’s the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!” On 21 December 1968, the way humanity saw the Earth changed fundamentally. Thanks to the first astronauts to land on the moon, the Earth could be seen in its entirety – in a photograph taken from space. In 1968, the term “sustainable development” was used at international conferences for the first time. More than 40 years ago, it became clear that anthropogenic (man-made) ecological destruction obliged states to take responsibility for the environment. The world of architecture, however, was unimpressed, continuing to insist on “the necessity of artistic qualities”. For instance, the architectural historian Joseph Rykwert states that: “The problems of environmental pollution and the destruction of the cities cannot be solved through the professional activities of architects and planners. They do have an obligation to concern themselves with these questions as citizens, as people and as technicians, but their discipline has an integrity all of its own. However small the sector of the human environment they are dealing with, 1  Joseph Rykwert: Die Notwendigkeit des Künstlerischen, in: “Casabella”, December 1971, pp. 359–60; quoted from: Ornament ist kein Verbrechen. Architektur als Kunst (The Neces-

the conscious and ‘educated’ exercise of their craft is the one real contribution they can make to creating an environment fit

sity of Artifice, London 1982), Cologne 1983, p. 96.

for human beings.” 1

2  Joseph Rykwert: The Necessity of Artifice, London 1982.

In “The Necessity of Artifice” 2 1982 – the year the UN published Brundtland’s report “Our Common Future” – Rykwert actually went so far as to claim that the task of architects was not to solve such problems, that a building designed by an architect could not do much for our destroyed environment. However, 40% of energy use in Germany is building-related; 50% of all natural materials are used in building. More than 60% of waste comes from the construction sector. According to a recent study by Roland Berger, 73 % of clients and investors and 86 % of tenants are prepared to pay higher prices for sustainable real estate. Now, in the third Industrial Revolution, architects are no longer called upon to be artistic revolutionaries – they are called upon

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to be sustainability revolutionaries. The central issue is the sustainable city. But really integrated architectonic and urban planning is larger even than a city plan. Construction and cities are much more complex than this. The architect has to offer all the things necessary to our wellbeing – perfect light, climate, tactile properties, plenty of space, and a place we can identify with and feel good in – while satisfying economical and ecological terms. Only then will the flights round the globe to find something better and more beautiful that increasingly endanger the ecological balance cease. This makes a building that is in the wrong place with low user value and too little ambient charm for anybody to want to stay there ecologically questionable even if it does have geothermal technology and solar power. Architecture’s mammoth task is to create a world that is well designed in terms of function, emotion, form, ecology and responsibility. RKW believes that the wider responsibility of architects and town planners cannot be divided into individual sections like art, science, construction and intelligent energy planning. For the architects of RKW – actually holistic planners who deploy abilities ranging from product design to urban planning in the cause of integration – the art is to bring very different people together to collaborate on assignments that go far beyond individual interests.

“Industry and the city obey almost the same laws of growth, process change, flexibility, variety and timespecificity. Our theme here is not the architecture of the building – this is just the springboard to a complete interconnection.”

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Implantations for creativity, communication, flexibility and expandability in industrial buildings Klaus Dieter Weiss interviews Matthias Pfeifer and Thomas Jansen

Is it possible to build houses in which people can think better? Thomas Jansen: Yes, of course, but initially we were given no clear directions about this. When the work on these new building concepts began, there were essentially just questions. Build me a building that encourages creativity. Build me a building that enables communication. Build me a flexible building that can be extended. That was the issue. No one was exactly sure how. Audi came to us, asking us to build something that functions like a rhizome, with a branching of knowledge and a branching of time levels into the future. But rhizome-like structures are hard to build. However, they can be good models for research projects in the automobile industry: they emphasise networking and connection of people, knowledge, tools and systems. Because we were originally in urban planning, all our themes come from networking, connection and – an important key concept – implanting new functions. Industry and the city obey almost the same laws of growth, process change, flexibility, variety and time-specificity. Our theme here is not the architecture of the building – this is just the springboard to a complete interconnection. Anyone who doesn’t leave spaces for their buildings to communicate has no chance. How do you approach such a nebulous, complex assignment? Matthias Pfeifer: The automobile industry’s structure is not that different from the structure of a city. Although the factory, which has 30,000 employees, is as large as Ingolstadt’s inner city, I am not talking about the physical and spatial aspect, but about the decision-making process. Both have parties, factions, interest groups, princes and kings – every conceivable level of hierarchy. You have to work around the complexities of this seemingly impenetrable decision-making process. The art lies not in formulating the assignment – particularly when the task has not yet been defined – but in convincing, and indeed enthusing, the decision-makers.

Audi Electronics Centre, Ingolstadt, design study

T.J.: Of course, we did do some research on the subject of creativity, but ultimately the answer to this question was very simple. Creativity is – by definition – the recombination of previous knowledge in new contexts. That’s all. And this is precisely what we are capable of, and what we do. Working within large systems is part of our normal routine: the master plan, the higher plan beyond all the individual projects. In the automobile industry, a huge network of functions operates to bring a product from the ideas stage to actual delivery. Our projects are concerned only with small subdivisions of this operation – electronics, motors, emissions tests, cold tests or strength tests. Here, the challenge was to create new processual connections in a building that was as flexible as possible. All our experience went into the planning methodology. We do not immediately choose an especially practical way of producing something industrial. Instead, we try to understand the human software process – the complex of knowledge possessed by everyone involved – and to use our tools, concepts and designs to speed it up. We do not try to present ourselves as experts in knowledge-based architecture – more as developers.

So you believe that architectural designs should be based on exchanges with those who are responsible on the client’s side rather than architects acting as authoritative experts? M.P.: That is how we are different – we are ready to listen and collaborate. We don’t turn up with finished solutions. This is a central principle, and one that we have tested in our work with clients over many years. In ten years, Audi has established itself at the forefront of the automobile industry. Presumably the reorganisation of electronic component development in the electronics centre at this particular time was no coincidence? T.J.: To understand this project, you have to know that the relationship of the various car components has changed significantly. A car used to be made mainly from steel, with a few electronic components. Today, a car’s electronic components are far more important – and more essential to the functional safety of the product. Audi’s production buildings had yet to reflect the increasing pressures imposed by this change in automobile construction. Before the Electronics Centre was built, various scattered groups worked on developing different parts of the electronic systems. The new situation is that these early, scattered units are on the move like guerrillas and want to build themselves a parliament, as befits their new importance. The crucial question was: how do we allow our project to adapt – not only to present-day needs, but to future developments? M.P.: Speed is very important in the automobile industry – in development work more than in testing. And some of the factors in this are purely physical. The idea, then, was to bring together the members of the scattered groups in a single building. The building was to be a tool for their development work. But it also had to convey a sense of identity and foster solidarity, so that the employees would see themselves as a team. This led us to give it its striking shape. The expansive, inclusive roof is symbolic – it affects the atmosphere inside the building, and also broadcasts a message. We carefully analysed its derivation from urban planning structures. Our building is an urban organism, with a “high street” or “marketplace” that helps to give it structure, a system and an identity, and facilitates direct communication and interaction. Audi SE Forum and research centre, Ingolstadt, urban planning study

T.J.: This “high street” is an interesting example of our collaboration with Audi’s people. Originally they didn’t ask for it in its present form – or, indeed, exactly want it. Initially Audi wanted a thoroughfare that would help people traverse long distances – a necessary evil. Its present size is due to the need to economise on the facade area – coupled with our desire to give the building a soul. Reducing the external facade space created a larger interior. So the “high street” became a central space – one in which events, presentations and exhibitions can take place, an integral part of the building. Costing and design came together to produce an excellent result.

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The boundaries of the plot within which this assignment had to be realised were very restrictive. Given the requirement for expandability, was there no opportunity to extend the site? M.P.: It was clear that the electronic development team was going to expand from five to 50 employees, and later to 100, 200 etc. The building was designed to accommodate 700 to 800 people. When the building went into operation, it housed 850 employees; today, almost 1,000 people work there. Our architectonic response to this was to put everything under one roof, with growth taking place inwards, within a fixed boundary. We didn’t have to build another facade. Instead, we built more workspace platforms into the buffer airspaces. This inward growth was an important factor in our competition victory in 2000. T.J.: The general rule for existing structures used in production is that there must be no demolitions. Obsolescence does not apply to the existing investment. We have to come up with concepts that allow change without demolition and generate as much surface area as possible. For the electronics centre, we made use of the two existing topographies: the Technische Entwicklung (technical development) level and the terrain – i.e. a hill level and a valley level. Technische Entwicklung is sited on a strategic hill, six metres higher – a kind of fortress. You can drive from the factory – or from the Technische Entwicklung building on the hill – to the building. In this way, two ground storeys with open structures have been created. How did you manage to implement the inset green courtyards? T.J.: These are actually only there for fire protection. A stairwell takes up a lot of space, so we suggested that employees should go outside the building. Once this was settled, we created a green reference point, which also provides a relaxing prospect for the eyes of the people who have to work there. We have injected certain qualities into the workplace for which we have always set the standard – for instance, in the DB Cargo team offices or in the energy concept for Debitel. These are developments

Audi transmission and emissions centre, Ingolstadt

that benefit inventive clients or users. From the start, they have a certain commitment, which helps us know how to work with them. Whether this suits us or not is initially of secondary importance. An investor client, on the other hand, has different needs. There, you need a design, and it helps to have a kind of story for positioning and marketing the building. A distinctive outer shell is needed to make it attractive. For an industrial user with a budget to think about, this is less important. They need a building that is a good tool. This is the significant difference: architecture is ultimately only an expression of what makes a tool so useful. A perfect solution does not have to be elevated. Architecture is often marketed based on a personality cult. When you don’t have someone to appear in photos and attend important occasions, it is difficult to get good architecture into the media. How do you cope with this? M.P.: It is true that this cult of personality cannot do anything for us at RKW. Nonetheless, our clients swear by the people they have worked with. This means that the media give more exposure to the projects than to the people involved. It is pleasing to note that RKW’s clients are generally repeat offenders – serial offenders, even. This is thanks to our methods – our way of achieving success by working together with our clients. T.J.: If someone was to say to me, Mr Jansen, give me your pitch, I would say: it’s more fun with us. And when it comes to actually completing the assignment, the abiding memory is of the constructive atmosphere of a really good collaboration.

Simultaneous Engineering schematic

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Audi SE Forum and research centre, Ingolstadt, design sketches

Research

Research

Audi Electronics Centre, Ingolstadt

Client AUDI AG   GFA 42,160 m²   Planning period Oct. 2000 – July 2001 Building period Aug. 2002 – Nov. 2003

Innovation in tomorrow’s car construction industry

and vertical access systems and thus function-

will be even more strongly driven by electronics

ing similarly to the market place in a city. Here the

than it is today. Development is omnipresent in this

third dimension, height, is brought into play as

new innovation and test centre, emphasising that

well. All the presentation and conference rooms

Audi intends to extend its electronics expertise fur-

are linked with a central multi-storey hall in the

ther and to promote in-house co-operation across

centre. The modular and extremely flexible basic

various fields.

structure of the building makes it possible to create project teams almost anywhere in the building

Developing and testing new ideas and prototypes

without having to change the architecture in any

is based to a considerable extent on direct com-

way. The design provides orientation and places

munication. Discussion is the key to innovation and

that convey a sense of identity, places where such

creativity. This insight led the architects to design

teams can spend quality time. The spaces are

a building with striking forms, using the symbolism

naturally ventilated through connection with the

of having everything under the same roof. The

outdoor space, as well as being attractively planted

seven-storey knowledge collector, terraced in the

and accented by lighting. Here, architecture func-

interior, links the car world spatially with the office

tions as signposting hardware: when linked with

world. Thinkers and workers work door by door

the software of knowledge, it can translate an idea

under the common roof, with views from window

into a product.

to window on a main road spanned by bridges. The results of this work, in the form of prototypes, are on show on the road from time to time. Light wells, terraces and offices cut deep into the body of the building create a communicative knowledge space, an anthill of knowledge, that stimulates new ideas involuntarily, like a beautiful tool. The architects built a complex urban organism with a communication space, linking all horizontal

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Research

Audi SE Forum and Research Centre, Ingolstadt

Client AUDI AG   GFA approx. 13,000 m² above ground, approx. 11,000 m² below ground   Planning period Jan. 2008 – April 2010   Building period Aug. 2010 –  July 2012

The “SE Forum” (Simultaneous Engineering) forms

Energy, flexibility, systematics and the atmosphere

the centre of the product process at Audi, aiming

of a forge for ideas can be sensed immediately on

to increase the speed and efficiency of develop-

the Walk, creating the overall impression of a lively

ment. An architectural instrument was needed

campus.

to promote the interactivity, linkage and communication between individual workers in different

When the first of three planned building phases

disciplines, while maintaining a great deal of flex-

was set up, the opportunity arose to use the Walk

ibility. RKW responded to this brief by developing

to link most of the key development areas to the

an innovation axis detached from the driveways,

SE Forum. Audi is the most attractive employer

the so-called Walk, which links the key technical

in its field, and now has a new architectural tool

development points together: the communication

for technical development at its disposal. There are

master plan. The inviting gesture made by the

also the following facilities: a supermarket, a con-

open entrance hall with its lavish staircase symbol-

tact point for the works council office and an hu-

ises the status of this innovation offensive within

man resources department, an auditorium, a WiFi

the Audi Technical Development Master Plan.

hotspot, central meeting areas and conference rooms, a coffee point and a lounge with vending

The Walk allows people to get their bearings, links

machines open 24 hours a day; there is also an

creative people together, shortens walking dis-

exhibition area for the Audi Development World.

tances and combines the gates for the individual development areas: design, bodywork, chassis, components, VFC and workshops. Colleagues from all floors meet on the Walk, which runs through the old and new buildings, when they want to exchange ideas. The idea of constructing the Walk as a conveyor belt to accelerate movement and communication even further came up against financial restrictions.

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Research

Audi Transmission and Emissions Centre, Ingolstadt

Client AUDI AG   GFA 21,400 m²   Planning period Nov. 2005 – April 2007 Building period Feb. 2006 – Oct. 2007

Noisy testbeds and concentrated silence need not

Team-related in-house meeting rooms and a

be a contradiction in terms: the concept of a think

central meeting pool help concentration and

tank has been realised in Audi’s new four-storey

communication. The communicative zones are

transmission and emissions centre. RKW complet­

immediately adjacent to the main access area and

ed a complex testbed building on a city centre-

link the Homebases. Heads of department are

style plot for AUDI AG technical development after

allotted their own, closed offices near the main

only 24 months of planning and building. The work

access area, in order to reduce the distance from

processes carried out by the various users were

colleagues’ and team offices. A conference centre

examined in detail over several building phases,

with sweeping views of the landscape of the Fran-

after intense preliminary analysis.

conian Jura on the fourth level, the meeting level, conclude the building transparently.

Europe’s largest altitude chamber (pressure level up to 4,200 m a.s.l.) is set up for quattro drive on four rollers, with a special exhaust climate roller, thus extending the aggregate emissions section’s development competence. Workshops and state-of-the-art transmission testbeds are linked vertically. The modular arrangement of the testbeds means that capacity can be increased without difficulty. The 420 development engineers have attractive workstations in the two upper office storeys, called “Homebases”. A great deal of glass, planted inner courtyards and terraces ensure natural lighting, ventilation and a pleasant atmosphere. Ceiling elements in the form of sails cool the workplaces efficiently. This all went to creating inspiring surroundings for clear thinking and creative work.

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Communicative science Klaus Dieter Weiss

The composer Maurice Ravel admired north Duisburg’s ironworks 100 years ago, describing castles of flowing metal, glowing cathedrals, a wonderful symphony of whistles and the deafening beating of hammers. But enthusing about historic architecture’s highlights is easier than looking beyond trademarks of the age like “cathedrals of labour” and “corporate identity”. What is strange is that the term “industrial culture” is only ever applied to the past – never as a way of understanding the future. In Germany, “industrial culture” means working with the cultural history of the industrial age; it is a synonym for the less common term “industrial architecture” – such as the whole of a former textile town with 70,000 residents in Lowell, Massachusetts being declared a national park. Then there is American carmaker Henry Ford, who declared that “history is bunk“. He built a whole car city in the Soviet Union, and proclaimed, with great pathos, a spirit of freedom not seen since the French Revolution. His very modern service, which included model advertising, repair, finance and friendly service, was ahead of its time – and his architect Albert Kahn (1869–1942) made it ahead of its time in architectonic terms as well. Forsaking its historical bastions for integration into a dynamic, experimental, non-museum European city, should bring a new leap forward for industry. Businesses sometimes use the metaphor of a city to cement customer communities, using banners like: “the revival of the ‘polis’” and “models, wall paintings, miniature pictures and computer animations of the cityscape” and an open-plan office or old factory hall to provide the background – but this strategy uses the “city” only as a synthetic surface – a way of triggering emotions and propagating innovations. For something that has more to do with a real city, we must turn to the miniaturised “city of the future” called Xenia envisioned by Helmut Volkmann – a “studio for innovators” in Munich Neuperlach. But this concrete, modern concept for industrial culture and knowledge generation has so far attracted little attention. Volkmann saw the city – the exchange of technology and culture in the working city and the knowledge city – as the medium for debating and researching the urgent questions of the age, just like Paris’ Palais Royal 200 years ago. In this text, written 20 years ago, Horst Volkmann is talking about the potential for breakthroughs in cities. “Nothing is more effective than a human encounter. Visitors and users acquire knowledge that they never knew they were looking for – but which, on reflection, turns out to be useful.” Even an unknown city soon provides us with reference points, awaking memories Helmut Volkmann: “Wandel der Innovationskultur mit der

and encouraging us to discover new things and to seek encounters with others.”1 According to this

‘Stadt des Wissens als Stätte der Begegnung’”, in: Gabler-Maga-

argument, architecture and the city are both elements of knowledge culture – “knowledge culture”, in

1 

zin no. 3/1995, pp. 25–29.

this case, means the practices, mechanisms and principles that determine how we know and what we

2  Karin Knorr Cetina: Wissenskulturen. Ein Vergleich naturwis-

know about a certain knowledge field. Knowledge cultures generate and validate knowledge.2 Today,

senschaftlicher Wissensformen, Frankfurt 2002.

the conventional wisdom is still to attack fragmented question complexes in a small-scale context: in laboratories and offices. But good architecture today can still be a conduit for the higher principles: openness, complexity and networking. In the positioning and interaction of individual researchers, thinkers and workers, architecture is a metaphor for the brain and an instrument for solving problems – the connection between a complex environment and complex cognitive processes in the ensemble of processes and knowledge structure needed to solve problems, and the cognitive structures of the people involved. Architecture also creates opportunities for communication; it is a “learning organisation” that allows knowledge to be accumulated communally.

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The main precondition for “knowledge metabolism” – the process of expanding knowledge – is the cognitive structure of the individual, which is not genetically pre-programmed. Instead, it develops through interaction with the organism’s environment. Humanity’s urge to explore and ability to solve problems are not inherent – they are learned. Exchanges in cyberspace have led to new, digital, forms of creativity and collective intelligence. But the knowledge society of the future will still depend on analogous fields of creativity. The opportunity for individual thought is the prerequisite for creating knowledge and progress to be shared. The principle behind knowledge creation is the same as for 3  Barbara Maria Stafford: Kunstvolle Wissenschaft. Aufklärung,

knowledge propagation; both take place in the same setting, against the backdrop of an educational,

Unterhaltung und der Niedergang der visuellen Bildung, (MIT

interdisciplinary, entertaining exchange of well-expressed opinions.3 In this context, a building is not a

1994) Amsterdam/Dresden 1998.

house of knowledge – it is a city of knowledge. The urbanity in the shapes of houses, blocks, courts, bridges, main transportation channels and streets lies in one’s own personal premises; each node in this diverse network is connected to all the others, in an anti-hierarchical and decentralised system. The ruling principle of this architecture is not a copied structural form, but a street atlas – not reproduction, but forgery. Like a rhizome, it can spring up anywhere, and this prevents it being reduced to building blocks or being restricted to a single approach. This kind of knowledge base is even independent of the industrial theme – knowledge transfer in a bank or university has the same spatial principles as in industry. While huge factory complexes uniting mechanical power and mass production under the same roof were the face of 19th-century industrialisation, the economic system is now in a process of transformation – from a huge factory to a huge theatre. Producing businesses have become learning businesses. What innovative industrial processes need from architecture is communicative and cultural organisation structures rather than refined construction, unified strategies rather than design details. The classical unities – time, place and action and form, function and construction – are being dissolved. According to the ultimately unanimous formal positions of postmodernism, high tech, deconstructivism and biomorphism, this transformation into a communication and science architecture is not only architectonic in nature. It is also increasingly difficult to define “industrial architecture”. Even Tadao Ando’s conference pavilion on the Vitra site is, strictly speaking, an industrial building, with “innovation” as its engine of production. If the transformation in industry and the new global division of labour have created totally new questions, does it still make sense to use such vague and impractical terms? Isn’t it overly superficial to examine industrial buildings purely from an aesthetic or typological perspective? Cultural historian Roland Günter tested this theory in 1981. In a catalogue for the Berlin exhibition “Die Nützlichen Künste” (or “the useful arts”), he demanded that reductive aesthetics be replaced with complex aesthetics, saying that architectural and artistic science must learn to understand real-world processes in all their complexity instead of reducing them to a string of facades like a picture show. Epochs in factory

4  Roland Günter: “Fabrik-Architektur”, in: Tilmann Buddensieg,

architecture should be defined by economic history, not by empty stylistic terms.”4 This fusion is rarely

Henning Rogge (ed.): Die Nützlichen Künste, Berlin 1981, p. 175.

applied, or the usage would have been changed long ago.

On the other hand, there is rarely any actual demand for this kind of complex planning work – it is an isolated occurrence, created as a personal endeavour by individual agents. Their work is then assessed only by its aesthetic merits – the only aspect that attracts attention – with no reflection on the environment in which they work. The RKW architecture team is part of this largely unknown body of German “industrial” (or “industry and knowledge culture”) architects, and has been planning and building for Audi for more than ten years. This project is a sophisticated extension, in a complex urban situation and based on a coherent concept, which will have major implications for Ingolstadt’s high-grade automotive industry – from the master plan to a design for daycare centres suited to work hours. But this also means that the buildings will be concealed, rather than prominently on display for architecture tourists. One basic error that must be avoided is to assume that: “The easier it is to change the room struc5  Hans-Jörg Bullinger, Wilhelm Bauer et al.: Zukunftsoffensive

tures, the easier it will be to create a setting for creativity and innovation.”5 Even at office level, com-

Office 21. Büroarbeit in der dotcom-Gesellschaft gestalten,

munication cannot be facilitated simply by making walls easier to remove. By definition, impressive

Cologne 2000, p. 88.

spaces cannot be created without some kind of spatial demarcation. In fact, the loss of architectonic standards may be down to modern “office nomads”, who have given up their own personal writing tables. In contrast to administration and routine information processing, knowledge creation depends on novelty value. Generating action-oriented knowledge – defining business goals, for instance – depends on social interaction and teamwork and on storytelling, vision and metaphor, while a bureau­ cracy’s data regime does not. The kind of knowledge that is both a product and a factor influencing production is more than a stored mass of information – it must be relevant to specific contexts and productively applied. This kind of knowledge is not found in books or in the heads of individual employees; it must be tailored to the context and applied as an organised communication process. The emergent communication structures and networks that this intellectual and social capital depends on are not created by the achievement of any one individual, and yet (unlike classic industrial production) losing a single node makes them useless. Its capacity has to do justice to modern organisational and labour patterns in which knowledge has become the fourth production factor. The economic logic of knowledge production reverses the traditional rules of production factors; while material products become worn and lose their value during use, intellectual and social capital grows through being used and applied. In material production, every item requires the same amount of materials and work, whereas knowledge products can be reproduced at almost no cost once created. While the value of material and capital goods decreases with every item produced, the value of every additional piece of knowledge increases with experience gained in different arenas. The workplace world of a knowledge-based organisation must have both an efficient bureaucratic system and a flexible group working structure that can respond to fluctuations and to creative chaos. Architectonic excitement is the interface between these two levels. This creates a favourable atmosphere for new spatial structures and spatial interconnections that unite order and chaos, bureaucracy and innovation to create the spatial, three-dimensional interplay of a hypertext organisation – something that simply turning a whole storey into a boundary-free workplace landscape that people can colonise at will cannot do. On the one hand, the transitional office space must not become shapeless.

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On the other, dynamics, complexity and communication cannot be confined to separate storey levels – however large and flexible. The critical factor is communicative openness (not the removal of boundaries) throughout the building and beyond. The development centre planned by RKW for Audi is a systematic – and labyrinthine – demonstration of this urbanistic principle of overlapping and of the extendible, intimate interrelationship of outdoor and indoor spaces in a display of stairs, walkways and corridors that symbolises our modern nomadic society, but the same principle can also be seen in the Landessparkasse in Oldenburg, and its spatial interconnections. Like its namesake in computer science, a hypertext organisation has multiple levels: the project team, the corporate system, the knowledge base. Each level has its own contexts, and shows the organisational knowledge in a different light. On the topmost level are multiple project teams, responsible for acquiring new knowledge about processes and products. The bottommost level is the knowledge base, where obtained knowledge is reclassified, placed in context and retained for future use. This level is represented by the vision, culture and technology of the business, rather than an institutionalised unit. If the world of the workplace has always been the motor for developing new communication techniques, then the computer would appear to have created the ultimate codification and formalisation of communication techniques. The computer largely determines the content and rhythm of office work, and quite often the amount invested in data handling is equal to the construction costs of the building. This makes it all the more important to unite the mechanisms of data or “data architecture” with the profile and atmosphere of the workplace world – to remove transition trauma and to create motivation. Office quality has an urban planning dimension as well as an architectonic one. Abstract urbanism is being replaced by a concrete urbanism that incorporates a complex, newly charged vision of the city as a source of impulses and a productive factor for interaction.

“As far as I am concerned, the process always has to start with a cultural reference point – one that has something to do with the site – a kind of urban culture script for the design.”

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Sports stadiums – Amphitheatres for cultural exchange Klaus Dieter Weiss interviews Wojtek Grabianowski and Lukas Hampl

The spectrum of your planning assignments is very broad. How do you organise staff for the different areas of activity? Wojtek Grabianowski: I don’t know any other firm that is so decentralised or non-hierarchical. Other firms have a father figure or clear leaders, with everything funnelling up to a narrow point. RKW is different. Often people we work with outside the firm do not understand how this can work – certainly this is true of the young architects who are just starting with us. They are always surprised how dynamic and flexible the working processes here actually are. If you wanted to sum up working for RKW in two key terms, they would be “fluid processes” and “enthusiastic team players”. So you don’t have a “Mr RKW” to be the face of the firm and represent its market position – at home or internationally? W.G.: No, and this is a major advantage. It is also why we have achieved the market penetration we have, because we can be active in several areas at once and we can distribute the work between different people. This allows us to adjust well to the different demands that arise during projects or that clients pose. Our seven partners – as well as the managers and project directors – are very successful in representing their own fields. There are not many occasions when a central figure is needed as a representative. In that sense, RKW is not just one firm. Instead, a large number of high-achieving, fairly autonomous teams are housed under one roof. These teams’ composition and size change constantly, and are constantly mixing together. How did the firm come to be active internationally?

Olympic stadium, Sochi, design sketches

W.G.: When I started in the 1970s, there were no foreign employees working at RKW. I was the first in the firm, and I convinced Helmut Rhode that foreigners should be encouraged to work at RKW. To start with, we communicated in pictures, and at some point Helmut Rhode said to me: “If you learn to speak better German, you could one day be a partner”. Today, we have 70 foreign employees from 30 countries in our team, and Lukas Hampl has lived and studied abroad. This is the strength of RKW. It made sense for us to develop sites in Warsaw, Gdansk and Moscow – and this fitted well with my Polish heritage. Lukas Hampl: A multicultural family or professional background is becoming ever more important. When hiring people, we make sure that the applicants have more to offer than just technical knowledge, because an overly one-sided view of the world undoubtedly reduces the motivation to look at ideas in an open and unbiased way, to understand the perspectives of others, or to accept novel approaches.

The 1972 Munich Olympic stadium was your first stadium construction project? W.G.: Yes. This started with Helmut Rhode. We entered the competition – which was spectacularly won by Günter Behnisch and Frei Otto. We created some very beautiful perspective drawings – which, incidentally, were drawn by the father of Christoph Ingenhoven, who was working with us as an architect at the time. Sadly, we didn’t win. Our stadium design was simply not as progressive as Behnisch’s. It took another forty years before we really did build a stadium. What was the central idea for the stadium in Gdansk? W.G.: Each of us has a different system for evolving a clearly defined design idea from the assignment criteria. As far as I am concerned, the process always has to start with a cultural reference point. There has to be a reference point that has something to do with the site to provide a kind of urban culture script for the design. That was how it was for the Baltic Arena [now the PGE Arena]. L.H.: We knew that in Poland, the attitude to history is different – there is a more lively remembrance of history. With the Baltic Arena we set out not just to create a reference point with the amber, which connects with history and tradition, but to include the wharves lying directly opposite in the harbour. After all, this was where the Solidarność workers’ movement began – a movement with great significance for recent Polish history. The stadium’s construction is therefore based on ships’ frames and planking. The master plan, on the other hand, shows stones on the Baltic Sea’s shore. One of these is the “piece of amber” in the form of the stadium. These are unmistakeable reference points – which, unlike wind and clouds, cannot be found everywhere. A stadium, then, is more than a machinery of precisely defined safety precautions? W.G.: Of course, we took into account everything needed to build a modern sports stadium. It has to satisfy the strict UEFA criteria. So we studied how to match the costs and technology perfectly. In that

PGE Arena, Gdansk

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respect, the stadium really is a well-oiled machine. With such a major task and so much effort going into it, no one wants to risk failing in either the economic or the technical construction competition. But our spectacular package won the competition decisively. L.H.: The difference between a high-rise building and a stadium is that in a high-rise building the facade and the actual building are closely connected. In a stadium, the function and the outer shell are largely separate – just as the appearance of a car does not depend entirely on the chassis and the motor. Beyond the need for an outer shell, we tried to give the whole ensemble a face. It reveals the stadium’s function – the coming together of people and countries in a shared enthusiasm for sport. And, of course, it was intended to be iconic and highly visible. This aspect was particularly important in Gdansk because both the building and the event – the European championship – were intended to anchor the city in the memories of the nations taking part. What was the main idea for the stadium in Warsaw? W.G.: Warsaw has a large park, similar to Hyde Park in London. There are large buildings on the edge of the park, including the King’s Guest Rooms. They face towards the park – and the stadium is built on the edge of the park. The idea, then, was to construct a diamond. Where there are already architectonic jewels, the stadium has to be a diamond. Study of the facade of PGE Arena, Gdansk

L.H.: The stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi shows many different facets of the host nation in a way that fits well with winter sports: ice crystals, snowflakes and wintry sparkle. But the elements are adjustable so that a media facade can be set up to display pictures – turning the stadium into a giant media sculpture. How was the problem of re-use solved in Sochi? L.H.: The especially open layout is down to the fact that the Olympic torch will be lit there. The stadium is to be used for the opening events and for the closing ceremony. It will go on to be used as a training stadium for the Russian national team. This stadium is being built for two days only – and you have to bear that in mind. It is also necessary to constantly remind people that subsequent uses have been planned in and that the stadium will not become a white elephant. Just how realistic these plans are remains to be seen. Different concepts include a conference centre, business clubs and offices. We had a plan drawn up for reducing the seating and for using the freed-up space as a hotel and conference centre.

The little stadiums in Poland that substitute simple construction for ostentation are also interesting. W.G.: In Poland, as in Germany, there are many cities with between 50,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, most of which do not yet have their own stadium. For the steelworking city of Stalowa Wola, we designed a small complex for a maximum of 15,000 spectators. The stainless steel skin we designed for it – with the local industry in mind – was unfortunately too expensive. L.H.: One peculiarity of work on large sports stadiums – and possible smaller-scale ones too – is the enthusiasm of all those involved. This euphoria exceeds that evoked by a museum – a more intellectual task. With a stadium, the enthusiasm is there at all levels of society – from taxi drivers to mayors and university professors. Does the planning work make this easier? Or are building assignments overseas always difficult? L.H.: It is not easy to plan a project from Germany when it is to be interpreted and implemented in Poland. You have to be creative to cope with the differences in exchange rate and pay levels. But specialist planners are also often more highly motivated on this kind of project than with other building types. It matters whether it is a beautiful stadium or just a functional machine. Of course, a lot of sports clubs and a lot of people professionally interested in stadiums say: architecture is just a distraction. We only need the arena – the right spaces, the right machine. And then we can add a sheet-iron shell and write our club’s name on it in big letters. But if you create something special in design terms, the citizens and the press are delighted, as well as the planners and firms. It is not every day that a football stadium for major European games is built. You also have to bear in mind that the Munich stadium cost 360 million euros and that the budget for Gdansk was only 120 million, quite apart from the different economic circumstances.

Olympic stadium, Sochi

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Olympic stadium, Sochi

Sport

Sport

Königpalast, Krefeld

Client Krefelder Bau GmbH   GFA 24,130 m²   Planning period March 2003 –  Feb. 2004   Building period Aug. 2003 – Dec. 2004

The Königpalast ice stadium is a multifunctional

for the interior: the competition arena, places to

arena. Its flowing facades, made from blue-green

relax, a restaurant, changing facilities and technical

glass profiles, are beautifully appropriate to its

rooms. The first horizontal band – at the base of

most prominent role – as an ice hockey venue.

the building – projects to form a porch for the

The translucent nature of the horizontal glass

entrance hall. Graphical motifs and lighting effects

strips, combined with integrated lighting effects,

integrated into facade layers that are (to varying

provides a variety of views and moods; these can

degrees) transparent subtly create an atmosphere

be altered for events or to mark the transition

and mood for the interior. The facade adapts to

from day to night.

the time of day and time of year like a chameleon, displaying various moods to the passers-by, even

The people of Krefeld are ice hockey fanatics. Founded 70 years ago, the Krefeld Pinguine are the third-best team in the history of the German ice hockey league – after the clubs in Cologne and Mannheim. Krefeld had gone for a long time without a worthy stadium – or rather, a “battle arena” – especially for the purpose. The city’s decision to build an 8,000-spectator multifunctional hall opposite the Rheinlandhalle that would be ideal for ice hockey was a chance to improve both the location’s very loose urban structure and the rather nondescript westerly housing developments. The building shell’s fluid shapes embody the dynamic nature of ice hockey – the speed and agility, the curved tracks in the ice and the ice itself. The varied body of the building is well suited to a stream of visitors and satisfies all requirements

when no event is taking place.

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Sport

ISS Dome, Düsseldorf

Client IDR Industrieterrains Düsseldorf-Reisholz AG   GFA 34,500 m²   Planning period Sept. 2004 – Nov. 2005   Building period March 2005 – Sept. 2006

The arena lies in north Düsseldorf’s flat landscape

and corporate events. This arena is among the

like a huge gleaming pebble; a multifunctional hall

most flexible and innovative in Germany – it

made from cellular concrete has an aluminium

takes eight hours to turn it from a concert hall to

roof and seats for 13,400 spectators. The stadium

a sports venue. True to the classical principle

radiates the atmosphere and drama of major

of form following function, the asymmetrical

sporting events and occasions.

building fits around the terraces, rows of seats and boxes. Its striking shape is a new emblem

The hall’s 11,400 seats are in three shades of red – shading from light at the top to dark at the bottom. It also has 38 boxes of about 40 square metres in size and a 624-seat business area available for sporting events and others. The press rooms, team dressing rooms and technology systems are housed on the ground storey. During ice hockey games, the lowest tier of seating can be removed to create standing room for 4,000 people. The area immediately surrounding the playing area is partly taken up by telescopic terraces, which can be pulled out to enlarge the central arena. This is 106 x 144 metres in size, with an event space of 1,800 square metres, and can accommodate a wide range of international sports. The adjustable lighting focuses attention on the play and action area in the middle of the bowl. The hall is more than just an ice and sports arena – it was also designed to host major political and social events, including concerts, exhibitions

for north Düsseldorf.

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Sport

Olympic Stadium in Sochi

Client Olympstroi   GFA 50,500 m²   Competition 1st prize

Whirling snowflakes, shimmering sunlight, water

Various lifting platforms and surfaces, from ice to

droplets in a shower of spray: the glittering sequin

LED, are built into the stadium floor structure. The

roof of the arena offers spectators a tempting

modular elements make it possible to work flexibly

foretaste of the experience awaiting them in the

in the interior, and also meet the requirements for

Olympic stadium. The different lighting moods of

the opening ceremony. Lighting the Olympic flame

the outer shell guarantee that it will be attractive

in the bowl aperture will mark the beginning of an

in summer too, when the spa resort becomes a

unforgettable show. After the games, it will be pos-

sought-after holiday destination. The sequins also

sible to convert the arena into a football stadium

provide roofs for bicycles, kiosks or assembly

by closing off the end with additional tiers, thus

points, and are also a media facade: monitors

complying with UBV’s and FIFA’s requirements.

and gigantic LED screens that show people outside what is happening inside the stadium, or whisk them into other visual worlds. The statical loads are distributed vertically, so the building is earthquake-proof. The open bowl of the stadium makes it possible for athletes to come into the arena from all sides, above and below the stands. It provides open views of the impressive mountain setting in the Caucasus and creates an incomparable connection with the location. A continuous service ring inside the arena allows free traffic for visitors, athletes and service personnel. Wheelchair users, VIP guests, fans and media representatives can all get to their places unhindered. The arena is under blanket video surveillance and can be cleared in 15 minutes in an emergency.

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Sport

PGE Arena, Gdansk

Client City of Gdansk   GFA 60,200 m²   Planning period Feb. 2008 – Dec. 2008 Building period April 2009 – April 2011

The Union of European Football Associations has

colour succession. To keep the football stadium’s

chosen Poland and the Ukraine to host the 2012

pitch as free of shadows as possible, the roof skin

European championships, bringing Poland to

becomes more transparent with height, seeming to

international attention. The PGE Arena in Gdansk

merge with the sky. Good access, a position near

will be an advert for the country, and will kick-start

the city centre and comfortable facilities make this

the urban and economic development of a whole

multifunctional arena an ideal long-term location

district.

for concerts, business meetings, congresses and VIP events.

The shores of the Baltic are famous for their amber – “Baltic gold”. The stadium, the concessions and the hotel lie in the landscape like erratic boulders around the sea – as if created by tides and breakers. Amber is polished into rounded shapes by constant exposure to water, sand and sea air – and this architecture seems to respond to these elements as well. With its transparency, lightness and amber-coloured luminosity, the stadium gives Gdansk added character, taking the city’s compelling history forward into the 21st century. With its strong link to the water, the arena’s architecture encapsulates the Hanseatic city. Shipbuilding has always played a central role in the economic life of this Baltic metropolis. The arena’s delicate loadbearing structure is reminiscent of a ship’s hull. The shimmering outer hull consists of six modular variations in different colours, combined to create a homogeneous

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Continuity

The Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper (1902–1994) best describes the problem-solving aspect of architectonic design. His discussions of the falsification theory of the sciences use the more general term “problem” rather than “design”, but his argument remains salient even if the actual word used is differ­ ent. For Popper, the best way to solve a problem is to familiarise oneself with the problem (or the design assignment). To research the problem, one begins by putting forward the solutions that come most readily to hand. They are ultimately useless, but proposing them allows one to define what is wrong with them by criticising them, and thereby to arrive at a detailed design or way of addressing the problem. “Understanding a problem means understanding its difficulties, and understanding the difficulties means understanding why it is hard to solve – why the more obvious solutions do not work. So we familiarise ourselves with the problem and move from bad solutions to better solutions – provided we have the creative ability to come 1  Karl Popper: Objective Knowledge, London 1972, pp. 272–273.

up with such a series of surmises.” 1 Popper aspires to a scientific approach based on “the method of educated supposition and inventive, serious attempts to disprove it.” Theories are not tested by being verified – they are tested by being falsified, and this negative screening ensures that dogmatic thinking is excluded from the very start. An architectonic design that incorporates a desire for beauty, intellectual stimulation and sensitive adaptation to existing circumstances cannot be achieved by a deductive process – not even with the aid of a computer. The design is not simply the solution to the problem – it is also the instrument for defining the problem, allowing knowledge to be arrived at through an iterative process based on surmises and disproof. This is partly because of archi­ tecture’s cultural element, but also because it is impossible completely to comprehend all the complex, interlocking levels of an architectonic and urban planning problem. The Swiss architecture theoretician Pierre von Meiss picks up on this aspect

226 | 227

and extends Karl Popper’s argument. “The cultural sensitivity, knowledge and training of the designer determine the level on which this process of surmise and disproof takes place. Attention to the forces and hopes of one’s own era, together with curiosity, a critical respect for the buildings of the past and a patient search for a method ultimately lead to a design. Lack of knowledge does not give rise to genius; it merely leaves everything to chance. Whereas knowledge and experience allow an 2  Pierre von Meiss: Vom Objekt zum Raum. Dimensionen der Architektur (De la Forme au Lieu, Lausanne 1986/1993), Basel 1994, p. 210.

architect to understand the world in which he is working.” 2 It also provides the architect with the architectonic equipment he or she needs. Along with persistence in solving problems, an architect needs a knowledge of past development in order to create continuity. A visionary perspective must be complemented by knowledge of the massive archive of past developments and past architects’ experiences. This knowledge alone is not a viable substitute for progress – but it is a source of data for the Popper falsification process. Factoring in positive results from building history and architectural development gives research and experience more depth and dimension – although this rarely happens in the profession. This is what makes RKW’s approach to these issues over the past six decades so remarkable. Continuity means using the state of knowledge achieved over decades to meet new assignments and arrive at new insights. In architecture, as elsewhere, progress and continued development are only possible if the previous lines of development are not discarded.

“But greenfield sites are also an outmoded model. The future of com­mercial architecture lies in ex­ isting structures and in priori­tising individuality and sustainability.”

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Commerce in the transformation of the city and of urban life Klaus Dieter Weiss interviews Barbara Possinke and Dieter Schmoll

Commercial architecture is one of RKW’s fields of activity. How would you sum up your 60  years of experience in this area?

Goldberg shopping centre, Halle an der Saale

Barbara Possinke: Above all, it has brought an advance in insight. We know how important commer­ cial architecture is – certainly one of the most complex and comprehensive disciplines in architecture. Anyone who knows that marketplaces were the original centres of urban growth and that human settlement gravitates almost automatically to trading areas will understand that the two relate to each other in various complex ways. A modern shopping centre or department store must, of course, at­ tract customers. But it must also satisfy the needs of its operator, the traders and the suppliers. Travel routes must be as short as possible, the guidance system must be intuitive and the goods on offer must be varied. To these are added the entertainment and restaurants, fire protection, light, colour and acoustics. Giving the object an external shape – the part that might win you a BDA prize – is only the final step in the process. For this reason, we see ourselves as advisors to our clients on other matters, as well as being architects. Dieter Schmoll: The striking Horten department stores from the sixties and seventies – the white giants of the inner city – play a central role in our firm’s history. At the time, our founder Helmut Rhode was intensively involved in commerce. We were the first architects to build department stores for Hor­ ten and Karstadt in post‑war Germany. During this economically dynamic period, traditional depart­ ment store culture was given a new functional language that, at the time, was seen as more “modern”, and this created a new type of building. I have been studying commercial architecture intensively from that time on. When you trace the history of commerce, with its constant changes and transience, you see that the “shelf life” continually decreases. Greenfield projects have made us aware of the effect on European cities. What are our cities without commerce? Commerce and cities need each other. They form a symbiosis. But nothing is as transient as commerce, which responds constantly to the changing needs of our society. It is, therefore, no surprise that over the 60 years of our firm’s history we have been involved in a large number of projects, such as CentrO in Oberhausen and Sevens on the Königsallee in Düsseldorf, which have written a chapter in the history of commerce. In the economic crisis, the speed of this transformation seems to accelerate exponentially, once it starts to affect the major commercial real estate in cities. How do you think things will develop in the future? D.S.: Commerce has difficult times ahead, and not only because of the present economic crisis and the rapidly rising volume of Internet trade. Department stores have already gone through a sort of adjustment process. However, beyond responding to demand, no one has ever done justice to the increased requirement for emotion and experience, despite making considerable effort. After the opening up of the East – if not before – inner-city development began taking place only on greenfield sites due to unresolved questions of ownership. The fate of the large historical department

stores was sealed. They were replaced by large regional shopping malls on the peripheries of cities, based on the American model. Since then, problems in the inner cities have intensified. For a town planner, the reactionary trend of returning to the city centre can only be a good thing. If the new largescale commercial operations are to find enough space in our densely packed cities, innovative ideas will be needed. I am speaking primarily about the need for a credible, honest integration that is sus­ tainable and takes into account the sociocultural aspects. Nothing will be achieved by commonplace, banal measures. Formulaic shopping centres must not be erected in our cities. And this begins with the name. No one wants new arcades and centres to be conjured up as if by magic. The present trend is towards individualisation.

Karstadt, Leipzig, design sketch

B.P.: I have been lecturing on commercial architecture at the University of Regensburg’s Immobil­ ienakademie (real estate academy) for some years. There, prospective centre managers and project developers discuss how to solve the problems of the inner city. The department stores have forced out the corner shops – and with them the varied commercial structure – and now the shopping malls have forced out the department stores, making them give up their space and business entirely. When a large department store is driven to its knees, this soon impacts on the surrounding area. Sometimes it takes only one or two years until vacancies begin to spread through the neighbourhood. The inner cities decay. We can see this taking place in cities like Oberhausen. What kind of solutions can be used to counteract this and do justice to smaller commercial units in a city? B.P.: One model that fosters the historic ideal of variety in urban commercial spaces is having an open street at the centre. This involves the owners of industrial wasteland and vacant commercial build­ ings getting together with all the traders in a street or a block and establishing a central management to formulate a sensible mix of sectors for the area. In this situation, it does not matter that banks or amusement arcade operators are willing to pay higher rent than the regional grocery store. It is about achieving a mix that functions well, not about quick returns – and this should take place in an open, transparent and dynamic structure, not inside a building that is closed like a black box. It is also im­ portant to support local traders instead of global chains. Already today, every inner city in Germany has an almost identical string of chain stores – and customers no longer find this attractive. D.S.: This trend towards openness also confirms what we observed on a journey through Arizona, USA. The cities there simulate the European inner cities – with streets, squares, fountains, lights and shopping centres. We once copied the American malls, and now the Americans are copying us. And we mustn’t forget climate issues. Our part of the world is colder and darker and sees more rain, pro­ viding additional reasons for roofed spaces.

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Buildings can also be integrated into the historic setting or into the city – while respecting preservation issues. What are your experiences of this? B.P.: Good examples of openness combined with historical context are presently under development in cities including Weil am Rhein, Friedberg and Rheine. These new inner-city “galleries” are surround­ ed by half-timbered houses. We are trying to extend the city’s structure consistently, reinterpreting the alleys and intricate, mazy spaces of the locality in a modern way. When restoring or expanding existing department stores, it is often enormously helpful to listen to the local population. This was what we did in Erfurt, for the “Römischer Kaiser” centre. The building dates from the 19th century. We added a Karstadt hall with a very beautiful interior. During the project, Erfurt locals were constantly present on the building site – the same people who used to go shopping there. Conversations with older citizens encouraged us to reconstruct their memories. They described painted glass roofs and inner courtyards that had been built over during the GDR period. It was the locals who first told us what the building used to look like – there was no other documentation. Discussion forums at the building site welcomed architects, construction personnel and local citizens. We realised how important this development was for the people of Erfurt. If we were to succeed with the public, it was important that we respect their emotions and enthusiasm. How do commercial assignments differ from others in their planning? D.S.: The reliability of the planning and construction process is crucial. The timetable envisioned by any client generally represents a major challenge, but in this line of work, being ready in time for the official opening is a primary requirement. There is also the high need for integration with an object of this type. Expertise from several very diverse disciplines goes into the building, and we also generally have 90 to 120 tenants with ideas of their own. Reconciling all of them takes a great deal of effort, and usually means employing coordinators to deal with the tenants. But the most important thing is that the individual service providers feel comfortable within the ensemble. Achieving this with clockwork precision is what RKW is all about. B.P.: I always think of myself as a mediator. Often, I’m sitting around a table with 30 people involved in the project, all of whom want different things from the final result. The art here is to bring all this together in harmonious unity. With historical buildings, there are also preservation issues to consider. I have brought many listed buildings back to life myself. After studying in Poland, I worked in preserva­ tion. We are constantly entrusted with projects like the Stadtpalais in the Baroque city expansion of Potsdam. We reconstructed a burned-out department store, including details like a painted glass ceil­ ing and beautiful ornamentation. Every screw had to be fastened in line with preservation guidelines.

Spandau Arcaden, Berlin

What do you think could be done with the present-day abandoned department stores? B.P.: The German Council of Shopping Centres, of which we are active and founding members, also realises that it is important to think about the city as well as the building. We have just been commis­ sioned by Goldman Sachs to research a new use for 48 Karstadt buildings. Our aim is to structure the interiors of the existing properties – many of them beautiful buildings – by, for instance, dividing them into three specialist businesses with three entrances onto the street and then building upwards. Another solution might be to establish a large department store in each of the large cities – Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt – in dominant formats like those of the 19th century. Smaller department stores are no longer viable. But greenfield sites are also an outdated model. The future of commercial architecture lies in existing structures and in prioritising individuality and sustainability – and this has been very important to us for a long time. All our projects are evaluated according to strict DGNB criteria. For instance: the CO2 balance begins with the individual building materials, not with the com­ pleted building. Many further factors of ecological, economic, sociocultural, functional and technical quality are also taken into account, to guarantee maximum efficiency. D.S.: There is another view of our cities we can take – the European perspective. If domestic competi­ tion begins to fall off, perhaps other European department stores will become established in German cities, providing a counterbalance. Europe is becoming more closely integrated, and the variety of countries in Europe will be reflected in our inner cities. This is a positive development. Ultimately, the dream of architects and town planners will become reality after all – it will be possible to sleep, live and work in the city.

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Rebhuus-Passage, Weil am Rhein

Trade

Trade

Trommsdorffstraße Office and Commercial Building, Erfurt

Client Optimus Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH & Co. Bauträger-KG   GFA 6,800 m² Planning period Feb. 2000 – March 2001   Building period Aug. 2000 – April 2001

This new office block/commercial building on the

turned into extensions of the department store if

Trommsdorffstraße stands right next to one of old

needed. The whole ground-floor zone is surround­

Erfurt’s largest city squares, with a view of the

ed by display windows, while the upper storeys

Anger. Within easy reach of the pedestrian zone, it

have alternate glazed, open surfaces and plas­

has helped to upgrade the historic town centre.

tered, closed surfaces – echoing the neighbouring buildings and the extension to the Anger.

This homogenous volume gives the previously disordered block, with badly damaged building substance, a clear structure based on the city’s historic layout. The concave curve of the facade echoes the line of the Gründerzeit Trommsdorff­ straße, which terminates at the junction with the Meyfahrtstraße. The rounded transition to the Meyfahrtstraße gives both roads equal emphasis, effectively making them an extension to the pedestrian zone. The building is also aligned with the Anger, emphasising the street’s connection with it. The entrance is set into this glazed, rounded corner, so it can be seen and accessed from the square. This is a five-storey commercial building, with the same eaves height as the neighbour­ ing buildings, so that it fits into the old structure. The sales areas are on the ground floor, while the two upper storeys house the offices, and the central open escalators connect the sales levels. The office levels are flexibly arranged and can be

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Trade

Sevens Shopping Centre, Düsseldorf

Client Sevens Düsseldorf GbR   GFA 35,700 m²   Planning period 1997 – 2000 Building period April 1999 – Oct. 2000   Award MIPIM AWARD 2001

Galerie Sevens is located directly on Düsseldorf’s

dynamic appearance. The escalators are posi­

Königsallee, a very attractive but challenging en­

tioned laterally in the body of the mall, providing

vironment. This innovative and pioneering project

a view of the upper storey and inconspicuously

won the 2001 MIPIM (Marché International des

turning the curiosity of visitors into a vertical move­

Professionnels de l’immobilier) Award for RKW.

ment. Spatial and lighting choreography (accentu­

What decided the jury was its successful synthesis

ated by continuous blue neon bands) dominate

of experience and lifestyle worlds, which creates

the mall’s whole inner life – the drama of seeing

an exciting and charming retail landscape.

and being seen that has fascinated human beings since the first cities were founded. The limited

The facade’s expressive glass joint awakens the

range of materials and colours provides free scope

interest of passers-by. The building’s front fits

for individual commercial worlds and reinforces

into the listed buildings of the Königsallee without

the impression of a classic shopping mall.

being too obtrusive, but the building also sets itself confidently apart within these boundaries, at­ tracting attention and helping it to compete with a prominent retail area. The core of this seven-storey retail building is a glass-roofed air-filled space 35 metres high that widens as it rises, forming a kind of crater that traps daylight for all seven lay­ ers. The way the glazed south facade slants from the third upper storey onwards improves light incidence. Continuous galleries with balcony extensions, glazed panoramic lifts, escalators and connecting walkways create a varied and dynamic retail landscape. Consistent themes – such as shapes based on an aeroplane’s wing – create a unified,

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Trade

Waterfront Leisure and Shopping Centre, Bremen

Client LNC Property Group   BGF 200,000 m²   Planning period Oct. 2006 –  Oct. 2008   Building period April 2008 – Oct. 2008

Bremen contains a longer stretch of river than

The image change – from futuristic space travel

almost any town in Germany. This gives it 42

themes to a maritime design – involved very few

kilometres with which to create an atmospheric

interventions and conversions. The clear link to

waterfront, and yet development planning for

the water and the comprehensive redesign of the

Bremen’s riverside sites has so far lacked an

former space centre give the area a new charm,

overall planning concept. This project began life

and a new look to appeal to future visitors. The

as an entertainment centre. After a few conver­

multiplex cinema and the Innside Premium Hotel

sions, it was revived as an attractive retail centre

were left in place.

for Bremen with three malls with plenty to offer, full of businesses and restaurants. It has 4,000 free parking spaces. The location – directly on the Weser – provides a wonderful maritime atmos­ phere. Also located on the waterfront (which is about 1,000 metres long) are the “Pier 2” venue hall and a ferry dock of the same name. There is also a pedestrian bridge to the long, narrow Shipyard Island out in the Weser. “Waterfront” is a leisure and shopping facility in a unique location on the Weser bank. Before production ended in 1983, the historic shipbuild­ ers AG Weser built over 1,000 ships here. Now, the former Space Park has a 50,000 square metre commercial zone containing 120 businesses, a food court 8,000 metres square and leisure and sports facilities.

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Trade

Stadtpalais Potsdam

Client Karstadt Immobilien AG & Co. KG   GFA 23,500 m²   Planning period Feb. 2001 – Jan. 2005   Building period Jan. – April 2005

This department store is in the centre of Potsdam,

storey, natural light had to be replaced by indirect

in an area created by Friedrich Wilhelm I’s second,

artificial illumination, without affecting the colour

Baroque-styled expansion of the city. It was built

and luminosity of the lit ceiling. The reconstructed

between 1905 and 1907, and its dimensions and

glazing was hand painted, based on old draw­

look, steel framework, and natural stone and

ings, photos and any scraps of paint that could

plaster facade had always made it an intruder in

be found.

this intricate, mixed structure of this historic city quarter, standing out among a neighbourhood of

As well as being restored, the structure was

two-storey house units on regular plots.

extended onto two neighbouring plots by adding building volumes and facades that fit harmoniously

RKW has a distinctive, careful approach to modify­

into the block. A half-timbered restaurant and a

ing valuable infrastructure. The company thus

brewery in the rear courtyard were restored, con­

secured the listed facade and the atrium with a

verted and reused. The glass roof over the inner

glazed roof, and worked together with the conser­

courtyard makes the ensemble a pleasant place in

vation department to restore them and integrate

which to spend time.

them into the building – thereby harmonising modern product presentation with the materials and proportions of the historic facade. Shadow joints subtly connect the new display win­ dow elements with the natural stone and stucco supports of the listed building. The upper storey’s delicate, complex wooden windows were restored and reconstructed. The atrium with its painted, glazed light ceiling which was always one of the Art Nouveau building’s most distinctive features is still the focus and central attraction of the new department store. Because of the added upper

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Revival and continuing existence

Maintaining an honourable tradition – not just into the present but also securing it for the future – that is one of good architecture’s roles in my opinion. Our federal state capital, Potsdam, is particularly well endowed with old building stock, with its palaces, parks and historic districts dating from the expansion of the city in Baroque times. All of this glory is something we want to preserve for our citizens and visitors, which is why I had to address issues of refurbishment so often during my time as mayor. And in its day the Stadtpalais was one of the exciting challenges for designing and enlivening our city centre. What we had to do was to include local commerce in the refurbishment concept, but also to maintain monument conservation. Ultimately this building, and particularly its Art Nouveau atrium, has far more than regional significance in terms of architectural history: it is one of the last atria in a historic department store in the Berlin and Brandenburg region, evidence of the glorious period of Germany’s first great department stores. Discussions about the refurbishment project were conducted passionately on all sides – passion for our Stadtpalais, a building that embodies the magnificence of our 19th-century department stores. The result of our co-operation with RKW was a sensitive revival of an attractive piece of German building culture that is well worth preserving, while ensuring its survival. The local press wrote at the time that we had acquired “our own KaDeWe”. A fine compliment for a fine building. Matthias Platzeck Prime Minister of Brandenburg

Trade

Karstadt, Leipzig

Client Troisdorf Karstadt Immobilien AG & Co. KG   GFA 36,944 m² (Basement to attic floors)   Building period Sept. 2006

The new Karstadt department store retains the

The display windows look like bay windows,

historic appearance of its predecessor, built

referencing the 1912 design, while the wooden

1912–1914 by Gustav Pflaume. It was created by

mullioned windows from the first to the fourth

converting the 8,300 square metre plot contain­

storey were based on historical designs, and

ing Petersstraße, Peterskirchhof, Neumarkt und

the facade’s concave geometry gives the Peters­

Preussergäßchen – while maintaining and restor­

straße more street space. The original arcades

ing the Karstadt building as well as the residential

have been replaced with a shopping mall, which

buildings on the Neumarkt/Peterskirchhof corner.

remains open after the shops close.

Behind the inner-city historic facades of Leipzig is the new Karstadt building. Its six levels contain 15,400 square metres of commercial space, in­ cluding restaurants. Three separate entrances with wide lines of communication open into a central atrium with a glass roof, where there are four esca­ lators and four lifts. Freestanding oval spun concrete supports with a high loadbearing capacity – which look very elegant thanks to their height and very small cross sections – provide a clear, vertical pattern for the old building’s facade, while the cornices structure it horizontally. The thermally decoupled light metal post-and-rail construction of the ground floor display windows on the old building’s facade connects with the building on the same level as the existing supports.

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Trade

Waldach-Passage, Nagold

Client HBB Gewerbebau Projektgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG   GFA 12,800 m² Planning period 5 years   Building period Nov. 2005 – Sept. 2006   Award Clientenpreis 2000 – 2006

The Waldach-Passage is an integral part of a renovation of the south part of the town centre of Nagold in the Black Forest. This shopping centre, which is 15,000 square metres in size and contains offices, restaurants, outdoor parking spaces and parking decks, was built at the edge of the city centre, on an industrial wasteland. Around the entrance area and on the street side, the Passage is a glass-and-metal construction that opens itself up to the city, while the gabion wall running along the Waldach river harmonises with the landscape. This renovation extends thrugh the whole district, and includes the renaturation of the Waldach and the redesign of the bus station.

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Wilmersdorfer Arcaden, Berlin

Client mfi Grundstücksentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH & Co Wilmersdorfer Arcaden KG GFA 67,150 m²   Planning period 2005 – 2006   Completion 2007

An elegant shopping magnet with 125 selected specialist shops on four floors has been created in Berlin’s oldest pedestrian precinct, the Wilmersdorf district of Charlottenburg. The light-flooded mall at this traditional retail location is a new architectural attraction offering numerous services including practices, offices, fitness centres and modern catering. The curved shopping street between the two entrances in Wilmersdorfer Straße is one of the special features. A protruding shop window, marking the distinction between the retail, office and residential areas and the slatted structure of the multi-storey car park, creates a striking feature that can be seen from a distance in the urban landscape.

Trade

Meilenwerk, Düsseldorf

Client Insignium – gebaute Marken GmbH   GFA 14,600 m²   Planning period Jan. 2005 – July 2006   Building period Oct. 2005 – Sept. 2006

The Meilenwerk is Düsseldorf’s new motoring

transparent membrane cushion, which is 130 me­

forum, perfect for classic car fans. Meilenwerk

tres long, is the only connection between the old

Düsseldorf brings specialists, technophiles and

and new buildings.

aesthetes together under one roof. The listed Harffstraße roundhouse, with its authentically historical aura and innovative materials, appeared tailor-made for this very specialised function. On this 18,000 square metre site, classic and cult cars are sold, restored and maintained by professional dealers. The catering, event and club areas allow renters, customers and visitors to meet up for “petrol talks”. The materials and structure of the 1930 round­ house were retained as far as possible. To allow people to experience the place as it once was, all the installations in the round hall were planned as “buildings within buildings”. A gallery on the workshops and showroom along the outer ring provides a good view of the hall and of the showcases for cult cars. Visitors can see the hall’s proportions from here. The restaurant building in the centre occupies the former turntable, and the largest exhibition space is sited between the restaurant, the neighbouring wing buildings and the curved facade with its 30 gates. The roof is a membrane cushion construction that seems to float above the eaves of the inner ring. This

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Trade

Lookentor-Passage, Lingen

Client Klaas Immobilien GmbH   GFA 30,600 m²   Planning period Sept. 2005 –  March 2007   Building period March 2002 – July 2006

Lingen’s traffic-calmed inner city lies within the

starts at a round plaza, leading through a restau-

city’s historic wall, which is a promenade today. In

rant area to the inner-city parking area. The lines

the 1970s, a pedestrian zone developed around

of the struts in the skylight emphasise the plaza’s

the central marketplace, at the intersection of the

vertical connective function, and fountains and

commercial centre’s four main streets. The new

plants make this a pleasant place to spend time.

shopping mall, with its 50 shops, restaurant and

Almost all the shops are on the ground floor –

service businesses, enhances retail possibilities in

with two traders expanding into the upper storey.

the city.

A food court in the basement and 670 parking spaces in the underground garage improve the

The Lookentor-Passage is the largest inner-city

shopping experience.

shopping mall in Emsland, with 16,000 square metres of commercial space. Siting such a large

Transparent facades and glazed roof elements

structure in the city centre was a difficult feat of

create surprising views into and through the

architecture and of urban planning integration. The

complex. The Lookentor-Passage is a successful

historic old town is dominated by a maze of half-

attempt to create modern commercial architecture

timbered buildings with brick and plaster facades,

in a historic city without disrupting its intricately

gable end-on to the street. The new mall has been

subdivided structure.

fitted carefully into the existing urban infrastructure. Wide openings onto the pedestrian zone connect the complex with older commercial areas and create attractive routes. Two portals made from the local fired brick are the architects’ response to the materials of the mall’s surroundings, while strongly horizontal structuring elements give the brick facade a modern look. Two very different atria give the mall, which is 230 metres long, its internal structure. The gallery

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Trade

Trier Galerie, Trier

Client Trigon Management GmbH & Co. Trier KG   GFA 26,500 m²   Planning period 2003 – 2006   Building period July 2006 – Nov. 2008

Gaps in historic town districts pose particular chal-

and stainless steel, with the mall roof covered with

lenges to architects. Any permanent solution must

Virginia creeper. This combination of 75 busi-

sustain a dialogue with its surroundings – and,

nesses with a perfect atmosphere welcomes the

ideally, have a design that synergises with that of

citizens of Trier between the Zuckerberg and

the surrounding buildings. Situated in the heart

the Fleischstraße.

of Trier’s historic town centre, the Trier gallery fits harmoniously into the accumulated, fragmented city structure – even though this new shopping centre’s specialist shops, restaurants and other service industries take up 20,000 square metres of space. Its design had to harmonise with its neighbours – buildings with Gothic elements, listed buildings and buildings from the 1950s. The facade’s simple and elegant design fulfils this task in a restrained and appropriately contemporary way. The building’s Fleischstraße facade is made of coloured concrete, with glazed apertures over 4 metres high and a 10-metre, fully glazed entrance. This mall has a carefully thought-out lighting plan – light strips and light trails throughout – which extends across the outer facade. Its floor is paved with Jura marble. A consistent use of colours and materials for the exterior completes the overall impression: the colour is a warm red, and the materials are wood

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Trade

s.Oliver Flagship Store, Würzburg

Client Freier Besitz GmbH & Co. KG   GFA approx. 2,300 m²   Planning period June 2007 – March 2009   Building period Jan. 2009 – Oct. 2009   Competition 1st prize

Fitting harmoniously into the Würzburg cityscape,

The vertical display window facing the city is also

this new flagship store takes up its prominent

an architectonic element, accentuating the plot’s

inner-city position respectfully, but with confidence

striking corner. Set in an iconic position, facing

in its own modernity. Situated on the corner of the

down the Schönbornstraße towards the cathedral,

marketplace, the 1,200 square metres of commer-

the new department store communicates with the

cial space on the building’s four levels are divided

city’s structure at a distance.

up into an assortment of lifestyle worlds. The competition entry design consciously referenced the existing urban planning situation. It echoed the scale, proportions and structural elements of the site’s surroundings, and its building technique was closely based on elements of the urban planning. On the marketplace side, the eaves and the incline of the roof  approximated to those of the neighbouring house. On the Schönbornstraße side, the department store was given a flat roof with a higher edge. The light and elegant local Krensheimer muschelkalk facade is perforated like the surrounding facades, with wide window fronts providing an unobstructed view of the whole marketplace. The advertising space in the monitor window can be used for different things, such as logo banners and advertising campaign images. The structure’s openness and transparency keep the connections between inside and outside fluid.

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In this day and age, I think that tolerance is a very worthy goal1 Friedel Kellermann

1  Friedel Kellermann: Kunst und Künstlichkeit des Städtebaus.

An architect involved in the planning of “Europe’s biggest commercial and experience centre”,2 the

Stadtideale von Camillo Sitte bis Walt Disney, unpublished lec-

“Neue Mitte” Oberhausen, has a whole range of different opinions to counter. I would like to remind

ture at a Symposium of the Architektenkammer NRW, 12 March 1997.

the reader that there have always been two interpretations of architecture. Viennese architect Hans

2  Bauwelt 45/1996, p. 2523.

Hollein, for instance, believes – cynically in my view – that: “The purpose of architecture is not to satisfy the needs of the mediocre, or to create an environment for the petty happiness of the masses...

3  Hans Hollein, cited in: Werner Strodthoff: “Dem schönen

Architecture is for the elite.”3 The American architect Morris Lapidus – famed for his Miami Beach

Schein verfallen”, in: Der Architekt 12/1981, p. 561.

hotels – has a completely different, equally controversial theory: “Only 5% of people have good taste

4  Morris Lapidus, cited in: Jan Söderlund: “Eklektizismus, das

– the other 95% have bad taste. Of course, I build for the 95%.”4 I think there is a third way between

Tabu der modernen Architektur”, in: Baumeister 8/1980, p. 799.

these two extremes. Architecture must not degenerate into a know-it-all, elitist science – a secret sci-

See also: Martina Düttmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.): Morris Lapidus. The Architect of the American Dream, Basel 1992.

ence whose standards and rules are understood only by the initiated. My own past experience tells me that commercial and leisure buildings are not the place for confronting the general public with an architectural debate the basic principles of which are so stubbornly resisted in schools, in daily newspapers and on television. So powerful is the attraction of the so-called “accumulated, organic” or “painterly” city that we are easily persuaded to ignore the lapse of time between the historical and the restored original. Today, commerce is more than just trading and traffic. Primarily, it is about the profit derived on both sides – the public gain an experience, perhaps a sensation, while the investor gets a return. There is nothing new about any of this. Think of the original fair, which satisfied curiosity, the desire for spectacle and appetite for pleasure, as well as the need for trade. Think of the debates in the 1970s as to whether large, picturesque leisure resorts in the style of Italian or Greek pirate ports like Port Grimaud should be enjoyed as places for relaxation or attacked as travesties. But one thing is new. Large-scale, long-term public recreational consumerism and leisure usually take place outside the city’s boundaries. This can creates competition for cities, especially in the Ruhr­ gebiet’s unprepossessing pit towns. But this kind of evacuation and oasis building has been going on in the area for over 100 years and is a traditional part of the Ruhrgebiet’s development. What we have to realise is that 130 years ago a town like Essen was completely hemmed in by the mining equipment of the new industrial age, which hampered its natural development in the same way as a city wall would. Every stage of industrial progress – advancing from the south – had an ageing, abandoned industrial zone at its disposal to plan and redesign, and leisure centres and resorts have been created in this way in the Ruhr for over 100 years. Fifty years later, mighty consumerist outlets and temples to culture sprang from the same territory, following the Ruhr’s high-speed motorway. Unfortunately, distinctive locations, panoramas and civic identities are not major features of the Emscher region. Its cities are simple developments, created in association with coal pits and steelworks, a battlefield in a military strategy for exploiting the Earth – in the words of “Zeit” correspondent Roland Kirbach, who lives in Essen. It is a familiar picture: metal and chemical works surrounded by spoil heaps and pits, storage places surrounded by scrapyards. The landscape is penetrated by a mass of railways, motorways and high-speed roads, with plain, grey, dusty residential developments

5  Roland Kirbach: “Grüne neue Welt”, in: Merian (Ruhrgebiet) 10/46 (October 1993), p. 68.

in between. None of the cities has a centre – or even a shape. “There was never any city planning or spatial planning here.”5

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No wonder people yearn for the opposite – that a city like Oberhausen does whatever it takes, within reason, to break this vicious circle within the foreseeable future. Every visitor to CentrO gives Oberhausen – new and old – something of its meaning back. Thus far, I agree with the critics; CentrO is indeed “an urbanistic concept created from populist ingredients, a potpourri of epochs and regional styles [...] Its design caters to the yearning for an old city quarter and to the taste of the metropolitan casual stroller. [...] The most attractive thing about the goods on offer in CentrO is their diversity, with added value created by picturesque presentation [...] A purified idea of a city: no cars, no noise, no 6  Volker Albus: “Global Village Oberhausen”, in: Bauwelt

stink...”6 That was the idea. We can argue about the formal details, as long as we remain aware of the

45/1996, p. 2542ff.

architects’ powerlessness to change social conditions. Today, as Karl Ganser says, we must recognise that: “The industrial society’s development area cannot be rebuilt from scratch. Instead, we have to design within chaos, create localised spots of quality

7  Karl Ganser: “Zum Stand der Dinge...”, in: Kunibert Wachten

within a hodgepodge of urban development.”7 The town centres will lose much of their function as a

(ed.): Wandel ohne Wachstum? Stadt-Bau-Kultur im 21. Jahr-

retail area. They will – inevitably – be replaced by enclosed shopping centres better situated in the

hundert (Catalogue Venice Biennale 1996), Braunschweig/­ Wiesbaden 1996, p. 17.

conurbation. But this will not mean the end of the historic city centre. Instead, city centres will take on new functions: more houses, more culture, more leisure, more sights – and more of the ambience of

8  Karl Ganser: op. cit., p. 23.

the past.”8 But the greatest specialists in self-deception are those who are responsible for the city’s reality, professionally if not personally: town planners and architects. “The reality of cities and agglomerations

9  Kunibert Wachten: “Über die Ausstellung”, in: Kunibert

is in stark contrast to the image of the city in political and specialist circles.”9 The story behind this

Wachten (ed.): Wandel ohne Wachstum? Stadt-Bau-Kultur im 21.

phenomenon is a familiar one. Two of the reasons for this “escape” movement were mentioned in the

Jahrhundert (Catalogue Venice Biennale 1996), Braunschweig/ Wiesbaden 1996, p. 25.

title to my lecture: Camillo Sitte and Walt Disney. It is simply too late for the much discussed “return of the urban” or “new urbanity” espoused by Camillo Sitte in an 1889 publication with the descriptive title “The Limits of Art in Modern Urban Structures”. More than 120 years ago, Camillo Sitte wrote that: “Everything expands exponentially, and the eternal repetition of the same motifs alone is enough to numb our receptive faculties so much that it takes particular, forceful effects to make an impact.” This describes the localised design interventions that are barely possible today. Sitte says that: “Risalits, front courtyards, outdoor stairs, pergolas, corner turrets etc. have become luxuries we cannot afford.” To paraphrase, the repertoire remains limited today – by financial, design and ideological issues, and perhaps even by a lack of ability. Sitte also says that: “We cannot change the fact that market commerce is increasingly moving away from the city squares, sometimes migrating to non-artistic, functional buildings, and sometimes destroyed entirely by having goods brought directly to the house.” Here, Sitte is clearly anticipating supermarkets and teleshopping. Camillo Sitte: “If all new structures must have a pompous civic look that is effective in a painterly way for purely decorative reasons – for the sake of ostentation and the glorification of the community – then this cannot be achieved with a ruler, with our dead-straight streets.” This seems to anticipate all the non-straight trends of our age, from Hundertwasser to Gehry. The phrase “glorification of the community”, on the other hand, almost sounds like “Celebration”. Somewhat disappointedly, Camillo Sitte comes to the following conclusion: “Can anyone take real, unfeigned pleasure in

10  Camillo Sitte: Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen

such bogus naivety, such artificial naturalness? Surely not.”10 I think that all of us agree with him, but I

Grundsätzen (Chapter 10: “Die Grenzen der Kunst bei modernen

am not so sure that the rest of the world does.

Stadtanlagen”), cited in: Fritz Schumacher (ed.): Lesebuch für Baumeister. Äusserungen über Architektur und Städtebau (1947), Braunschweig 1977, pp. 370, 371, 369, 373, 374.

Sitte is also quick to dismiss any doubts about his basic principles, while propagating (with a hitherto unknown intensity) bygone styles, drawing design theories from specific instances and lessons from history and citing beautiful old cities – just when modernist architecture was distancing itself from historicism. Camillo Sitte met his match in the modern day – by way of Portmeirion (1925–1978) – in Walt Disney & Co. On the extensive site of Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida, the Disney Corporation erected a 40m² private city officially and tellingly named “Celebration” (after all, it had to be a name that was an exception from the norm). Here, city-dwellers can celebrate leaving behind a type of city that they simply don’t like anymore. Why should they struggle to survive in such a sea of disunity and interchangeability when an island like Celebration appears to offers them salvation? It is the old, compact, familiar and unmistakeable city, a picture-perfect, neo-traditional fantasy of life in small-town America with verandas, picket fences and other details from the good old days. The paying public queue up. The corporation – which, in this context, is the town council – relies on brand quality. Robert A.M. Stern played a major role in the urban planning, while Walt Disney’s individual projects were carried out by names like Robert Venturi, Stanley Tigerman, Michael Graves, Helmut Jahn, Hans Hollein, Arata Isozaki, Frank Gehry, Aldo Rossi, Bernard Tschumi, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel etc. – the crème de la crème. Was this the first time architecture’s avant-garde – of all shades of opinion – acted on behalf of citydwellers? In a 1976 publication entitled “Die bewusste Dekoration” (“The Conscious Decoration”), Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani argued that historically, there has hardly ever been an “anonymous”,

11  Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani: “Die bewusste Dekoration.

“accumulated”, “natural”, “spontaneous” construction.11 Behind every “anonymous” architecture, there

Planung der Schönheit in der mittelalterlichen Stadt”, in: Bauwelt

is an architect. The Piazza del Campo in Siena was laid out artificially by the city authorities, just as

19–20/1976, pp. 596–601, cited in: Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani: Architektur als Kultur. Die Ideen und die Formen. Aufsätze

the Black Forest was laid out by German rulers. The decree that established the city of Siena was is-

1970–1985, Cologne 1986, p. 63ff.

sued 700 years ago, with the words: “We decree and ordain”. The spatial structure was supervised as strictly as the windows and ornamentation. In Celebration, everything from houses’ paint schemes to garden design is controlled and stipulated. The main difference is the nature of the town’s governors’ authority. Even so, it is amazing that it was still possible to so rigidly reconstruct the lost “shared reality” of city inhabitants – in the USA, at least. Two generally separate developments seem to be working together here – academic architecture and collective taste. A city with an open societal system and heterogeneous “shared reality” inevitably becomes a highly tolerant “Collage City” – in Colin Rowe’s words. And in this day and age, I think that tolerance is a very worthwhile goal. Colin Rowe – like Robert Venturi – is talking about the reality of the modern city, not an unachievable idea: “The objects involved may be aristocratic or demotic, academic or popular. Whether they come from Pergamon or Dahomey, Detroit or Dubrovnik, whether they reference the 20th or the 15th century is not very important. People and societies unify according

12  Colin Rowe, Fred Koetter: Collage City (1978), Basel 1984, pp. 211, 212.

to their own interpretation of the absolute benchmarks and traditional values. Up to a point, the collage can contain hybrid formations and people’s need for self-determination within itself.”12

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On the whole-city level, this is an argument against simple uniformity, not against diversity – and certainly not against the preferences of citizens. Architecture and ambience are expected to provide an antidote to the everyday. We will continue to live with Celebration and with CentrO – but with Oberhausen’s historic city centre as well. Many cities (especially in the Ruhrgebiet) will be looking for something to draw the crowds – not to make old city centres deserted, but to give these city centres a new life. Competition is good for business, after all. Exceptions become the rule, and aesthetics are not the only measure of architecture. Mies van der Rohe stated that “Less is more”, but Robert Venturi stated that “Less is a bore”.

Epilogue: On 24 November 2009, 12 years after this lecture by Friedel Kellermann, founding partner of RKW, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” hailed the end of a century of the modernist aesthetic in a features section article by Thomas Steinfeld: “In the aesthetic avant-garde of the time, there were few artists who were not, to some degree, affected by esoteric philosophies, which were especially pronounced in the most radical of them. [...] The motive behind aesthetic modernism, then, is religious. It is part of 13  Thomas Steinfeld: Totale Innerlichkeit. Die ästhetische Moderne und ihre Ursprünge im Okkulten, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 24. 11.2009, p. 11.

a theology without a church. And it tends fatally towards absolutes: Le Corbusier’s visions of new city districts – even new cities – permit no exceptions – they are set on complete and total domination.13

“Helmut Rhode believes that archi­ tecture must function holistically. The primary focus for this kind of perfection is the person, who must decide whether he or she feels comfortable in the building.”

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Interior design as an integral component of architecture Klaus Dieter Weiss interviews Heike Falkenberg and Friedel Kellermann

How important is interior architecture to the philosophy and day-to-day work of RKW? Friedel Kellermann: All our buildings are considered and planned as a complete unit – a functional totality. Interior architecture is a single, specific field of activity – one of the factors for a successful project result. Building Horten’s main headquarters in 1960 was a formative experience for our company. Florence Knoll of New York – one of the best interior architects in the world – was responsible for the interiors and fittings, and a harmonious and productive cooperation produced a very special end result. That project gave us the first ideas. Today, under the direction of Heike Falkenberg, our firm has its own interior architecture department. In this integrated unity of architecture and interior architecture, our team collaborates intensively with RKW partners on our own objects – particularly in the administrative building sector. It has also attracted external commissions for some time now. The many competitions we have won – in the face of opposition from other respected firms – speak for themselves. So for you, interior architecture is not just the “finish” on the project – this level of spatial planning and building systems planning should be considered from the beginning? Heike Falkenberg: Exactly. It is important for us that the interior architecture of a project is designed with the exterior architecture in mind – and also that the exterior architecture is designed with the interior architecture in mind. The earlier we get involved with this, the better our contribution to the interior architecture – the creation of spaces – will be. This is about making the room optimally functional – incorporating light, transparency and acoustics. The ultimate aim is twofold: to make the users feel safe and at home in the rooms, and to find a distinctive aesthetic to suit the client and satisfies their needs. I would liken this to a good suit: perfectly tailored, light and timelessly elegant. F.K.: Obviously, a lot of internal teamwork is required. Interior architecture is no longer simply an extra factor that gives us a special niche in the market. It sometimes comes before the rest of the design – for instance, in the renovation of the Düsseldorf Feldmühle for the law firm of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. After Heike Falkenberg won the interior design competition, we took on the architecture – a successful collaboration with Richard Meier & Partners / New York. This was a promising

Hall of KfW Main Building, Frankfurt

development. Public interest is another positive effect: when an RKW project appears in the media, the interiors are generally pictured along with the facades. Pictures of spectacular entry halls, foyers and meeting rooms impress the viewers and help expand the range of services we offer into a harmonious overall concept – a unified architecture. Individuality and user orientation are the guiding principles of your planning process. What exactly does this entail? H.F.: I might take Aachen’s town hall as an example. We were approached by the city administration because jury opinion in the competition to redesign the foyer had become polarised. We were asked to provide an external alternative. I stipulated that I would have to talk to all potential users. I spoke to the mayor, who has his office there, to the caretaker, to foreign visitors to the Krönungssaal (or “coronation hall”) for the Karl Prize award ceremony, to members of the city council, to couples who wanted to marry there, and many others. We had a lot of conversations. At the end of this process, I had a clear picture of what people wanted from this building. Our ideas for a central desk as an initial contact point, a lighting and colour scheme concept, optical minimalism and an emphasis on the historic infrastructure were greeted enthusiastically. We created a foyer where people could feel at home, a place they could identify with. Based on all these conversations, we developed an understanding – as the commissions that followed go to show. These included working on the council chamber and the lord mayor’s office, and on two interactive exhibitions we created there in collaboration with multimedia specialists from the RWTH. All this would not have been possible without the communication process. Listening, asking questions and modifying accordingly have always been and remain our key method. What, in your opinion, makes interior architecture outstanding in its appeal to users and clients? H.F.: It should have the right impact without being too obvious. This doesn’t necessarily involve a lot of ostentation – quite the reverse, in fact. Part of our job is knowing what to leave out – stripping down spaces and removing the unimportant elements so that people can concentrate on the important things, on their basic needs. One example of this is GAP 15 in Düsseldorf. We designed the central conference room in the ground storey and other elements for Ernst & Young, including an all-round system of swivelling and adjustable wooden panes for this unusual elliptical space, which protects the users from being looked in on from outside through the glass facade while providing sufficient light and good acoustics. This helps conference delegates to feel comfortable and to follow developments within the hall. F.K.: The room’s design remains unchanged and it is constantly booked up – both signs that it was well received. We are naturally delighted by this.

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GAP 15, Düsseldorf, conference room

H.F.: I would like to mention another key example: the interior architecture of rooms where people are confronted with difficult situations. One such project was the Neuss district court, which we partially renovated in 2009. We made the rooms a little less massive and imposing, reducing the emphasis on authority and hierarchy. In the new room arrangement, the judge does of course still sit higher than the accused. However, primarily aided by a new colour scheme, we did create an atmosphere in which plaintiff, witness and accused could make their statements without undue pressure. Judges subsequently told us that a number of trials had passed off more comfortably and with fewer hitches. We were particularly concerned with the family court – bearing in mind tragic situations like divorces and custody disputes. We selected new furnishings to complement the warm new colour scheme. The families sit together around a round table – this is important, especially for the children. The subliminal message is: “my parents might be having differences, but this is still my family, and I still belong”. If we can convey this feeling, then the design is worthwhile. F.K.: Of course, there were also more tangible aspects – good door handles, good heaters and good flooring. Good craftsmanship and high-quality materials are just as important as the details of the room. If everything is of a high quality – which does not necessarily mean a high price tag –the result will hold its value for many years. Ideally, it should be timeless. This quality achieved by combining minimalism with first-class materials has even been exported to the USA... H.F.: Yes, our department is responsible for the first RKW project in the USA. In collaboration with the architect Christoph Sattler, we designed an important boutique on Madison Avenue, New York for the fashion firm AKRIS. We had proven our suitability for this assignment by planning and rapidly implementing an international showroom in a standard office building in Düsseldorf for our clients. This included a spectacular wall, 10 metres long, covered with black horsehair. The same high degree of luxury and understatement was required in New York. Whether in Düsseldorf or New York, our greatest motivation is getting the best out of the existing architecture. F.K.: Of course, we are very pleased about this breakthrough in the USA, where RKW had been completely unknown up to now. The high quality of our work has also been recognised in this country. The BDIA’s Deutsche Innenarchitekturpreis is a case in point. Heike Falkenberg and her team won second prize for the executive board storey they designed for Douglas Holding. What is your assessment of 20 years of interior architecture at RKW? H.F.: Earlier inclusion of our team in wholly new RKW buildings could probably produce even better results. But I am basically completely satisfied with the quality of the results so far. Even more importantly, the clients appreciate it. Our work helps many users to feel comfortable in their rooms and to

identify with their buildings, and that is a crucial part of the end result. This recognition is what is most important to me. As an architecture firm with a wide range of capabilities, the work of our interior architects is very important to us – and I make no apologies for repeating this. Helmut Rhode believes that architecture must function holistically. The primary focus for this kind of perfection is the person, who must decide whether he or she feels comfortable in the building. The most important thing is to find a timeless language that will provide the right message for the clients over the long term. Interior architecture is not just a tactical factor in a competition entry or a new selling point. It is a fundamental philosophy that is key to RKW’s everyday work.

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KfW Main Building, Frankfurt, foyer

Interior Design

Interior Design

Douglas Central Offices, Hagen

Client Douglas Holding AG   GFA 608 m²   Planning period Nov. 2000 – March 2001 Building period 2001   Competition 1st prize   Award 2nd prize BDIA 2002

To the north of the existing development, the

connective elements emphasise the company’s

three-storey, elongated office block follows the

open structure, connecting the different functional

structure’s natural edge. Its glazed facade counter-

areas and allowing them to be used flexibly.

balances the varied materials of the existing building structure. Transparency enclosed by delicate structures is the dominant theme of the design, and it gives the location an architectonic identity. RKW won an interior design competition to extend the upper storey and turn it into a prestigious floor for the Supervisory Board, with a foyer, and conference and office areas. The idea was to find a modern, natural and restrained style of design and materials. The transparency and clarity of the existing architecture were ideal for creating light, generous spaces. The functionality and logic of the spatial situations and installations emphasise and intensify their effect. Pivoting wall elements and mobile glass panels for the hall allow the Supervisory Board room to be either sealed off or opened up. Relatively few alterations are needed to switch the emphasis from “concentration” to “communication”. The design concept is expressed in the choice of colours and materials and the varied lighting concept. Quality craftsmanship gives the room harmony and timeless value, and continuous lines of sight and

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Interior Design

Offices for Freshfields & Partner, Düsseldorf

Client Feldmühleplatz 1 GmbH & Co KG   Planning period Feb. 2003 – July 2004 Building period 2004 – 2005   Competition 1st prize

The former headquarters of Feldmühle AG in

espresso bar and a small library are placed at the

Oberkassel, built in the early 1950s, was converted

transition point to the new building. The highlight

into modern offices for the international law firm

is the penthouse floor, with panoramic views from

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The conversion

the conference rooms and a second lobby.

is by Richard Meier & Partners, New York. RKW won the interior design competition and took over

Light limestone in the staircases, lobbies, espresso

building phases five to nine. All the existing build-

bars and toilets reflects daylight into the spaces.

ing stock was refurbished, some dismantled, and a

Indirect lighting makes the built-in cupboards con-

storey was added to provide conference facil­

cealing kilometres of documents in the corridors

ities. A new, L-shaped building complements the

into floating sculptures. In the projecting section

solitaire on the north side, and another building

the stone is taken into the meeting rooms, inter-

followed on the south side. The client additionally

rupted by carpet in the furnished area. Material

commissioned RKW with spatial extensions of the

and space interlock at many points in the building.

old and new buildings. The spaces are arranged

In the same way, all the public areas in the new

flexibly and communicate with each other, can be

building are in dark granite, the tea kitchen and

used individually, and have an identity of their own,

canteen serving area in artificial stone, and the

tailored to the user. The spaces are of identical

libraries, conference hall and corridor on the pent-

quality in the old and new buildings. Naturalness

house floor have walnut parquet. A sand-coloured

and lightness were the key aspects in the choice

carpet on the office floors matches the natural

of materials and in the relationship with the out-

stone. The holistic approach can be seen down to

door areas. The art objects are by Werner Berges,

the last detail.

Boris Doempke and Paul Schwer. The main entrance is in the projecting section of the old building, where a prestigious, two-storey entrance hall receives the clients. A large library joins on to the south. The conference rooms are opposite the main staircase on each floor, and an

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Interior Design

GAP 15, Düsseldorf

Client GAP 15 GmbH   Planning period Oct. 2003 – Dec. 2004   Building period Aug. 2004 – Aug. 2005   Competition 1st prize

Ninety metres high and with 23 storeys, the

off the specially designed furniture. The high-rise

GAP 15 high-rise office building is a striking part

building’s elegant look sets a high standard for

of the Düsseldorf skyline, situated between

design and for inconspicuous technical details –

the Königs­allee and the state parliament.

achieved by integrating the interior design planning

JSK Architekten designed the ground plan in

into the building process at an early stage.

two ellipsoidal halves, and supplemented the transparent structure with a five-storey building.

The parquet flooring and leather in all the specialised areas – reception, library, conference,

RKW’s interior architecture division won a com-

auditorium and sky lobby – provide plenty of at-

petition to define and expand all departments of

mosphere. Employees and visitors enjoy a unique

tenants Ernst & Young in the high-rise and in the

spatial experience and the conscious showcasing

restored low building. The ground plan pattern,

of the view of Düsseldorf. An intensive collabora-

spatial functions and atmosphere were based on

tion between users, architects, clients and light

an intensive knowledge of JSK’s architectural lan-

planners has turned this building, an expression of

guage and the users’ specifications. The idea was

Ernst & Young’s corporate identity, into a tailor-

to expand appropriately on these and find the right

made, user-friendly environment.

colours, materials, furnishings and atmosphere to do justice to all the different factors. The unusual design for the auditorium (the main reason why this entry won the competition) is rather like an artichoke in a glasshouse, but specially adapted to people’s needs: it combines high acoustic quality, peace and seclusion with transparency, daylight and flexibility. Lightness and elegance are accentuated by the natural materials – larchwood and natural stone – and subdued colours subtly give the rooms emphasis and set

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Interior Design

NRW-Bank, Düsseldorf

Client Animo GmbH / Heine   GFA 43,000 m²   Planning period Aug. 2004 –  April 2005   Building period Aug. 2005 – May 2006

The new NRW-Bank building on the intersection

expansive and transparent – and not only because

between Kniebrücke and Königsallee is unmis-

of the panorama of Düsseldorf and the Rhine. The

takeably a prominent feature of Düsseldorf’s city

eye wanders almost unimpeded through the lobby

centre. A slim, 13-storey high-rise is connected to

and the reception area, and the viewer is surprised

a seven-storey recessed block by a glazed

by a small roof access integrated into the body

entrance hall. RKW’s interior architecture depart-

of the building. Natural materials – natural stone,

ment’s job was to give the building its own style –

parquet flooring and colour-coordinated carpets –

from the entrance to the conference area, from the

characterise the various functional areas, while

staff canteen to the Managing Board’s areas, from

carefully worked details and harmoniously inte-

washrooms to personal facilities.

grated lighting give the rooms a subtle effect and intimacy.

Powerful light architecture (such as the reception counter and the light wall) make the NRW Bank’s two-storey hall into an imposing lobby. The adjoining staff restaurant has a pleasant atmosphere and a view of the park, making it a pleasant place to talk. The two-storey, glazed conference pavilion inside the massive block has a view of the park and the renaturated river Düssel, making it spatially expansive and transparent. Vistas, the light stairwell, light joints in the floors and ceilings and consistent use of the same materials connect the rooms and levels, which can be used flexibly. This solitaire building has a powerful, independent and elegant language. The design of the Managing Board’s area on the upper floor of this glazed high-rise is equally

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Interior Design

KfW Main Building, Frankfurt

Client KfW Bankengruppe Frankfurt am Main   GFA 24,200 m²   Planning period 2005 – 2006   Building period Jan. 2006 – Dec. 2006   Competition 1st prize   Awards Green Building Award 2008, Architekturpreis für Nachhaltigkeit (Green Building Award from City of Frankfurt am Main 2009)

After using it for 40 years, the KfW banking group

facade areas integrate the old trees and the palm

decided to refurbish its high-rise building, which

garden. White walls between the maple-panelled

dates from the 1960s – not least from the point of

fire escape staircases present a high-quality

view of fire safety. Commissioning architecture and

collection of modern art – and exciting interplay

interior design jointly made it possible to create

between art and nature. Natural stone tiles under-

a new arrangement without abandoning the ’60s

line the spatial flow in the hall areas. Carpets and

design features. The four sections of the building

sculptural seating and low aluminium tables invite

are of different heights and on a square ground

people to spend time here.

plan, and are offset in relation to each other by the depth of one office.

Communication determines the design of the two-storey, 56-person conference room. The idea

Visitors approach the main building via the palm

of a “floating table” is implemented as an alu-

garden forecourt and the inner courtyard of the

minium sculpture supported by back-lit glass fins.

east arcade. Part of the first floor was reconstruct-

Conference and service technology are integrated

ed to create a prestigious, light-flooded entrance.

inconspicuously. The aluminium wall cladding

The walls of the hall, as well as the lobbies and

can be slid back by remote control to reveal the

conference room were panelled in Norwegian

presentation screens behind – an example of how

maple, which is effective acoustically. The artist

all the individual parts harmonise with and match

Thomas Bayerle designed the surface for the two

each other and the building as a whole.

lift blocks. Here aluminium appears in the form of a relief, as the defining material. Transparency creates flexibility: the waiting areas outside the conference rooms can be used as spaces for dining and events. The transition area, the width of a corridor from the main building to the north arcade, was extended to create a singlestorey 500-seat auditorium. Sightlines and glazed

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Interior Design

Aachen Town Hall

Client City of Aachen   Planning period Aug. 2008 – July 2009   Building period 2009

The most important secular building in the city

point of the lucid impact made by the space is

was built in the mid-14th century on the founda-

the accentuating lighting design, created in co-

tions of the Carolingian palace hall as a building

operation with Schroeder Feldmann in Aachen.

that served as a free city town hall on the ground

Brass chandeliers suspended from the ceiling with

floor and the imperial banqueting hall on the first

halogen spots arranged in pairs float gracefully

floor. The Coronation Hall is considered to be the

above the floor and create lively reflections on the

largest medieval hall in European secular archi-

dark covering.

tecture. The concept of empathetic modernisation The aim of the client and the interior designers

continues via the staircase into the halls. Light-

was not just to maintain the historical appearance

ing mounted on the walls and columns illuminate

of the foyer, but also to enhance its spatial impact

the historic vaulting without changing the overall

and function. It primarily serves as an exhibition

appearance of the space. A clear arrangement of

space and provides access to the mayor’s office,

the valuable paintings in the council chamber, with

but it also provides a prestigious entrance for a

suitable new curtains, sunshading and specially

variety of events in the council chamber and the

designed cubic conference tables create func-

registry office. The interior designers were par-

tional and design harmony – but without having

ticularly concerned with functionality, lighting, and

to forego modern media technology. The choice

the ergonomics of the reception area and porters’

of materials, the colour and design of the new

lodge as workplaces.

furniture, are a deliberate tribute from the modern world to the medieval splendour and dignity of the

The wall surfaces are kept in light colours, which makes the space appear light and generous. Lines picked out in colour divide the groined vaulting from the wall area. Several stripping processes restored the existing wall cladding to its light shade of natural oak, contrasting with the blackand-white geometry of the stone floor. The high

town hall, a listed building.

294 | 295

296 | 297

Interior Design

Neuss District Court

Client OLG Düsseldorf   GFA 4,400 m²   Planning period May 2008 – Nov. 2008 Building period Feb. 2009 – Dec. 2009   Competition 1st prize

The commission for the District Court emerged

the courtrooms, bringing the spatial structures to-

from winning a competition. The starting point for

gether and correcting the proportions of the room.

the interior design planning was provided by four different buildings including an old Gymnasium

Access to the adult and juvenile court of lay asses-

(grammar school), which had been left neglected

sors was designed to be wheelchair accessible.

and unused; it had very beautiful rooms, but insuf-

Here and in the District Court the back wall and

ficient light. So alongside improving the acoustics,

seating are accentuated in dark blue. Sound-

the lighting concept was the key to the planning,

absorbing material in the ceiling and rear wall, and

which aims to emphasise elements that create

visual shielding elements improve the acoustics.

space and identity, and to bring them together

Family, civil and criminal courtrooms reflect a

within a holistic concept.

colour world of their own. The atmosphere of the family court is determined by a warm, harmonious

Light haunches on capitals all around the entrance

and curry-coloured background, the round table

hall illuminate the groin vaulting indirectly. They

brings the family together democratically.

underline the lucid structure of the ceiling, which articulates the space, and creates a glowing overall effect as a prestigious framework for reception, waiting area and the partially backlit glass columns that enable people to get their bearings. A modular signage system continues the building’s colourcoded orientation concept. Seating defines rest areas, with the material always matching the existing surfaces. Lighting art added on to the basic elements accentuates the spatial impact of the staircase. Light haunches circulate the ceiling of the entrance to the old District Court. The lighting emphasises the formal language of

298 | 299

Interior Design

Düsseldorf Opera House

Client Theatergemeinschaft Düsseldorf-Duisburg GmbH   Planning period March 2009 – June 2009   Building period July – August 2009

This building in the Heinrich-Heine-Allee occupies

bar tables in the lounges, allowing the operagoers

an attractive site on the edge of the old town,

to take brief refreshment. The individual tiers, with

between the Hofgarten and Königsallee, and can

their VIP lounges and dining rooms, are given an

be reached from the Rheinpromenade on foot. The

individual character by their lounge chairs, side

new state theatre, planned by the architect Ernst

tables, bar tables and bar counters, and provide

Giese, opened here in 1875. This Italian renais-

many different spaces. In the intervals, audi-

sance-style building, with its round front building

ence members themselves are the actors in this

and 1260 seats, looks rather like the Semperoper

setting. Lockable elements for books, CDs, and

in Dresden. The theatre was heavily damaged in

T-shirts, plus information pillars and holders for

1943, and was given its present look in the 1950s.

programmes and flyers allow the various functions

Between 2006 and 2007, the city of Düsseldorf

to be combined in a unified but unobtrusive way,

carried out extensive renovations, giving the

and help create an overall concept that is clear

building a light and sunny orchestra and ballet

and consistent down to the fine details. Quality

rehearsal hall, with a glass facade 8 to 10 metres

craftsmanship and a careful choice of materials –

high facing onto the Hofgarten and Königsallee.

shimmering gold cloakroom curtains, burnished brass, light-coloured leather, the oval golden bar

RKW was directly commissioned to modernise

counter on a light-coloured stone base – create

the whole foyer area and make the building more

an aesthetic and festive atmosphere.

comfortable while preserving its (listed) historical features. When performances resumed in 2009, the opera house was reopened by its new artistic director with new lounge furnishings and new counters for the bar and the information and display stands. Further modernisation of the second and third tiers and the VIP lounge area is proceeding step by step. Two catering areas parallel to the stairwells were set up in the stalls foyer, with square tables, new chairs and benches. There are

300 | 301

Innovation

“Innovation” is a popular word in the architecture world, which is always searching for avant-garde ideas and renewal. Inno­ vation is always considered to be a good thing. New shapes, new solutions, new products, new markets, new processes, new approaches, new procedures, new chains of distribution, new advertising messages... But an innovation has to arise from something already in existence; it cannot be created out of nothing. Every innovation is the result of a methodical and systematic thought process. It is also possible to make accidental discoveries, but only when one knows what one is seeking. Technical or artistic innovation (rather than urban planning, organisational, social or institutional innovation) has the most impact on construction. Innovation is defined by “new” features that are different from what went before in a positive way. An innovation, then, must be about what is good or better as well as what is new. What all this ultimately implies is that innovations are based on current social developments, with their inventors acting as catalysts. This theory is supported by the way identical innovations often occur simultaneously in different locations. “Like all innovations, artistic innovations are dependent on context. They are conscious or unconscious responses by the artist to what he perceives around him. For this reason, artistic talent consists primarily of intelligently and intuitively registering the general quality of existence at a certain time and 1  Michael Langer: Innovation und Kunstqualität. Die Kategorien des Neuen in der Kunst, Worms 1989, p. 54.

in a certain place.” 1 This idea of artistic innovation as a reaction to changes in physical and mental existence is an idea that did not exist until the 20th century. What is the focus of present-day architects’ innovations and adaptations? The central issue of climate change alone does not answer this question. Buildings have a number of requirements to fulfil – they have to stay within the time constraints and budgetary requirements, satisfy a plethora of construction regulations, and even be suitable for future unforeseen uses,

302 | 303

modifications and technological innovations. The architect must achieve a sustainable result – not just a durable, ecological and energy-efficient building. An architect’s task is interdisciplinary. To achieve this complex, hybrid goal – a combination of good form and function, avant-garde values and everyday use – the architect has to bring together and coordinate the different disciplines. This is the major obstacle to organisational inno­ vation, with the problem lying in communication between the different disciplines, but also in formulating and putting across prior experiences. Therefore, as far as RKW is concerned, innovation requires continuity. The search for innovative architectonic solutions cannot depend on fixed rules and aesthetic standards as it did during the postmodern period. It has to be methodologically open. Architecture is not derived from a functional mode of thought. Architecture is composed of various stimuli from different disciplines – the history of architecture itself, but also working techniques from fine art, and scientific thought experiments. Adaptation to place and time in combination with a dialogue and experimentation process opens the way for specific solutions, avoids repetitions and creates an architecture that people feel to be comfortable and appropriate. In some cases, this process can lead to new ideas or even innovations – but not automatically. Setting out to create an innovative form for its own sake can only disrupt the process.

Appendix

Catalogue of works (selected) 2000

ARAG Tower

Hans-Böckler-Straße residential development

Sevens Shopping Centre

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Mannesmann Behrensbau Executive level

ARAG Allgemeine Rechtschutz-Ver­ sicherungs-AG

ICG Bayerische Hausbau GmbH & Co.

Sevens Düsseldorf GbR

Düsseldorf

16,300 m²

35,700 m²

Vodafone Holding GmbH Düsseldorf

MIPIM Award 2001

750 m²

38,100 m² in collaboration with Norman Foster

GAD I

Douglas Central Offices

Douglas “Zeil in Style”

Deutsche Börse (Frankfurt Stock Exchange)

Münster

Hagen

Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt am Main

GAD eG

Douglas Holding AG

OFB Bauvermittlungs- und Gewerbebau GmbH

22,282 m²

12,000 m²

Zeil-Grundstücksverwaltungsgesellschaft Douglas Holding AG

2nd prize BDIA 2002

19,100 m²

Othmarschen Park Residential Development

Anger 1

Galeria Kaufhof

Zwickau Arcaden

Hamburg

Erfurt

Ulm

Zwickau

Nordrheinische Ärzteversorgung Düsseldorf

Optimus Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH & Co.

10,200 m²

30,462 m²

Horten AG, represented by MRE Metro Real Estate GmbH

mfi Grundstück GmbH & Co. Zwickau Arcaden KG

ICSC Commendation

32,000 m²

42,000 m²

48,000 m²

306 | 307

2001

Unter den Linden 39

Angereck

Sonnenschein Daycare Centre

Mannheim Central Station

Berlin

Erfurt

Delitzsch

Mannheim

Wohnbebauungsgesellschaft Friedrichshain (Friedrichshain residential development association)

Lang Projektentwicklung GmbH

City of Delitzsch construction department

Deutsche Bahn AG

9,800 m²

1,929 m²

22,100 m² Bahnhof des Jahres 2005, awarded by the “Allianzpro Schiene”

Berlin 800 m²

Trommsdorffstraße Office and Commercial Building

Volksbank

Spandau Arcaden

Oberstdorf im Allgäu

Bonn

Berlin

Deutsche Bahn AG

Erfurt

Volksbank Bonn Rhein-Sieg eG

mfi Grundstück GmbH & Co. | Hochtief

2,804 m²

Optimus Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH & Co.

21,500 m²

98,000 m²

Traffic Design Award 2003

6,800 m²

Oberstdorf Station

2002

Forum am Anger / F1

Cybernetyki office building

e.dis Regional Headquarters

Vodafone Tower

Erfurt

Warsaw

Fürstenwalde

Düsseldorf

Hochtief AG, project development department

Viterra Development Polska Sp. z o.o.

E.DIS Energie Nord AG

Vodafone Holding GmbH

31,840 m²

20,000 m²

5,700 m²

17,200 m²

WGZ-Bank

Das Neue IHZ

Debitel Headquarters

Arcaden

Düsseldorf

Berlin

Stuttgart

Regensburg

GENO-Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co.

WBMI Wohnungsbau- und Investitionsgesellschaft Berlin Mitte mbH

L-Bank, Staatsbank für Baden-Württemberg StEP GmbH

mfi Grundstück GmbH & Co. Regensburg Arcaden KG

40,000 m²

45,000 m²

109,000 m²

50,890 m²

2003

EVD Administration Building

Tuchthaus

Am Seestern 5

Haus der Ärzteschaft

Dormagen

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

evd Energieversorgung Dormagen GmbH

HUC Familienstiftung

60. Hanseatische Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG

Total gross floor area above and below ground level 56,517m²

22,500 m²

Winner of the BDA’s Auszeichnung guter Bauten (award for good buildings) 2003 Düsseldorf

Behrensbau general renovation

Audi Electronics Centre

Jewish School Centre

Akris Store

Düsseldorf

Ingolstadt

Düsseldorf

New York

Vodafone Holding GmbH

AUDI AG

Jüdische Gemeinde Düsseldorf

Akris prêt à porter AG

17,000 m²

42,167 m²

5,400 m², including 3,000 m² of existing structure

280 m²

308 | 309

Volmegalerie and Ratssaalgebäude (council hall building)

Space Park

Alte Messe BMW Branch

e.dis Administrative Centre

Bremen

Leipzig

Potsdam

Hagen

Space Park GmbH & Co. KG

BMW Group Munich / Leipzig

E.DIS AG, Fürstenwalde

MDC das Grüne Dreieck Projektentwicklung GmbH

200,000 m²

23,000 m²

30,900 m²

72,500 m²

2004

Szucha 21

ARAG

Werft 67

Warsaw, Poland

Rostock

Düsseldorf-Reisholz

Botteling and Logistics Building at the Krombacher Brewery

Bayerische Hausau GmbH

ARAG Allgemeine Rechtschutz Versicherungs AG

IDR Industrieterrains Düsseldorf-Reisholz AG

Kreuztal

13,000 m²

Krombacher Brauerei Bernhard Schadeberg GmbH & Co. KG

5,500 m² (above ground), 2,600 m² (below ground)

6,800 m²

12,300 m²

Burscheider Straße

Haus Kunkel

Peripheral Metro Line

IKB International

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Luxembourg

Düsseldorfer Bau- und Sparverein eG, formerly Freies Volk eG

Dr Klaus Kunkel

Bilfinger Berger AG, department for development

IKB S.A. International

6,662 m²

62,000 m²

6,505 m²

Riem Arcaden

Karstadt facade

Hesse State Chancellery

Rathauspassagen

Munich

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Berlin

DIFA Grundstücksges. mbH & Co. KG StadtQuartier Riem Arcaden in der Messestadt/ mfi Management für Immobilien AG

Karstadt Warenhaus AG

Die Rose GmbH & Co. KG

19,000 m² (existing structure+extension)

26,929 m²

WBM Wohnungsbau- und Investitionsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin 43,055 m²

85,000 m²

2005

Savings Bank and Residential Development

Königpalast

International School

Freshfields & Partner Office Building

Neuss

Krefeld

Bonn

Düsseldorf

Sparkasse Neuss

Krefelder Bau GmbH

VEBOFUTUR GmbH

Feldmühleplatz 1 GmbH & Co. KG

4,810 m²

24,128 m²

9,631 m²

24,000 m² Contractworld Award 2006

GAP 15

Bahn-City

Haus der Ärzteschaft

GAD II

Düsseldorf

Berlin

Düsseldorf

Münster

GAP 15 GmbH

Nordbahnhof Berlin Grundstücks GbR

Nordrheinische Ärzteversorgung Düsseldorf

GAD eG

80,168 m²

12,722 m² in total

22,282 m²

The BDA Düsseldorf’s Auszeichnung guter Bauten (award for good buildings) 2006

310 | 311

Broadwayoffice

Köln-Arcaden

Stadtpalais

Pohland

Düsseldorf

Cologne

Potsdam

Cologne I Dortmund

Allianz Immobilien GmbH

mfi Management für Immobilien GmbH

Karstadt Immobilien AG & Co. KG

Pohland GmbH & Co. KG

22,383 m²

63,800 m² + 54,380 m² of car parking space

23,500 m²

1,550 m²

Hansen

Appelrath-Cüpper

Marktgalerie

BMW Hammer Group

Cologne

Münster

Leipzig

Cologne

Pohland GmbH & Co. KG

Reiner Appelrath-Cüpper Nachfolger GmbH

DAPHAL Objektgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG

1,700 m²

5,620 m²

BLS Immobilienprojektentwicklung GmbH & Co. KG

16,700 m²

24,250 m²

2006

Kish Island, Flower of the East

Schlössle-Galerie

ISS Dome

Town Hall Foyer

Iran

Pforzheim

Düsseldorf

Aachen

flower of the east Kish development Co.

AM MDC Schlösse Galerie Projektentwicklung GmbH

IDR Industrieterrains Düsseldorf-Reisholz AG

Rathaus Verein Aachen

ICSC Award 2006

34,500 m²

Nike Main Headquarters

NRW-Bank

Volksbank Neuss-Weissenberg

Revitalisation of KfW Main Building

Frankfurt

Düsseldorf

Neuss

Frankfurt

Spirit @ Stadium

Animo GmbH / Heine

Volksbank Düsseldorf Neuss eG

KfW Bankengruppe Frankfurt am Main

43,000 m²

340 m²

24,200 m² Green Building Award 2008 Architekturpreis für Nachhaltigkeit (architectural prize for sustainability) (Green Building Award der Stadt FFM 2009)

Appelrath-Cüpper

Waldach Passage

Porta Furniture Store

Karstadt

Dortmund

Nagold

Aachen

Leipzig

Appelrath-Cüpper Nachfolger GmbH

HBB Gewerbebau Projektgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG

Porta Service und Beratungs GmbH & Co. KG

Karstadt Immobilien AG & Co. KG

57,000 m²

36,944 m²

5,000 m²

12,800 m² Awarded Bauherrenpreis 2000–2006

Meilenwerk

Modehaus Dodenhof

P& C

Konsum Coppistraße

Düsseldorf

Kaltenkirchen

Berlin

Leipzig

Insignium – gebaute Marken GmbH

Dodendorf GmbH & Co. KG

Peek & Cloppenburg KG

Konsumgenossenschaft Leipzig eG

14,600 m²

9,000 m²

16,000 m²

1,785 m² / 9,150 m³ Architekturpreis der Stadt Leipzig zur Förderung der Baukultur (architectural prize of the city of Leipzig to promote construction culture)

312 | 313

2007

Mendelsohnufer am Bundesverwaltungsgericht in collaboration with GFSL

Karlshof Lankerstraße

Ul. Madalińskiego Residential Complex

Hansaallee Triple Sports Hall

Düsseldorf

Warsaw

Düsseldorf

Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft

Viterra Development Polska Sp. z o.o.

Amt für Immobilienmanagement der Landes­ hauptstadt (regional capital office for real estate management) Düsseldorf

Leipzig

2,960 m²

5,000 m²

19,314 m²

6,500 m² Inhabited space: 3,100 m²

City of Leipzig, Grünflächenamt (department of green spaces)

Feldmühle, south section

Schleupen

“Im goldenen Kessel” Brauerei (brewery)

Tersteegen Office Center

Düsseldorf

Moers

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Feldmühleplatz 1 GmbH & Co. KG

Schleupen AG

Frau Schnitzler-Ungermann

Nordrheinische Ärzteversorgung

7,600 m²

900 m²

34,274 m²

in collaboration with Richard Meier

Flensburg-Galerie

Wilmersdorfer Arcaden

Erlanger Arcaden

Lookentor-Passage

Flensburg

Berlin

Erlangen

Lingen

Flensburg Galerie GmbH & Co. KG

mfi Grundstücksentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH & Co

mfi Grundstücksentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH & Co

Klaas Immobilien GmbH

Wilmersdorfer Arcaden KG

Erlangen Arcaden KG

67,150 m²

46,000 m²

30,600 m²

2008

Porschestraße Residential Development

Quadruple Sports Hall, Marie-Curie-Gymnasium

Kanupark Markkleeberg

Waterfront

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Markkleeberg

Bremen

Düsseldorfer Bau- und Spargesellschaft eG

the regional capital of Düsseldorf

the city of Markkleeberg

LNC Property Group

10,200 m²

3,450 m²

2,200 m²

200,000 m²

Seasons

Konsum Könneritzstraße

Theresien Center

Kaufhof Zeil, facade renewal

Moscow

Leipzig

Straubing

Frankfurt

SAO Octan + Alpha Yury Tioumentsev

Konsumgenossenschaft Leipzig eG

Theresien Center GmbH & Co. KG

45,000 m²

3,219 m²

Metro Group Asset Management GmbH & Co. KG 40,000 m²

Düsseldorf Arcaden

Appelrath-Cüpper

M1 Czeladz FMZ

Trier Galerie

Düsseldorf

Essen

Poland

Trier

mfi management für immobilien AG

Reiner Appelrath-Cüpper Nachfolger GmbH

Metro Group Asset Services Sp. z o.o.

Trigon Management GmbH & Co. Trier KG

3,100 m²

14,000 m²

26,500 m²

314 | 315

Hürth Park

Sports and Technical Building

Karolinen-Karree

Kö 15 Sky

Hürth

Posthausen

Munich

Düsseldorf

DEGI, represented by Allianz Immobilien GmbH

Dodenhof Posthausen Grundstücks GmbH & Co. KG

Thuringa Generali 2. Immobilien AG & Co. KG

Private

DGNB Silber. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen

1,425 m²

GIF(H) surface: 75,000 m²

12,700 m²

12,700 m²

Cybernetyki Office Park

GAD interior design

AOK Berlin Main Administration

GEZ Audi

Warsaw

Münster

Berlin

Ingolstadt

Celtic Asset Management SP. z o.o.

GAD eG

AOK Berlin Bundesverband

AUDI AG

14,660 m² (including basement)

17,000 m²

21,400 m²

Marienkirchplatz

Sophienhof

Haus Hardenberg

Parkowa

Neuss

Düsseldorf-Oberkassel

Düsseldorf

Warsaw

Neusser Bauverein AG

Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft

Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft

Lazienki Sp. z o.o.

6,400 m² Inhabited space: 2,880 m²

3,285 m² Inhabited space: 1,670 m²

15,300 m²

2009

Rackowiecka

EnBW-City

LZO Landessparkasse

Local Court Building

Warsaw

Stuttgart

Oldenburg

Mettmann

ORCO PROPERTY GROUP

EnBW-City GmbH + Co. KG

Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg

83,270 m²

33,545 m²

BLB Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW, NL Düsseldorf 4,900 m²

GE Edison Award 2009

Marie-Curie-Gymnasium

Hofgartenpalais

Ratingen Ost Office Park

IT. NRW

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Ratingen

Düsseldorf

the regional capital of Düsseldorf

Europa Iron + Titanium S.a.r.l.

RS + Partner Immobiliengesellschaft GmbH

1,250 m²

18,500 m²

12,600 m²

Information und Technik, North Rhine­Westphalia Bilfinger Berger Hochbau GmbH

Mörsenbroicher Weg

Brüderstraße Parking Building

Kroch High-rise Building

Franz-Mehring School Leipzig

Düsseldorf

Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig

Düsseldorfer Wohnungsbau GmbH

Hochtief Construction AG

5,040 m²

14,281m² / 44,035m³

Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement NL. Leipzig II

Stadt Leipzig Hochbauamt (office for construction of the city of Leipzig)

4,200m²

4,980 m²

316 | 317

Leo-Baeck-Saal (Leo Baeck Hall)

Synagogue Community Meeting Centre

PGE Arena

Hubertusgärten, Berlin-Grunewald

Düsseldorf

Cologne-Chorweiler

Gdansk

Berlin-Grunewald

Jüdische Gemeinde Düsseldorf

Synagogen-Gemeinde Köln

City of Gdansk

Ralf Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG Wohnungsbaugesellschaft

Brücken-Center

A40-Center Dümptener Tor

Selbecker Markt

s.Oliver Flagship Store

Remscheid

Mülheim

Heiligenhaus (Mettmann)

Würzburg

HBB Gewerbebau Projektgesellschaft Remscheid mbH & Co. KG

HBB Gewerbebau Projektgesellschaft Mülheim mbH & Co. KG

HBB Gewerbebau Projektgesellschaft Heiligenhaus mbH & Co. KG

Freier Besitz GmbH & Co. KG

32,000 m²

25,000 m²

5,200 m²

Centrum-Galerie

Galerie am Stadthausplatz

Forum Koszalin

Baltic Park

Dresden

Andernach am Rhein

Koszalin – Poland

Swinemünde (Poland)

Multi Veste Dresden GmbH

Projektgesellschaft Galerie Andernach mbH & Co. KG

Multi Veste Poland 2 Sp. z o.o.

Kristensen Group Sp. z o.o.

Alexanderplatz D4

Historic Town Hall

Town Hall

Opera House

Berlin

Düsseldorf

Aachen

Düsseldorf

Hines Immobilien GmbH

the city of Düsseldorf

the city of Aachen

Theatergemeinschaft Düsseldorf-Duisburg GmbH

23,000 m²

2010

Conversion of Technical Town Hall

ZVO Business Headquarters

Einsiedlerstraße Primary School

B&B-Hotel, Theodorstraße

Leipzig

Sierksdorf Ostholstein

Düsseldorf-Benrath

Düsseldorf-Benrath

Internationales Immobilien Institut GmbH

Zweckverband Ostholstein (Ostholstein administration union)

Amt für Immobilienmanagement der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf (office for real estate management of the regional capital of Düsseldorf)

B&B HOTELS GmbH

66,000 m²

5,800 m²

750 m²

Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium Sports Hall Leipzig the city of Leipzig, Schulverwaltungsamt (department for schools) 3,246.91 m²

Neubau der Hochschule Hamm-Lippstadt competition

External evaluation of office building facade design Sachsenseite

Wettbewerblicher Dialog Innenstadt (competition dialogue on inner city)

1st prize

Leipzig

Hanau

1st prize

1st prize

318 | 319

Facade competition Museumswinkel B. building of a new Aparthotel in Leipzig

E-Center competition

Bedburdyck-Gierath/Jüchen

Hanover-Roderbruch

E.ON Energy Research Center RWTH Aachen Institut für Energieforschung

1st prize

1st prize

1st prize

1st prize

Construction of a New Cross-Company Vocational Training Centre for the District Trade Group

Construction of a New Triple Sports Hall and Mensa for the Goethe-Oberschule

“Villagio Toscano” Outlet Centre

Expansion of Town Hall Building

Vienna, Austria

Crailsheim

Mönchengladbach

Berlin-Lichterfelde

1st prize

Commendation

1st prize

1st prize

Construction of a New Triple Sports Hall

Frankfurt International School Oberursel 2nd prize

Biographies Friedel Kellermann 

Dipl.-Ing., Architect, AIV

international travels, his work on the jury of the Inter-

(b. 1935) is a founding partner of RKW. After gain-

national Council of Shopping Centres, his collabora-

ing first-hand practical experience, he studied at

tion with Norman Foster on the ARAG Tower, and his

the Polytechnikum in Friedberg. In 1960, he joined

sportsman’s sense of fair play became the basis for

Helmut Rhode’s firm and was directly responsible for

a leadership style that emphasises team spirit and

parts of Horten’s central headquarters in Düsseldorf.

harmony. These credentials have enabled Kellermann

He soon took the lead on further Horten projects.

significantly to expand the services offered by RKW

These experiences and his early successes – such

and further hone the firm’s experienced planning

as his involvement in the Reining high-rise at the

team – particularly at partnership level.

Düsseldorf Hofgarten, which won the BDA Prize – his passion for commerce and haute couture, his

Wojtek Grabianowski 

Mag. Architect

and productive acquaintance. Today he combines

(b. 1944) studied architecture at the Art Academy

his work in Düsseldorf with his duties as director of

in Poznan. Rather than join the business run by

branches of RKW in Warsaw and Gdansk. Many of

his family for five generations, he stayed on there

the projects he has overseen have received awards

for two years as an assistant. However, the major

and are prime examples of the firm’s architectural

early influence on his career was a journey to Spain

philosophy: the Specks Hof in Leipzig, the Medical

and Portugal, on which he embarked to experience

Association Building and KPMG in Düsseldorf, the

the art and architecture of these two countries. At

Audi complex in Ingolstadt, and the renewal of the

around the same time, Grabianowski and his wife

Spiegel site in Hamburg. His current major projects

Grazyna decided to settle in Germany. His first meet-

include the Gdansk Euro 2012 stadium.

ing with Helmut Rhode was the beginning of a close

Dieter Schmoll 

Professor Johannes Ringel 

Dipl.-Ing. Architect

Dipl.-Ing. Architect BDA, AIV

perhaps come too early) failed; everything drew him

the age of seven, when he started to draw churches,

back to the original idea, and to studying under Wolf-

such as Lyonel Feininger’s famous motif of the

gang Döring at the RWTH in Aachen. He was vindi-

Marktkirche in Halle. The boy was also affected by

cated when he received the best exam results of the

his parents’ building of their house. But the key expe-

semester and won a national competition for “Hous-

rience in his grammar school years was an exhibition

ing in a dense urban environment”. As a devoted

on revolutionary architecture in Düsseldorf. He could

family man, he successfully reconciles the pressures

not get Étienne-Louis Boullée’s great image of a

of providing a guaranteed maximum-efficiency and

tomb for Isaac Newton out of his mind – proving that

maximum-quality expert planning service on a tight

architecture can fascinate people. All his attempts to

schedule with his extensive family commitments.

appropriate phases, including frequent visits to build-

(b. 1957), found his way to architecture through a

ing sites – at first after the school-leaving examina-

school friend whose father was the architect Hinrich

tion in his first practical training under Hinrich Thode,

Thode. Thode’s classical architecture practice,

who was to become Ringel’s hard taskmaster during

which was in the immediate neighbourhood, ad-

his apprenticeship. Helmut Rhode at the TU Berlin

dressed housing in the economic miracle years in

became a second key figure just after the pre-diploma.

the 1960s. It became a specific source of experience

A link with practice was created through an old

for Ringel, when he was able to try out templates

gentleman from the school, Baurat May, long before

after the practice closed, or to design his own first

Ringel’s studies in Dortmund and Munich (monu-

villa. His childhood dream finally became reality after

ment conservation) were completed.

thoroughly addressing an architect’s work in all the

escape from this strong inclination (one that that had

(b. 1951), discovered his passion for architecture at

320 | 321

Lars Klatte 

Dipl.-Ing. Architect, BDA

His architectural career after gaining his diploma

(b. 1962), pursues a topological and a thematic

was shaped by periods working with SOM and

approach in his architecture. He discovered his

Richard Horden (formerly Norman Foster’s partner) in

passion for architectural history as a student assist-

London. A key experience for him here was his early

ant to Jan Pieper at the Fachhochschule (technical

encounter with the idea of Corporate Architecture

university), Aachen (Pienza project). He has devel-

at SOM. After an intermediate period with Christoph

oped a view of the history of construction not only

Ingenhoven, he put the experience he had gained to

as a chronology, but, crucially, as a linear sequence

good use – for instance, in the Arag project (a co-

of thematic developments leading up to the present

operation with Foster) and also in the Landesspar-

day. Another of his central terms of reference for

kasse in Oldenburg.

architecture is music – his second great passion.

Matthias Pfeifer 

Dipl.-Ing. Architect BDA

and technical aims. He brought together the models

(b. 1958), is always particularly attracted by commis-

provided by his very much older brothers – one with

sions when the size of the projects, their complexity

a technical bent, the other leaning more towards art

and the number of people involved increases his

and history – at the RWTH in Aachen and the TH in

responsibility, and when they touch upon urban

Delft, thus creating a double focus. He is still inter-

development and political dimensions. There has

ested in airships, and the way in which they combine

been no lack of these in the form of large commercial

beauty and technology – after the course had long

properties and multiplex cinemas. The counterpart

been set for professional alternatives as a pilot,

at home is a residential group for ten families. Pfeifer

photographer, industrial designer or cameraman.

sees the architect as someone who solves problems and meets wishes, doing so via a synthesis of artistic

Barbara Possinke 

Dipl.-Ing. (PL), BDA

began producing freehand drawings and sketches

Chopin competition won by Adam Harasiewicz. She

for RKW, later specialising in commercial premises.

combined an enduring love of classical music –

Barbara Possinke has been a managing director of

encouraged not least by her uncle, who was dean

RKW since 2000. She passes on her architectural

of the Warsaw conservatoire – with her journalist

knowledge – and in particular her knowledge of the

parents’ political and cultural interests. She first came

commercial field – as a lecturer at the International

to Germany as an architect in connection with an

Real Estate Business School (IREBS).

internship at the Stadtplanungsamt und Hochbauamt in Essen in 1978. Later, after graduating in Warsaw in 1979/80, she enrolled for postgraduate studies

Hans-Günter Wawrowsky 

Dipl.-Ing., Architect BDA, DASL

at the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf. In 1987, she

(b. 1955) in the Warsaw Philharmonic – during a

in Saarlouis and the MIPIM Award 2001 for Sevens in

(b. 1933) is a founding partner of RKW. After com-

Düsseldorf, speak for themselves.

pleting his studies, he worked for Prof. Oesterlen

He has always firmly believed that architecture and

(1956–59) and HPP Hentrich Petschnigg Partner

urban planning go hand in hand – in the commercial

(1959–62). It was the Horten headquarters project

sector and beyond – and this philosophy ultimately

that first led him to apply to join Helmut Rhode.

contributed to his appointment to the German

Shortly after, events were set in motion that led to the

Academy for Urban and Regional Spatial Planning

firm’s becoming RKW in 1971. Wawrowsky specialises

(Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau und Landes­

in designing and planning the building of commercial

planung) in 1997. Hans-Günter Wawrowsky ended

premises, and the many awards he has won in this

his active career in 2009 at the age of 76, after

sector, including a prize for the Galerie Kleiner Markt

46 years with RKW.

The firm’s history

Prizes/awards

1950

GE Edison Awards 2009  EnBW City, Stuttgart

Helmut Rhode founds his own architectural firm in Düsseldorf

The city of Frankfurt am Main’s Green Building Award 2009  KfW main building, Frankfurt

1971 Helmut Rhode, Friedel Kellermann and Hans-Günter

DGNB Silber. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges

Wawrowsky form a joint architectural business

Bauen 2009  Karolinen Karrée, Munich

1982

reddot design award 2009 

The enterprise continues as a partnership with

Collection Q. Carpet Tile/Teppichfliese

Wojtek Grabianowski / Architekten RKW + Partner Green Building Award Architectural prize for sustain1986 “Modesty is not small-mindedness,

Dieter Schmoll becomes a partner / Architekten

it is greatness.”

RKW + Partner

Helmut Rhode (1915–1995)

ability 2008  KfW main building, Frankfurt Innovationspreis Architektur und Bauwesen 2007 Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf, 1st construction

1991

phase

Johannes Ringel becomes a partner/ Architekten RKW + Partner

Architekturpreis der Stadt Leipzig zur Förderung der Baukultur (architectural prize of the city of Leipzig to

1995

promote construction culture) 2007 

Helmut Rhode dies

Konsum Coppistrasse, Leipzig

1998

ICSC International Council of Shopping Centers

Change of legal form – conversion into a GmbH +

Award 2006  Schlösse Galerie, Pforzheim

Co. KG Contractworld Award 2006 2000

Freshfield & Partner office building, Düsseldorf

Additional partners: Lars Klatte, Matthias Pfeifer, Barbara Possinke

The BDA Düsseldorf’s Auszeichnung guter Bauten award 2006  Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf, 2nd

2009

construction phase

Hans-Günter Wawrowsky retires as managing director

Bauherrenpreis 2000–2006. Landeswettbewerb des Wirtschaftsministeriums und der Architektenkammer

2010

Baden-Württemberg (regional competition of the

60th anniversary of RKW Architektur + Städtebau

department of trade and industry and chamber of architects of Baden-Württemberg)  Waldach Passage, Nagold Bahnhof des Jahres, awarded the “Allianz pro Schiene” 2005  Mannheim Central Station Office of the Year 2004. Fédération européenne du mobilier de bureau  Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf, 1st construction phase

322 | 323

Competition victories – 1st place

Aachen, E.ON Energy Research Center RWTH

Cologne, DKV

Aachen | Institut für Energieforschung

Leipzig, Barthels-Hof

The BDA Düsseldorf’s Auszeichnung guter Bauten

Bergkamen, Innenstadt Centrum department store

Leipzig, Karstadt

award 2003  Haus der Ärzteschaft, Düsseldorf,

Bedburdyck-Gierath, triple sports hall

Leipzig Gross-Zschocher, residential complex

1st construction phase

Berlin, Kurfürstendamm-Karree shopping centre

Leipzig, headquarters of MDR (Mitteldeutsche

Berlin, Französisches Palais Unter den Linden 40

Rundfunk)

BDIA Deutscher Innenarchitektur Preis 2002,

Berlin-Lichterfelde, triple sports hall and canteen for

Leipzig, Sachsenseite office building facade design

2nd prize  Douglas main headquarters, Hagen

the Goethe-Oberschule

Leipzig, Museumswinkel B – construction of a new

Bonn, International School

Aparthotel building

ICSC International Council of Shopping Centers

Chemnitz, Andre-Karree Kassberg

Leipzig, Mendelssohnufer

Commendation 2001  Anger 1, Erfurt

Cottbus, “Lausitzer Hof” multifunctional centre

Ludwigsburg, Marstall shopping centre

Gdansk (Poland), PGE Arena for the 2012 European

Marl, “Marler Stern” shopping centre

football championships

Mainhausen, Nord-West-Ring main headquarters

Traffic Design Award 2003  Bahnhof Oberstdorf

MIPIM Award 2001  Sevens, Düsseldorf

Dormagen, administration and operations building

Schuh-Einkaufsgenossenschaft eG

First place Office 21 Award 1998

for GWF

Melsungen, district savings bank

BDA Guter Bauten award 1999

Düsseldorf, ARAG main headquarters

Mönchengladbach/Rheydt, urban design

DB-Cargo, Duisburg

Düsseldorf, interior design for Freshfields & Partner

Mönchengladbach, district trade group vocational

office building

training centre

“Vorbildliche Gewerbebauten” award for North

Düsseldorf-Benrath, pedestrian zone

Mülheim, Ruhrbania “Ruhrpromenade – Stadt ans

Rhine/Westphalia 1997  evd energieversorgung,

Düsseldorf-Benrath, community secondary school

Wasser”

Dormagen

Düsseldorf, Horten main headquarters

Münster, GAD headquarters

Düsseldorf, GAP 15 interior architecture

Münster, Stubengasse residential and commercial

ICSC European Shopping Center Award 1996

Düsseldorf, VDI Verein Deutscher Ingenieure

district

Rathaus Galerie, Wuppertal

Düsseldorf, Kavallierstraße government headquarters

Münster, new NRW-Bank building

Düsseldorf, Hans-Blocker-Straße residential develop-

Neunburg vorm Wald, Neunburg vorm Wald city hall

Special MIPIM Jury Award 1996

ment

Neue Mitte Garbsen, urban planning workshop

Refurbished Office Building, first prize

Düsseldorf, indoor ice rink

Neuss-Hammfeld, multifunctional office centre

Specks Hof, Leipzig

Erfurt, Angereck

Europadamm

Essen, Ruhrallee administration building

Neuss, district court building

ICSC International and European Design and

Essen, high-rise at Berliner Platz

Neuss, partial renovation of AG Neuss service

Development Award 1990

Frankfurt a. M., Deutsche Börse (Frankfurt Stock

building

Nordwest-Zentrum, Frankfurt a. M.

Exchange)

Oberhausen, Neue Mitte

Frankfurt a. M., KfW main building interior design

Oldenburg, LzO – Landessparkasse new building

“Vorbildliches Bauwerk im Land Nordrhein-West-

Gummersbach, Steinmüller training centre and ad-

Oldenburg headquarters

falen” award 1989 

ministration building

Plettenberg, pedestrian zone

Gasgesellschaft Aggertal, Gummersbach

Gummersbach, town centre, town hall and market-

Plettenberg, Kirchplatz

place

Ratingen, Polygon City

Goldene Plakette des Bundesbauministers (the Fed-

Hagen, Douglas main headquarters interior design

Rheine, Alte Post

eral Construction Minister’s Golden Plaque):

Halle, Leipziger Turm

Shanghai (China), Zhenru Vice Center,

“Bundeswettbewerb Industrie und Handwerk im

Hamburg, development of Spiegel site

Stolberg, shopping centre

Städtebau”, 1984  Carsch-Haus Horten, Düsseldorf

Hamm-Lippstadt, construction of new high school

Stuttgart, debitel main headquarters

Hanau, Wettbewerblicher Dialog Innenstadt (competi-

Vienna (Austria), “Villagio Toscano” outlet centre

Walter-Hesselbach-Preis 1983

tion dialogue on inner city)

Wiesbaden, I-administration building

Saarland BDA prize, 1983

Hanover-Roderbruch, E-Center

Wiesbaden, II-hotel and car dealership

Galerie Kleiner Markt, Saarlouis

Hochdahl, city centre

Wiesbaden, SV-Areal Wiesbaden-Dotzheim

Cairo (Egypt), S.I.C.C. El Shorouk International Com-

residential development

mercial Center

Würzburg, flagship store s.Oliver

BDA Preis 1964  Reining high rise, Düsseldorf

The firm’s structure

Executive partners

Borgers, Robert Borgovan, Michaela Boudier, Uwe

Stefanie Hamm, Philipp Hamma, Michael Hannen,

Friedel Kellermann, Wojtek Grabianowski, Dieter

Brakel, Bastian Brakemeier, Matteo Brandt, Jasmin

Tobias Hannibal, Philipp Hansberg, Anne Hansmann,

Schmoll, Prof. Johannes Ringel, Lars Klatte, Matthias

Braun, Birger Bremer, Ralf Breuer, Ulrich Brock, Birgit

Anja Harder, Jochen Härtel, Uta Hagemann,

Pfeifer, Barbara Possinke

Brodhage, Jacqueline Brown, Karin Brüggen, Jana

Katharina Hartig, Dieter Hassinger, Mirjam Hassler,

Brüker, Dorothea Brüning, Kathrin Buchholz, Tanja

Ivonne Hater, Patrick Haymann, Xinyao He, Juliane

Associated partners

Budde, Ruth Bühler, Günter Buning, Stephan

Hedrich, Hermann-Josef Heimes, Anita Heinisch,

Dietmar Buchwald, Tobias Bünemann, Heike Falken­

Burmester, Andrea Busch, Tanja Buschmann, Cemal

Matthias Heinrichs, Katja Heitmann, Inka Helle,

berg, Jan Pieter Fraune, Lukas Hampl, Joachim Hein,

Büyük, Henry Byrne, Tim Callies, Oscar Calvo

Jessica Hellmich, Martina Hellwig, Katja Helms, Jan

Norbert Hippler, Thomas Jansen, Daniel Kas, Andreas

Barriga, Fadime Can, Stefan Carl, Philipp Castrup,

Henckens, Tobias Hennl, Sabine Henrich, Erwin

Midden­dorf, Peter Naumann, Andreas Niemann,

Ute Christochowitz, Birkan Cobanoglu, Delia Coenen,

Hentschel, Anja Hertel, Christian Herzig, Nina

Jürgen Resch, Norbert Schmitz, Jochen Schulz,

Martina Cozzolino, Stefan Cremer, Mihaela

Hesselmann, Axel Hinterthan, Markus Hintzen,

Avi Spievak, Wolfgang Suhr, Manfred Thomann,

Curcaneanu, Dieter Cuypers, Krzysof Czarnecki,

Hiroshi Hirayama, Claudia Hirsemann, Clarissa

Jens Thormeyer

Beate Czogalla, Ahmet Dadgar, Maike Dafeld, Philipp

Hofeldt, Joachim Höfgen, Andrea Hofmann, Viet

Dahmen, Alina Daraban, Thomas Dargel, Mark

Hong, Nina Höpner, Katharina Hoppe, Marc Horle,

Associates

Davonport, Immo de Haan, Kerstin Decker, Katrin

Frank Hörster, Pia Höß, Ana Hostnik, Christian

Klaus Bischoff, Jörg Dinger, Tanja Frink, Christian

Delorme, Johanna Dettinger-Klemm, Norbert

Hostnik, Andrea Houghton, Eva Huber, Beata

Hein, Heinrich Heinemann, Peter Kafka, Rolf Ketteler,

Dieckmann, Michael Diercks, Gregor Dindorf,

Hudeczek, Daniel Hüsgen, Jens Hüsken, Sabine

Marc Kleinbongartz, Martin Leffers, Anne van Loh,

Heinz-Dieter Doll, Freia Ulrike Doms, Eva Maria

Hußmann, Tina Ihlenfeldt, Britta Immand, Adisa

Sylvia Lohmeyer, Ursula Markowitz, Yvonne Pyka,

Dönnenbrink, Peter Döring, Ramona Dörr, Pascal

Islamovic, Christine Issa, Katrin Jäckel, Maria-Luise

Beate Risse, Dirk Tillmann, Prof. Dr. Silke Weidner,

Dörr, Christian Dubrau, Glen Duncan, Thiemo Ebbert,

Jäger, Thomas Jäger, Heike Jagla, Agnieszka

Anja Windgaßen, Klas Wischmann, Karl-Heinz Zaft,

Jochen Eberle, Helmut Einhaus, Sonja Elakovic,

Jagustyn, Sandra Jakobi, Thomas Jambor, Christoph

Marzia Zingarelli

Dagmar Emgenbroich, Anja Emmerich, Petra

Jankofsky, Babette Jansen, Sven Jansen, Marco Jaux,

Emmerich, Frank Ende-Styra, Matthias Englert,

Josephine Jennes, Lukas Jocks, Jan-Miro Joest,

Business administration

Kathrin Engelhorn, Ronny Ernst, Jan Esche, Jost

Dominik Jörg, Sung Yoon Jung, Won Dea Jung,

Managing director Dietmar Liebig

Ewert, Sandra Fakih, Dirk Faltin, Yin Fan, Michael

Eveline Jürgens, Elke Justus, Barbara Jüttner,

Farrenkopf, Rosi Federlein, Pedro Branco Fernandes,

Agnieszka Kacprzak, Gregor Kahlau, Stephan

Employees (2000–2010)

Thomas Fiebiger, Renata Filipovic, Brigitte Fino, Doris

Kahnert, Horst Kälberloh, Christian Kaldewey,

Stefanie Ahrens, Aysun Aktas, Lena Albers, Fabian

Fischer, Henning Fischer, Stephan Fischermann, Jan

Cornelia Kaminski, Annette Kappert, Katharina

Alberti, Christina Albrecht, Bernd Aldenhoff, Ban

Fitzner, Silke Flesch, Malgorzata Florczak, Mariana

Karczewski, Cornelia Kaulen, Nils Kaune, Mushin

Al-Janabi, Volkan Alkanoglu, Beatriz Alonso Pérez,

Florian, Britta Florin, Jannis Floudaras, Michaela

Kaya, Stephanie Keidel, Sabine Kellermann, Benjamin

Ilka Altenstädter, Sophia Amend, Astrid Ammermann,

Flücken, Christian Franke, Isabella Franke, Sigrid

Kemm, Annabelle Kemper, Thomas Kennert, Heike

Holger Andresen-Saran, Bettina Arens, Jane Arras,

Freese-Buschbaum, Bettina Freimann, Annett Frenzel,

Kerlen, Jonas Kettelhack, Frederick Kettl, Daniel

Andreas Artz, Ihsan Atilgan, Madjid Azarmgin, Jan

Robert Freund, Susanne Fritz, Silke Fromm-Wulf,

Kiczka, Gabriele Kießig, Derya Kingir, Jaqueline Klein,

Backhaus, Wiebke Baehre, Nikolaas Bahners, Saskia

Romy Fuchs, Josef Gaismayer, Sandra Gamerad,

Fridericke Klesper, Maja Klinke, Malte Klipphahn,

Bahr, Waldemar Bala, Ruba Bani, Maud Bard,

Claudia Gamke, Alexander Ganse, Mathias Garanin,

Christina Anna Kloke, Vivien Klopfleisch, Sabrina

Albrecht Bauer, Claudia Bauer, Philipp Bauer, Folke

Stefanie Gebhardt, Artur Geier, Antje Geimer, Imanuel

Klüners, Patrizia Kyszcz, Ulrich Knaack, Petra

Baum, Tasin Bayir, Allan Beatty, Kristina Becker,

Geis, Gudrun Gelhaar, Yusuf Genc, Ralf Gerighausen,

Knüfermann-Ritz, Jan Knüfermann, Barbara Kob,

Sonja Becker, Verena Becker, Constanze Beer, Andre

Arash Gheadi, Ilka Giller, Catharine Gillier, Andreas

Christoph Koch, Julia Koch, Heidi Kochs, Marlene

Behrendt, Christoph Beicht, Sven Beine, Dirk Bell,

Gillner, Ana Gil Pena, Magdalena Gizelewski,

Kock, Michelle Kogelheide, Stefan Kögl, Katrin Kohl,

Anna Beller, Bettina Bellmann, Alexander Bellwinkel,

Dorothea Glab, Gregor Gnot, Stefan Gockeln, Natalia

Christoph Kohlen, Roman Kohlhase, Michael Kohnen,

Gerard Berg, Diane Berger, Corinna Bernardy,

Goebel, Adam Gonsior, Lars Goose, Annette Grabski,

Raphael Koj, Sabine Koitzsch, Zofia Kolakowska,

Alexander Betting, Birgit Beysel, Anja Biechele, Anja

Marc Gräfe, Corinna Granich, Julia Gratz, Eugenia

Monika Kolodziej, Witold Kondera, Konstantin

Bielig, Norbert Biesen, Paul Bittner, Peter Blokesch,

Gref, Tina Grentrup, Annegret Grimm, Elisabeth

Kondratev, Peter König, Peter Koppik, Dagmar Korb,

Robert Bobanac, Marion Bock, Anette Bockholt,

Grimm, Nicole Grimm, Ewelina Grobusinska, Loreen

Stefanie Körner, Timo Kosmell, Yusuf Koyuncu, Ralf

Stefanie Bode, Frederic Böhm, Jan Bolduan, Pia

Grogorick, Andreas Grote, Petra Grothe, Katja

Krapohl, Florian Krause, Kristina Krause, Marcel

Boleg, Gerald Böll, Axel Bollig, Thomas van Bonn,

Günzel, Belkis Haack Memis, Anke Haake-Moritz,

Krauß, Gerhard Krawietz, Ingo Kreutz, Pawel

Sandra Bonsch, Heike Boras, Sven Borger, Andrea

Katrin Hädrich, Frank Hahner, Georg Hahues,

Krolikowski, Andrea Krsnik, Wilfried Krüger,

324 | 325

Dominique Ksoll, Eleonore Kubani, Reinhold Kuck,

Polzin, Vladimir Popko, Ihor Popovych, Christine

Steidle, Beate Steinrücken, Angelika Stempin, Tommy

Karolina Kuhlmann, Lynn Kukelies, Antje Kümpel,

Popp, Juval Porat, Katja Poschmann, Marcus

Stens, Peggy Steudte, Gabriele Stokklauser, Meike

Thomas Kümpel, Gabriele Kürvers, Karsten Kus, Olaf

Potrafke, Andreas Potyka, Alexander Prinz, Karl-

Stolz, Sabine Stolz, Guido Strathmann, Julia

Kwade, Sabine Laibach, Matthias R. Lambert, Ute

Heinz Psenicka, Marie Pucknus, Jakub Punko,

Stratmann, Leslaw Strauss, Ludmilla Streich, Melanie

Lammers, Thomas Landahl, Jessica Lange, Maike

Monika Pytlik, Dirk Quadflieg, Slawomir Rabaszowski,

Striber, Kerstin Strobel, Theresia Strohschein,

Lange, Nadine Lange, Silke Lange, Ralf Laßau, Diana

Tamara Raddatz, Peter Radtke, Bettina Ramm,

Ralf-Thomas Sturm, Ilja Sucker, Frauke Suhr, Martin

Latten, Susanne Lauer-Hahn, Andreas Lawall, Andrea

Wolfgang Rasche, Kerstin Rauterberg, Hans-Jürgen

Sulke, Daria Sulski, Susanne Sunnus, Barbara

Lehmann, Anja Lehmer, Marc Lehrheuer, Stefanie

Reder, Sandra Regehr, Natalia Regimowicz, Andreas

Suszczewicz, Jan Syben, Björn Syffus, Jan Szitnick,

Leinen, Corinna Leißling, Franziska Lemmintz, Bettina

Reichau, Jens Reichert, Tim Reismann, Kai-Uwe

Stanislaw Szroborz, Stephanie Szyrba, Alexandra

Lemoine, Karl-Hans Lentzen, Christian Lenz, Lai

Reitmann, Sascha Remke, Irene Repenko, Claudia

Tahta, Meri Takeda, Karl-Gregor Tannert, Birgit

Leung, Xiaotian Li, Tobias Liers, Stefanie Liersch,

Resch, Miriam Reuter, Angelika Rex, Katharina

Thalmann, Alexander Theiss, Isabell Theobald,

Manfred Lind, Nicole Linka, Martin Linnartz, Kai

Riedel, Michael Rieger, Frauke Ries, Tina Rippberger,

Michaela Thies, Christiane Thoenes, Angelika

Lippert, Joachim Lorenz, Ivan Losada, Josephine

Wilhelm Robens, Matthieu Roch, Nicole Rockel, Paul

Thomas-Völker, Peter Thon, Ganiga Thongbai, Birgit

Lösch, Irena Lozinski, Mario Lucas, Kerstin Lüllmann,

Roderburg, Holger Rohleder, Daniel Rolewicz,

Thormeyer, Karl Tiefenbrunner, Maria Tillessen, Mark

Nina Lupges, Isabel Mack, Stefan Magino, Susanne

Martina Röseler, Andre Rosendahl, Mariusz Rosiek,

Timmermann, Svetlana Titov, Michaela Tonn, Beate

Maijer, Jan Maiwald, Omar Malass, Elmar Malzahn,

Bertold Rossie, Eduard Roth, Dorota Rozanska,

Trebse, Marion Tresemer, Brigitte Treutner, Victoria

Marek Mandla, Alexander Mastjukow, Holger Matheis,

Jennifer Rubin, Katrin Ruhland, Stephanie Runzer,

Treyster, Myriam Tribalet, Kristina Trudslev, Dominic

Alexander Matthiessen, Cornelia Matyschik, Holger

Ursula Rusche, Piotr Rylski, Marek Rzucidlo, Falk

Tschoepe, Meike Tunissen, Johanna Tyralla, Andrea

Mauerer, Dirk Mebus, Karin Meier, Sachs Meis, Ulrike

Saalbach, Michael Joachim Sadomskyj, Carsten

Uhlenbruck, Martin Ullrich, Torsten Urbschat, Birge

Meissner, Jolante Meister, Harald Merk, Frank

Saggau, Alexandre Salzig, Svetlana Samartseva,

Uyan, Juan José Valenzuela, Kristina van der Burgt,

Mellinghaus, Sofía Mello, Nicole Merschmann,

Janina Sandler, Nikolai Sass, Artem Savyovsky, Ina

Erik Vellinga, Stephan Venn, Axel Viehrig, Jule

Christiane Mertens, Cornelia Mertinat, Susanne

Schaefe, Celine Schäfer, Stefan Schaper, Torsten

Vochezer, Alexander Vogel, Katharina Voigt, Anke

Meschter, Renate Methner, Ulrike Meusen, Andreas

Scheffer, Darius Scheible, Jörg Schiffer, Robert

Vollmer, Beate von Baudissin, Thomas von der

Meyer, Sebastian Meyer, Ulrich Meyer, Yvonne

Schiffers, Lars Schlechter, Dirk Schlichting, Philip

Beeck, Clemens von Kalben, Stephan von Ostau,

Migura, Jan Mikolajczak, Annette Mletzko, Nadja

Schmalor, Angelika Schmidt, Wolfram Schmied,

Thomas von der Beeck, Daniel Wagner, Jörn

Moche, Andreas Möller, Axel Möller, Thomas Möller,

Carmen Schmitz, Bodo Schmitz-Urban, Anne

Wähnert, Emilia Walezdig, Andreas Waligorski,

Klaus Mones, Mila Moog, Andrea ter Mors, Ingo

Schmoll, Philipp Schmoll, Kerstin Schneider, Sabine

Annette Walter, Sonja Walther, Bozenna Manko,

Möschter, Ulrich Most, Miriam Mrugowski, Matthias

Schneider, Sven Schneider, Urban Schnieber, Sven

Philipp Webbels, Daniel Wagner, Thomas Weber,

Much, Benjamin Müller, Corinna Müller, Dorothea

Schnitzler, Ralf Schön, Caroline Schönauer, Michael

Michael Weiler, Ute Weiser, Wende Nils, Ralf Werner,

Müller, Ernst Joachim Müller, Michael Müller, Christof

Schramm, Kathlen Schröder, Uwe Schroers, Stefanie

Markus Weskamp, Jutta Wessel, Ralf Wetzel, Verena

Mumm, Viktor Naimak, Marc Najem, Vadim Naumov,

Schulenburg, Donatus Schulte, Gregory Schulz,

Wiedmann, Alexandra Wientgen, Katarzyna

Abolghasem Navabpour, Petra Nebeling, Jens

Heidrun Schulz, Peter Schulz, Selina Schulz, Mareen

Wierzchowiecka, Annika Wiese, Andreas Wiesmann,

Neuburg, Sebastian Neuhaus, Alicja Neukirch, Inke

Schulze, Oliver Schürzmann, Benjamin Schüssler,

Franz-Josef Wiglinghoff, Thomas Wilkens, Miriam

Neundorf, Tobias Neuparth, Franziska Neuwald,

Susanne Schwarzkopf, Wolfgang Schwarzwälder,

Winkels, Heinz Witt, Nadja Witzig, Dagmar Witzki,

Caroline Niebergall, Caroline Niedermeyer, Iris

Thomas Schwendler, Bettina Schwind, Jörg

Ilona Wodecka, Marcel Wolf, Katrin Wollenweber,

Niemeier-Klaßen, Klaus Nohl, Gregor Obcina, Gudrun

Sebastini, Tobias Seckinger, Sandra Segurado Pato

Clemens Woltereck, Joachim Wolthaus, Andrea

Offermann-Schulte, Sorina Olteanu-Schmidt, Kirsten

Queiros, Przemyslaw Seibt, Diana Seidel, Franziska

Wörle, Iwona Wronkowska, Nuran Yildirim, Harald

Opitz, Kazimara Orszulik, Enrique Ortega San José,

Seidel, Simone Seidel, Maher Semaan, Rudolf

Zacher, Kai Zander, Ann-Kathrin Zastrow, Mario

Norman Ortgies, David Ortells, Eike Otto, Jan

Senger, Mira Sennrich, Cenk Sentas, York Serve,

Zavagno, Jana Zesewitz, Marita Zettelmann, Jinfan

Papenhagen, Marion Paust, Helmut Pedina, Janine

Randolph Sieber, Eckert Siebert, Anja Siebert, Maren

Zhang, Guangyu Zhao, Marc Zicklam, Conrad

Peil, Grazyna Pelka, Magdalena Pelka, Sabine Pallast,

Siekmann, Beate Sieverdingbeck, Anna Siewko, Jutta

Zilkens, Peter Zins, Andrijana Zlatar, Monika Zuk

Marion Paust, Marta Perlik, Harald Peter, Nadine

Sifakis, Lukas Skaletz, Thorsten Smeets, Marco

Petersdorff, Eva Peuckert, Brigitte Pfaff, Ingo Pfeifer,

Smith, Kristin Smula, Jabra Soliman, Gisela Sommer-

Ursula Pfiszterer, Kevin Pidun, Anke Piepenstock,

meier, Sören Nils, Inge-Eva Spanheimer, Jennifer

Petra Pieres, Petra Pierdzioch, Ronald Pietsch,

Späth, Jochen Specht, Dana Spoden, Dietmar

Antonio Pinca, Tomasz Piwinski, Sergey Podkopaev,

Stadtler, Andrea Stadtler-Pricking, Adrian Stanula,

Natalia Podkovirina, Nina Pollich, Olaf Polz, Sandra

Markus Stebich, Tanja Stefezius, Karoline Stegert, Iris

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