FOLKWANG LIBRARY BY MAX DUDLER

“Folkwang University of the Arts is home to one of the largest musicological collections in Germany. Until now, its inventory of approximately 190,000 items of sheet music, sound recordings, images, books and other media has been stored in various archives and libraries across the region.

But now, musicological items from three institutions - Folkwang University, the former Library of Musicology at the Ruhr University Bochum as well as the music education department of the University Duisberg-Essen - have been brought together under a single roof, in a new building designed by Swiss-born architect Max Dudler. Situated on the Werden campus, the library was inaugurated at the end of September 2012. Folkwang University of the Arts is North Rhine Westphalia’s college of art and music.

Its main campus is housed in the former Benedictine abbey of St. Ludgerus in Essen-Werden, situated in the southern Ruhr Valley. The small 8th century site was extended into a princely baroque residence in the 18th century, arranged around a magnificent courtyard (Cour d’honneur). The construction of the new library on the south side of the courtyard by Max Dudler replaces a 19th century military hospital building demolished in 1969.

In 2006, Max Dudler won the design competition organized by the Duisburg branch of the Building and Real Estate Management Authority, North Rhine Westphalia. The project was generously supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation. In 1811, while under French occupation, a prison was set up in Werden Abbey. The Prussians extended this and erected a hospital building on the south side of the courtyard. Upon the demolition of the hospital building, the remaining ensemble of buildings looked unbalanced.

Without reproducing the original shape of the prison, the new building encloses this side of the courtyard with its voluminous crystalline structure. The new building’s eastern side adjoins the so-called administrative wing of the old abbey. The volume of the new building corresponds approximately to that of the Prussian wing across the courtyard. Folkwang Library was conceived as a monolithic body built atop the level base of an old rough stone wall. Max Dudler’s concept for the building is based on the idea of the ‘museum showcase’: An exterior shell protecting the valuable contents within.

The functional areas are grouped around the reading room, which lies at the center of the building. The book shelves are arranged in strict order around this room, thereby lending scale and structure to the building as a whole. There are two entrances to the library: The main entrance is from the courtyard via a flight of external steps, designed to approximate the style of the entrances to the other buildings leading off from the courtyard. The library’s other entrance on the Klemensborn serves as an emergency exit. Lending desks, media cubicles, an administration area and cloakroom are situated on the ground floor; the reading room on the first floor. The compact archives are housed in the library’s basement.

The design of the building’s facade was developed in collaboration with the photographer Stefan Müller. Every pane of glass in the facade depicts a large format close-up of a quarry. These photographs reproduce the unhewn stone in its original size. The photographic works were applied directly onto the glazing using a special technique. In keeping with the elemental meaning of the number twelve in music, twelve motives were pieced together into an overall composition.

As with the scagliola technique of the Renaissance used to create stucco marbling, this special photographic technique creates the illusion of the facade being fashioned from the stone material itself. At the same time, a tension is created between the imagery of the textured stone and the flat surface of the glass, reminiscent of the historical sgraffito technique, whereby a graphic embossing is etched into a smooth plaster surface. The new building’s smooth glass surfaces create the perfect impression of a polished monolith.

But this is called into question by the translucency of the building’s exterior, thereby playfully breaking the boundaries both from inside and out. Silhouettes of people can be seen beyond the facade. The interior is bathed in a soft, filtered light. In the evening, the building illuminates the courtyard outside. The building comprises a reinforced concrete skeleton with concrete cores to provide stiffening. The glass facade is attached to the building’s projecting structural slabs using the mullion-transom system. The concrete pillars are shaped and positioned according to the dimensions of the book shelves.

The pillars are clad in cherry wood, which is also used for the shelving in the reading room. Not all the pillars are load-bearing. Some are used as part of an ‘inert’ air-conditioning system. With the ventilation pipes being channeled directly through the reinforced concrete ceilings, this building material’s potential as a heat sink is thereby put to good use. Through coupling this with a heat exchanger, an innovative contribution to energy efficiency is achieved.

The library furnishings – such as its tables, chairs and shelves – were also designed by Max Dudler.”Project Description from Max Dudler:

 

Location: Essen-Werden, Germany

Architect: Max Dudler

Project Manager: Alexander Bonte

General Planners during the Construction Period: Nattler Architects

Structural Engineers: Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner – Beratende Ingenieure VBI, GmbH, Berlin

Building Services: Winkels Behrens Pospich – Ingenieure für Haustechnik GmbH Münster

Construction Physics / Acoustics: Müller-BBM GmbH Berlin

Gross Surface Area: 1,707 m2

Year:2009-2011

SCIENCE CENTER MEDICAL OTTO BOCK BY GNÄDINGER ARCHITEKTEN

A new building presents itself in the center of the New Berlin – the Science Center Medical Technology at Potsdamer Platz. The new building is the representative office in the capital city for the medical technology company Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH.

The building owners Otto Bock, the team of Gnädinger Architects and the media designers Art+Com developed this unique public stage for the topic of movement, which is the first of it's kind in the world. An exhibition invites visitors to "discover what moves us".

Starting from the idea of human muscle fibers, the Berlin architectural firm Gnädinger was assigned the task of creating an amorphous, abstract façade, which wraps dynamically around the six-storey, reinforced concrete frame, encompassing around 1, 000 square meters of floor space.

The architectural design was intended to bring high-tech and nature together in a harmonious manner. The organically-formed, white exterior buckled bands encircle the rounded body of the building, based on the model of human muscle fibers, a metaphor for the simulation of complex biological processes and structures

The outer shell, an expressive aluminum and glass façade, is unusual for the city of Berlin, and provides a kind of acupuncture of new architecture amongst Berlin's traditional stone buildings and glassy modernism. In the immediate vicinity of buildings by architects ranging from Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, Helmut Jahn, Hans Kollhoff to gmp, this compact structure demonstrates a confident independence.

The Science Center Medical Technology responds to the context of the city's stone buildings and their serially repetitive stylistic devices with a new sensual, individualistic quality. With its complex, flowing forms based on freeform curves (splines), a new vibrancy is created, which goes beyond the already well-known standard of the tediously serial. The building therefore takes up this conceptual game in order to rediscover sensuality in the contemporary implementation of ornament in architecture.

Behind the extravagant exterior with its convex and concave, tapered lines, three levels serve as exhibition space on over 500 square meters. The fourth level is for training and conference rooms and the top floor serves as a dialogue platform for interdisciplinary communication between doctors, patients, therapists, orthopedic technicians and manufacturers.

Inside, the functional surfaces surround a central access and technical core. The zoning of the plan with a windmill-like access system allows the planning of different room sizes. Here, the architects arrange the floor space on the periphery and along the glass cladding, so that even behind the dynamic façade, daylight is guaranteed throughout the room, giving the building high quality as a residence and workplace.

The interior is consistently minimalist. The surfaces are white, with silver-gray stone or carpet on the floors. Even the furniture and the exhibits are predominantly white. At the core, in contrast, are colored glass panels with integrated TV monitors to provide information.

Dark, wooden panels create atmospheric accents in the elevator and a few select places. Illumination is provided by means of so-called "light cells", which are freely arranged, round light fields of various sizes and heights. The central, three-storey, steel staircase in the exhibition area was designed as a giant, sculptural light object. The translucent foil on the underside is fully backlit.

 

Location: Berlin, Germany 
Architect: GnädingerArchitekten 
Project Team: Rolf Gnädinger, Christoph Claus (project director in charge), Ayfer Zeissig, Babette Drilling 
Area: Site Area: 849 m2 • Building Area: 493 m2 • Gross Floor Area: 1845 m2 
Year: Design: 2007 • Completion: 2009

ALPSPIX VIEWING PLATFORM BY DIETER WALLMANN

 

At the base of Alpspitze peak, visitors will find the AlpspiX Viewing Platform hovering 13 meters (42 feet) over an empty void in the shape of an 'X' with two protruding platforms.

 

The exceptional architecture opens unmatched views towards Zugspitze peak and the Höllental gorge and let visitors experience a spectacular alpine high.

The Summit Adventure Trail and the Pleasure Adventure Trail also promises excitement along with curious and interesting "peak experiences".

 

 

Weighing in at a mighty 30 tonnes each, the platforms have been constructed in a grid-like form so that snow can fall through them in the winter, permitting year-round tourism to the scenic hotspot.

At regular intervals along the trail visitors can find information points, educating them on the alpine flora, fauna and geology of the beautiful area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location: Alpspitze, Germany

Architect: Dieter Wallmann 

Year: 2010

KUNSTHALLE MANNHEIM BY GMP ARCHITEKTEN

The architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) have been awarded the contract to design the new Kunsthalle Mannheim. After three architect’s practices were awarded first place in a closed, anonymous competition back in July 2012, these practices were asked to revise their designs.

The practices were gmp, Staab Architects and Peter Pütz Architects. Irrespective of the negotiation procedure, an exhibition started in October at which the public were able to familiarize themselves with the three winning entries. The Kunsthalle design created by gmp portrays a symbolic identity, both on the outside and on the inside: the idea was to create a place that is easily remembered, and which appeals with its functional and urban quality.

Analogous to the chess board type layout of Mannheim’s inner city, the design is a composition of several cubes, the regularity of which is however broken by an offset arrangement in terms of height and width, and also by the arrangement of squares within the development. Visitors experience different sized rooms full of excitement and with a range of different air spaces. This creates a range of vistas inside and outside of the building.

With the concept of a louvred facade, the design clearly distinguishes itself from neighboring buildings in terms of its color scheme and materials. The intention was to choose a warm metal color which on the one hand does not replicate the red of the regional sandstone but, on the other hand, does not appear cold in spite of its timeless feel. The plain architecture, with its translucent facade envelope, radiates a strong presence.

The design, which was revised as part of the negotiation process, features a significantly reduced volume on the basement floor. To achieve this, the designers moved the delivery zone to the ground floor, which made it possible
to omit the ramp and other extensive circulation areas.

Furthermore, the detailed design of the technical building services revealed that less space was required, resulting in the second sub-floor no longer being necessary. Some of the services have been integrated in and on the roof areas, thus reducing the length of pipelines and ducting. In addition, the architects were able to incorporate improvements in many other areas of the new Kunsthalle Mannheim. In summary, all these measures mean that it will be possible to keep within the budget for the building.

 

Location: Mannheim, Germania

Architect: GMPARCHITEKTEN, Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Volkmar Sievers

Project Manager: Di Miao

Design Team Ulrich Rösler, Mira Schmidt, Steffen Lepiorz, Liselotte Knall, Kai Siebke, Frederik Heisel

Lighting design: Conceptlicht Helmut Angerer

International competition: 2012 - 1st prize

Photo: Heiner Leiska

GOLDEN WORKSHOP BY MODULORBEAT

The architects at modulorbeat, Marc Günnewig and Jan Kampshoff, along with students from the Münster School of Architecture (MSA), was commissioned to design the pavilion for the exhibition “Golden Glory. Medieval Treasury Art in Westphalia”.

The exhibition presents some of the finest goldsmith’s work from the late medieval period in Westphalia. Some 300 secular and sacral pieces may be seen across 1500 square meters: symbols for the infinite, the magical and the divine, expression of and testament to the power and wealth of their owners.

The brief was to design a temporary pavilion to sit beside the LWL State Museum. The pavilion hosted workshops discussing the craftsmanship of the gold artifacts being exhibited in the Museum.

The pavilion has a cross-shaped layout with four “wings”. Each wing open inwards like a funnel, so that the layout is more reminiscent of an abstract windmill than a crucifix. The effect is an inviting gesture to visitors, as the inside path opens up onto the central workshop area.

The walls are made of full wooden plywood panels. Indoors, the wood is visible, lending the foundry area a robust, resilient atmosphere. From the outside, the compact pavilion seems similarly robust, but here the façade is covered in eye-catching, gold-copper metal panels.

Full height windows were located at the termination of each wing, allowing a visual conversation with the general public. Although appearing regular in plan, that regularity was dissolved at eye level, translating into an experience of constantly shifting, sculptural geometry.

Pair this geometry with that shimmering cladding and you have yourself a winning combination. Surprisingly, the materials were largely sourced from ordinary hardware stores. You’d expect a structure of this nature to be a little more agricultural in its detailing but no, not here.

The architecture reflects the theme of the exhibition not only with its brilliant encasement, but much more in the fine workmanship and meticulous details that are unusual, especially for a temporary pavilion.

 

Location: Münster, Germany

Architects: Modulorbeat Ambitious Urbanists & Planners

Design Team: Marc Günnewig and Jan Kampshoff with Hélène Bangert, Andre Becker, Rainer Borgmann, Daniel Gardeweg, Anne Gerling, Marta Hristova, Frederick Rode, Eric Sievers

Client: LWL State Museum for Art and Art History, Münster (D)

Structure: Bauunternehmung Herbort, Münster Building

Cost: € 160,000

Area: 95 sqm

Photographs: Christian Richters