Baumeister 07/2020

B7 B A U ME ISTER C U R AT E D BY WINY MAAS M V R D V/ THE WHY FAC TO RY 117th year ’s issues The Architecture Magazine

July

20

ImPossible Prologue Layers. History.

Densification.

A personal look at the beginnings of MVRDV, key projects in Germany in the spaces bounded by rules, dogma and intellectualism.

An outsider’s impressions

Green Germany „I Can See For Miles and Miles“ (The Who) Our survival depends on more than just a sustainability certification. It is time for architecture to rethink previous solutions and recalibrate its ambitions. The flight of a dreamer Text: Herbert Wright

German Attitude

German Rules

“Typically German!” opine the neighbours.

You can’t do that in Germany!

Intellectual constructs underlying ordinary projects… architecture as religion, spectacular tedium and immense banality as a result. Or maybe not? Astounding things that no one could have predicted.

“Have we already become so well-behaved that we could win a competition in Germany?” Oliver Thill wonders. The culture of competitions and regulations pose a challenge to construction in Germany.

Text: MVRDV Illustrations: eBoy

Christine Sohar in conversation with Oliver Thill

Winy Maas p6

p 18

Sections p 116 Solutions: Facade p 122 Reference p 124 Solutions: Interior p 129 Imprint, Preview p 130 Portfolio p 138 Column page

4

p 44

Federal Garden Shows as catalysts for urban spaces

From refugee housing to paid residential construction

Over recent decades, BUGAs (biennial Federal Garden Shows in Germany) may have looked like a showcase for the gardening trade.

From the start, however, they have been instrumental in urban repairs, environmental upgrades and the development of cities.

“If Germans want to be fast, they can be fast“.

What the new German straight-forwardness of the summer of 2015 means for today’s architecture. Making Heimat 2020 – taking stock.

p 32

Text: Anna Scheuermann

Winy Maas in conversation with Martin Rein-Cano p 26

p 54

Germany Made in Germany How to build a Volkswagen Does perfectionism stand in the way of architectural genius in Germany? Star architecture, the search for sensuality and the fear of disillusionment.

Text and images: Wojciech Czaja from Austria

German Water Learning from the world: rethinking the future of water Herne, Stuttgart, Gelsenkirchen, Munich.

What do these cities have in common?

They consume significantly more water than they can supply from their own ground.

Managing a finite resource.

German Beauty Mobility on branch lines Little-known beauty far from the rapid transit lines: what regional rail traffic can come to mean for Germany beyond the threetrains-per-hour commuter rhythms.

Text and images: German Reality

About information as the pulse of our times, designing in dialogue with others and the meaning of being “home” in a globalised world.

Alexander Gutzmer in conversation with Winy Maas

Javier Arpa Fernández in conversation with Henk Ovink

p 98

p 66

Building together: from “ego” to “we go”

Epilogue

Cooperative processes in times of rising construction costs. The potential for building groups to exert a sustainable influence on urban development.

Text: Christiane Bürklein

Interview

p 78

p 90

What’s next?

The city as the elixir of life and our responsibilities as the new 1.5-metre-distanced society.

Winy Maas p 112

p 72 page

5

Plus Energy houses Dreaming of a House of One’s Own

can be environment-conserving eyesores. Why can’t they be built with a slightly greater sense for aesthetics? Or is sustainable perhaps a synonym for boring?

Haus am Buddenturm

by Hennpohl Architekten in Münster is an innovative new building with a love of detail that nevertheless respects The “Antivilla” by

its surroundings.

Arno Brandlhuber

Clearly, it is entirely

is a brave interpreta-

possible to build in

tion and actualisation

the existing inventory

of an existing build-

without succumbing

ing. History is neither

to retro-nostalgia!

repudiated nor prettied up here, but reworked in a contemporary manner.

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What will the neighbours think? The response of purveyors of prefabricated houses is to cling doggedly to successful formulas. Hence, the perennial re-run: the angled bungalow.

Building for others

A courageous stance is possible, even for vendors of prefabricated houses. Alfredo Häberli’s dream of a model house sets the standard in the middle of the Allgäu.

Ecological timber construction as a prototype – is the look of this house a look at what’s coming?

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PHOTOS: KL AUS LE IDORF LUF TBILDDOKUME NTATION

Navigating the system of design options on autopilot: new residential neighbourhoods in Bavaria

ence the political discourse a little bit? Since we work in many European countries, we see many things with a critical distance and perhaps a little more clearly. In this context, I would suggest reforming the German competition system, as it doesn’t really work in its current form – and it also deviates greatly from Western European standards! We think unpaid competitions with 25 participants are really impertinent! We therefore avoid these types of procedures. On the one hand, we don’t think this degree of diversity is necessary, and in any case, it’s almost impossible for big juries to get their heads around it. And on the other hand, architects should be paid for t he i r i n nova t i ve ach i eve ments. Everything you get for free is perceived as being worthless! It’s unclear to us why chambers of architects even support what are basically exploitative procedures!

In Belgium, and especially in France, this would be unthinkable. In Germany, therefore, we tend to concentrate on smaller private competitions where the pay is adequate.

Personally, I also find it antiquated to organise competit ions anonymously. D i rect contact with the client is not unimportant, especially during the competition phase, because the decisive ideas often come from dialogue! A verbal presentation, whether interim or final, also makes it possible to explain ideas and re ce i ve d i re c t feed b a ck , which has a learning effect for all those involved. Ultimately, it’s always the client who decides – therefore they should be able to choose offices they trust. In anonymous procedures, architecture is often granted an autonomy that it rarely has. Architecture is first and foremost a process, it’s seldom the case that we sit down and draw and the result is directly built that way. Reality is often much more comp l ex a n d t h e p roced u res should reflect this.

In our view, public competitions are increasingly being shaped by a “culture of fear”.

H i s t o r i ca l l y, co m p e t i t i o n s have been more of a motor for innovation and building cult u re, bu t today t hey a re, above all, a complex means of public procurement that seeks to avoid formal errors.

Qualif y, cont rol and avoid risks. This is also exactly what’s reflected in competition programmes: The thicker they get, the less they have to say.

Rethinking the spatial programmes The biggest p rob lem wi t h competitions in Germany is the fact that spatial programs are very rigid, and a direct functionalist implementation of them is required. “Function”, however, is rather unimportant in long-term, sustainable architecture. A rather freer interpretation of the task, as one would very often do, is thus prevented and very often not even desired. When this happens, a large part of many spatial potentials is immediately stifled, either consciously or unconsciously.

In my opinion, however, one of the architect’s most important tasks is the subversive interpretation of the spatial programme. Only in this way can new environments and space be created. But if you have a spa t ial p rog ramme whe re everything is already predefined, down to the smallest detail, then there’s hardly anything lef t to discover. The problems of the 21st century call for new, more compact approaches to living, working and learning, and rigid functionalist spatial programmes like those from the 1950s are of little help. Therefore, in principle, competition programmes should be organised more openly to stimulate more innovation!

CS: Yes, that’s certainly desirable! But don’t you also have the feeling that new ideas are al ready in demand in the competitions, but then are not implemented? Innovative approaches are required, but then there’s an at tempt to save as much money as possible. Sure, that’s connected

with economics and with the real estate market, which often dictates that everything should be more efficient and profitable, and so on. As an architect you’re sitting at the end of the branch and are still su p p osed t o s h ow w h e re there’s room to manoeuvre, which is absurd... Nevertheless, we do of course take part in competitions to see how and whether we can maybe improve something, so that it’s different, or takes a different track...

OT: We don’t really like to use the word “experiment”, because it always implies that something can go wrong. It’s more like innovation... more spatial possibilities, flexibility and compactness. Answers to the challenges of the 21st century. We are more interested in helping the client to have a kind of coming-out, so that something really happens that they may not have dared to ask for or that they have not yet been able to imagine in all its spatial consistency. Building should be a real experience for everyone, and above all it should express the spirit of the times in an artistic way! To stimulate real innovation, you have to make sure that fewer people a re i nvo lved i n t he decision-making process. This is noticeable when you have a competition in Belgium or Japan, where the jury is usually very small. The problem in Germany is that everything is over-democratised or even a bit of a sham, with the result that sometimes the juries have up to 40 or 50 members. With large juries, in the end the main thing is to find the lowest common denominator. Often there are politicians or lobbyists who rarely have anything to do with architectural culture, and then you, as a jury member, have to explain to them what’s being proposed and make it palatable for them. In this way, the jury becomes an educational project and you have to teach its members about architecture.

That’s why smaller committees are better; there are fewer requirements and a leaner

Oliver Thill After studying architecture at the TU Dresden, Oliver Thill initially worked in Dutch offices. Together, he and André Kempe, another German architect, founded the firm Kempe Thill Architects and Planners in Rotterdam, which is now active throughout Europe. Over the years, the firm’s range of work has developed from collective housing and small public works contracts to large redevelopment, infrastructure and urban design projects.

Oliver Thill has held various guest professorships and teaching positions in Delft, Rotterdam, Arnhem, Lausanne, Düsseldorf and elsewhere since 1999.

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4

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PHOTOS CLOCKWISE: BE LLEVUE DI MONACO; REGINA RECHT; ANJA WE BE R

3

PHOTOS: ANJA WE BE R; BOT TOM RIGHT: OL AF M AHL STE DT

5

6

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Building together: from “ego” to “we go”

Text: Christiane Bürklein

page

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Collaborative efforts can succeed: Building the Tower of Babel by the 5th grade class of the Crailsheim Realschule

But first, a small digression into the past... Did the idea of community building – as a constant in human history – begin with the construction of the Tower of Babel? This is certainly one of the best-known exa m p l es i n wh i ch m a ny peop le came toget he r to build an architectural project.

The fact that this initiative displeased God and resulted in the so-called “Babylonian confusion of tongues”, and thus our linguistic diversity, is certainly another story altogether. But such an undertaking must surely have had a revolut iona r y ef fect, even then?

The fact that collaborative building was of great relevance in the last century is shown in ou r conve rsa t ion wi t h a rchitect Octavianne Hornstein from Munich. She is an expert in participatory building – a

topic that she has been involved with since her studies and teaching as well as in her p ro fess i ona l a rch i tec t u ra l work. As a member of the Forum für Baugemeinschaften Munich and as a project manager at Conplan Projektentwicklung, she is involved in such projects and has her finger on the pulse of this sector.

She says there is an upsurge in the phenomenon of “building together”: “There are always phases in society where the desire to live and work together are more or less pronounced, beginning in the 1920s with alternative living concepts, through the ‘68 generation with its communal movement, the 198 0s with ecologically and communityo r iented housi ng p roject s and, since the early 2000s, a renewed desire for more community, communication and

SOURCE: M INISTE RIUM FÜR KULTUS, JUGE ND UND SPORT BADE N-WÜRT TE MBE RG / W W W. SCHULKUNST-BW.DE

Architecture in Germany: there really are other ways of going about this, without any of those rigid ideas about returns on investment and without the lack of imagination, or the dreariness you feel when you look at many buildings. There’s a lot going on, particularly in the housing construction sector, because this is precisely where joint venture projects are created and built together with others who share the same values. This leads to ecological and social sustainability.

A look at building groups; the beginnings, the present and the future of a phenomenon that tells us a lot about housing construction in Germany.

active participation in the design of the places we live in.“ At the beginning of the building group movement it was easy to get lost within the framework of existing requirements and regulations, but today, thanks to experience and the practicality of such housing projects, they are indeed feasible or at least “not quite as utopian”, exclaims Hornstein. There are now a number of instruments, i.e. social means, available to help with these kinds of construction projects. In addition to municipal regulations, there are also those for financing that help keep a building group project from turning into a Babylonian nightmare, and thus failure.

PHOTO: OC TAVIANNE HORNSTE IN

S ome people may conclude that constructing something with a building group is a way to save money and may thus focus more on the financial side at the beginning – only to eventually discover that not only is the material result more valuable, but that there are a number of other advantages associated with this planning model. Social aspects are at the forefront. Friendships are formed and neighbourhoods grow together during such a democratic process, even if in many cases it’s a learning process. Building in a group a l wa ys m ea n s d i scus s i n g things. This is where opinions are exchanged and solutions are sought together. Since a building group – as the words imply – needs to have several people, it’s always necessary to find a consensus – which in turn means listening to and resolving the concerns of others.

It really is a learning process in which individuals grow together to form a group, according to Hornstein. And she k nows wha t she’s ta l k i n g about. Since 2013 she‘s been

managing residential projects, mostly joint building ventures, through all phases of the project: From the initial acquisition or bid for a property, through the group-building phase, the architectural and organisational planning and construction of the project, to the final acceptance of the construction and handover to members. It’s certainly not always an easy undertaking, but “it is always a pleasure to see how the people in a group work together and how different personalities grow as this cooperative process develops. This is precisely the point that many of those involved only realise in retrospect: As opposed to the financial side of things, it’s ultimately the social aspects that are so important in this form of housing construction.

At least, this is what her own

developers, the architect and the group’s lawyers, is essential for the success of a joint undertaking and, moreover, is recognised under the HOAI (Official Scale of Fees for Services by Architects and Enginee rs). And p recisely because of the special commitment required here, remuneration for such services are at a correspondingly higher level.

Conducting and negotiating during a “many-voiced concert” until the planning decisions have been made in the interest of the whole group, and the desire for good, consistent standards has been fulfilled, is not a job for the faint of heart. According to Hornstein, the actual joint decision-making process sometimes looks quite different, especially when the parties involved demand exemptions for individual decisions. In

Collaborative process from acquisition to execution: building co-operative “Gemeinsam größer” (Bigger Together), Domagkpark, Munich 2016. Conplan/agmm

experience has taught her.

Of course, this isn’t possible without rules and therefore the role of the moderator, manager or project supervisor is n e ces sa r y. Su ch b u i l d i n g groups also requi re an architect, however, who not only has to be much more invo l ve d t h a n i n “ n o r m a l ” housing projects, but also has to value this form of cooperat i o n . S u ch m a n a g e m e n t, which mediates between the

such cases, the architects have to prepare themselves accordingly and present alternatives that will lead to consensus, that stand up to group discussion and that can satisfy everyone. Incidentally, the same commitment applies to the specialist planners, who have to get involved in the work with the individual working groups set up by the building group, who, in the spi ri t of l ived democracy,

deal with the proposals in committees, examine objections and ultimately make decisions. This creates a completely different bond of trust, not only within the group but with the service providers as well.

W hat kind of people actually have the courage to build communal housing? The prerequisite is that individuals have sufficient equity capital, otherwise it’ll be difficult to finance a project of this size, the price of which – at least in Munich – is around 7000 euros per square metre, according t o O c t i a va n n e H o r n s t e i n .

Sq u a re -m e t re p r i ces t h a t have increased by 25 per cent in the last few years due to an increase in construction costs during a boom economy. With building groups it occasionally occurs that some members pay more in advance to, for example, compensate for existing funding shortfalls during the purchase of the property. Even if there are safeguards for these extra contributions, a basis of trust is still essential for such a gesture.

Ultimately, however, all the parties involved finance the project through a bank, which in turn understands and must support this type of construction project. This has to do with the legal peculiarities upon which building groups are based as civil law partnerships (GbR). Although this model has proven to work quite well, there are still not that many banks who support such ventures; in this case it’s mainly the environmentally-based banks and savings banks.

But what are the general conditions for building groups in cities, for example in Munich?

“Here we have the ‘Munich mix’. This means that plots of land belonging to the city are distributed to certain actors page

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German Rethinking the Future of Water

Rhine, Moselle, Elbe. When people are asked about critical water events in Germany, the answer thus far has probably been “flooding”. However, since the dry summer of 2018, the danger of water shortages has become an issue here, as well. Javier Arpa Fernández spoke with Henk Ovink, an expert on international water issues, about the situation in the world – and what Germany can learn from it for the future.

Javier Arpa Fernández in conversation with Henk Ovink page

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Javier Arpa Fernández: We want to look at the water situation in Germany, star ting from two different points of view. Henk Ovink, as a Dutch expert on international water a f fai rs, I’m su re you have some suggestions for Germany. How can we learn from each other?

But let’s take a look at the broader image. What’s the situation regarding fresh water resources around the world?

And where are we headed?

What are the most threatened areas in the world? And what are the consequences of solutions for the current situation?

Henk Ovink: Yes exactly, it’s important to first look at the g l o b a l co n t ex t . B e ca u s e when it comes to the topic of water, you can’t just look at one region in isolation, it’s all connected.1 There are a couple of issues. Fresh water availability, fresh water quality, and the growing demand for water, because of a growing population, a growing economy, and a rapidly increasing middle class. Freshwater demand is increasing faster than population growth. Agriculture uses up, on average, more than seventy per cent of available water. At the same time, there simply is no more water.

It‘s not that with the growth of population, there’s also more water. If you look at all the water in the world, only 0.4 per cent is available for human consumption – agriculture, industry, or for drinking.

Seventy per cent of the surface of our planet is covered with water. In comparison to the volume of the globe, the amount of water on our planet is very small, however. It’s only like a film on the surface. The-

SOURCE: HOWARD PE RL M AN, USGS, JACK COOK, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGR APHIC INSTITUTION, ADA M NIE M AN, IGOR SHIKLOM ANOV

Water re seems to be a lot of water in the world, but it is much scarcer than people think.

So there is a triple challenge, in a way. Water is, in itself, already a scarce natural resource. Second, it’s not considered as a commodity, in contrast with, for example, fossil fuel or food. Agriculture, i.e. food production, is an economy, agriculture provides commodities for that market. With water, there is no economy.

Water is a human right. This means there is no price on water. There are countries in the world where the constitution says it’s forbidden to put a price on water. In the end, water is undervalued. And third, with climate change everything becomes more challenging, it’s the big magnifying glass on all our challenges and needs, on our vulnerabilities and interdependencies. Extremes become more extreme; dry places get drier, and wet places get wetter. There is more intense rainfall, longer periods of droughts, more extremes battering our systems, our infrastructure, our societies and environment.

The three foundational pillars of water security JAF: And what solutions would there be to address of the current situation?

HO: I helped set up and was a sherpa for the High Level Panel on Water (HLPW)2, with 11 presidents and prime ministers from across the world, the secretary general of the UN and the president of the World Bank. With the HLPW we developed an Agenda for Water Action that had three foundational pillars:

All water found on Earth: in oceans, ice caps, lakes, rivers, groundwater, atmospheric water and the water contained in animals including humans and plants (volume of about 1,386,000,000 km3) Liquid water: Ground water, lakes, marsh water and rivers (volume of about 10,633,450 km3) Freshwater: All the surface bodies of water such as lakes and rivers of the earth (volume of about 93,113 km3)

Visualisation of the amounts of water on Earth in comparison with the size of the planet

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German Beauty Mobility on branch lines Population: 3,754,418 Year station was built:

Berlin-Charlottenburg dep 10:21

Berlin Zoologischer Garten dep 10:17

Berlin central station dep 10.11

10:0 0

Regional-Express (local transport):

Comfortable ICE travel through Germany, changing trains at multi-function railway stations, the countless stops for regional and local trains... all disappearing at high speed. The Deutsche Bahn AG owns 33,400 kilometres of rail and 5,700 passenger stations, of which many are far from inviting places to wait – nevertheless, commuters use them on a daily basis.

What kind of places are these? Winy Maas asks himself. A leisurely photographic journey from Berlin to GrabenNeudorf, through true jewels far from the usual tourist destinations.

1871/2006

Berlin, Berlin Every day, this station serves as a stop for 10 ICEs, 3 ECs, 3 ICs, and 2 Night Jets of the Ă–BB (to Zurich and Vienna), while also handling traffic from 4 S-Bahn lines, 4 local and 8 regional trains, The Berlin Hauptbahnhof (main railway station), formerly known as the Lehrte Stadtbahnhof, is a

Text and illustration: German reality

project of the firm Gerkan, Marg & Partner. After an eleven year construction period, it was reopened on 28 May 2006 as the largest and most modern junction station in Europe.

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PHOTO: WIKIPE DIA/ANSGAR KORE NG

for a total of 300,000 travellers.

Population:

Population:

26,427

23,420

Year station was built:

Year station was

1846

built: 1846

Population:

3,041

15,736

Year station was built:

Year station was built:

1850 (main railway buildings),

1873

1900 (small station), additional

Station building:

construction in 1915 and 1930

1901

INTERCHANGE TIME 34 MIN.

Magdeburg arr 11:51

Burg (Magdeburg), Saxony-Anhalt

Werder (Havel),

Magdeburg-Neustadt, Saxony-Anhalt

Brandenburg

PHOTOS: WIKIPE DIA/A . SAVIN, GREGOR ROM , H. BRÜNIG, GRE IFE N

Magdeburg-Neustadt dep 11:47

12 : 0 0

Burg (Magdeburg) dep 11:33

Güsen (b Genthin) dep 11:26

Genthin dep 11:18

Wusterwitz dep 11:10

11: 3 0

Kirchmöser dep 11:06

Werder (Havel) dep 10:46

Brandenburg central station dep 11:00

11: 0 0

Potsdam main station dep 10:38

Berlin Wannsee dep 10:30

10:3 0

Population:

Railway traffic: The station is a stop for the HBX (Harz-Berlin

With about 2,000 passengers per

The regional express RE1 secures

Express), as well as the regional

day, the Neustadt station is the

the local connection to Potsdam,

express rail lines RE1 and RB40

second-most-important stop

Berlin and Magdeburg with trains

Wusterwitz,

on an hourly basis.

for the city of Magdeburg. The RE1

running every half hour.

Brandenburg

The station building of the Burg

and RE13, the RB 35 and the S1

railway station is part of a parti-

all stop here, ensuring good con-

The town plans to rebuild the station forecourt in 2020 to improve

The RE1 on the Berlin-Magdeburg

ally heritage-protected complex

nectivity to the main train station

the ÖPNV (short-range public

line makes hourly stops here.

with a historical loading crane

as well as to other towns in the

transit) infrastructure. After a long

The station complex on the main

and a water tank. A newly de-

region.

period of disuse, the historical

line encompasses the historical

signed forecourt, which extends

The historical entrance building

station building was repurposed.

station building with extensions

out to the Goethepark, served

was constructed by the Royal

The town of Werder occupies an

from later years, a wall and a

as the main entrance to the 2018

Prussian Railway Administration

idyllic spot on the Havel River with

freight shed. Though the buildings

Saxony-Anhalt Landesgarten-

in 1901. After the station forecourt

its historical centre located on an

have been historically listed by

schau (federal state garden

was upgraded in 2010, the rele-

island. Because of its abundance

the federal state of Brandenburg,

show). It gave Burg the opportuni-

vant federal railway office au-

of flowering fruit trees it is often

they no longer serve their original

ty to install parks and to beautify

thorised the re-purposing of the

given the epithet “blossom city”.

purpose.

the shores of the Ihle River.

building as a fitness studio in 2019.

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“I don’t like boring!”

An entire Baumeister issue on Germany, curated by a Dutch architect – as curator, you have to be brave to embark on such an endeavour.

Winy Maas and his firm MVRDV are arguably among those architecture firms for whom a certain bravery is part of their philosophy. In this interview, Winy Maas tells Alexander Gutzmer what made him do this Baumeister issue the way he did – and why Hans Kollhoff once shocked him to the bone.

Alexander Gutzmer in conversation with Winy Maas

Alexande r Gutzme r: Winy, thanks for doing this issue with us. What about this project interested you?

Winy Maas: First of all, the medium itself – a magazine. I love magazines and find print architecture publications a really important element for arch i tectu ra l d i scou rse and practice. Print magazines are a platform worth defending.

There are more online zines than ever, but these are lacking substance and depth. For us, doing a magazine is also an extension of our work as architects. There are ideas that we cannot immediately put into a building. So we put them in magazines, and now in yours.

AG: Do you read magazines yourself? page

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WM: Endlessly. I also use what I read in my presentations worldwide from Graben-Neudorf to Taiwan. Quotes and quotations are an important intellectual tool today, for science as well as for me. They put things into perspective.

We as architects have to be experts in constantly obtaining new perspectives. I take a lot of screenshots when I read and find interesting stuff. I use these as an inspiration for my work and also for my lectures, a cool copy & paste.

AG: And reading helps in this context?

WM: It is essential. We are all working on the future somehow. With all the massive piles of information out there, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to perform

what I call a continuous evaluation of evolution. This is the true meaning of the information revolution.

AG: One key insight of this information revolution seems to be that information is everywhere, omnipresent. Mobile phones are the cultural icons of our time, and smart products are carrying the notion of information into the physical re a l m . Yo u r a rch i t e c t u re seems to reflect this information hyperload, for instance with the mixed-use building Werk 12 in Munich, which has words on its facade.

WM: At MVRDV, we have always been interested in information, essentially since Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries and myself started the office.

With our library projects such

as the Tianjin Binhai, we celeb rate the writ ten wo rd, through the exposition of the vast number of books there.

Information, you could say, is in our generation’s bloodstream.

AG: And it can create real change.

WM: True. That is why I am toying with the idea of an information “war room” at the moment, like in Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove”. My idea is to create a physical place that collects all the information in the world, a kind of universal monitoring hub. We need a space to show data, otherwise it’s too abstract. Data has to be shown and analysed in a suggestive way. We are currently in talks with a tech company about this idea. This war

room would be perfect for instance in Brussels, as an answer to the need for the EU to reinvent itself.

SKE TCH: WINY M A AS

AG: And will it happen?

WM: For now, it‘s still in the dream stage, but why not. I am trying to realise some smaller version of it during the landscape architecture show Floriade taking place in 2022 in Almere, Netherlands. What is important is that this war room can create a kind of knowledge that will provide us with new responses, for instance to cl i m a te cha nge. D i d you know, for example, that if we put all cities worldwide in one b u i l d i n g , t h e n we co u l d achieve a 1,300 per cent improvement in our CO2 balance? Or that if we all lived over or next to the oceans, then the world‘s climate would be 1.6 degrees cooler? I know all this sounds far-fetched, but these kinds of insights can help solve real problems.

AG: Another kind of war room, if you want, is our editorial office, where we are currently preparing, together with you and your team, this guest-curated issue.1 The overall topic is Germany. Why Germany?

WM: In a way, MVRDV was born in Berlin. Back in 1991, we won the Europan Competition with our project Berlin Voids, essentially a giant puzzle of different apartment types. Today, Germany is highly important for Europe. From a Dutch perspective, our view of Germany is kind of a Calimero effect: We Dutch are like this small duck from comic books, fascinated by the potential power of Germany. And then, I would also call our engagement a post Rudi Carrel thing: We do take this seriously and want to show that there is more to Dutch-German collaboration than that one entertainer. I want to have more dialogue, to create a relationship with Germany. I would love to talk once to Angela Merkel.

The Eye in the centre of information flow: Tianjin Binhai Library, 2017

AG: Is there a part of Germany you have a particularly strong connection to? page

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Green Dip Mumbai

ILLUSTR ATIONE N: THE WHY FAC TORY (DE LF T UNIVE RSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY)

Green Dip New York

PAG E 116

PAG E 12 4

19 Solutions: Facade Interior + REFERENCE:

HOTEL ÖSCHBERGHOF IN DONAU-ESCHINGEN WITH FURNITURE

BY BRU N N E R SEITE 12 2

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115

Solutions Facade Many people have now had enough of glass and steel as facade materials.

Architects are increasingly using natural stone, brick and clinker at the request of their clients, as these materials make it possible to refer to regional characteristics and to embed the building in its surroundings.

Thanks to transport distances that are often shorter, the carbon footprint is also better. by Gabriele Oldenburg

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116

Slender residential

for the facade of

tower with three-

the 26-storey tower

dimensional ceramic

and its six-storey

facade

base. The three-di-

building in widths of

and commercial

543 to 760 mm are

building, at 125 m

based on the Longo-

high, is a rather small

ton System and

high-rise. Skidmore,

were installed as a

Owings & Merrill

curtain-type, back-

(SOM) planned the

ventilated facade.

slender residential

With curved round-

tower, and in keeping

ings of between

with the brick apart-

120 and 200 mm,

ment buildings on the

they protrude out of

Upper West Side, the

the facade level

architects chose

and narrow in three

white glazed ceramic

stages to the upper

tiles from Moeding

edge of the building.

PHOTO: F IE LD CONDITION/SHILDAN GROUP

1

developed for the

Loggia residential

WWW. MOEDING.DE

mensional elements For New York, the Park

B

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Portfolio 2020

Architects’ Best Products

Trade shows? Postponed or cancelled. Sales representative visit? Difficult to impossible due to home office and contact restrictions. So what to do if you want to find out about new products and solutions? You can research the Internet, but there you often end up doing more searching than finding. Or you can simply open your Baumeister and discover the products and solutions selected by our editorial staff.

Advertisement The Luminaires

PRODUCTS: Lights from the Puk World series M ANUFAC TURE R: Top Light FEATURES: LED lens lights, developed by Rolf Ziel.

The large selection of models in this product family offers a use throughout all room situations.

1

Creating atmosphere with light www.top-light.de

1 The lighting effect

lighting solution is

achieved by Top

both for the appear-

Light’s Puk-World

ance of a building

series of luminaires

and the atmosphere

makes it clear how

inside it. Top left: at

important a suitable

the reception desk

The multi-storey office building of the tax and law firm Michl in Bad Kreuznach shows what a creative lighting concept can do indoors as well as outdoors.

Lighting designer Hans Josef Henrich has achieved an ideal symbiosis by choosing LED lamps which all come from Top Light’s award-winning Puk-World series: The interplay of light and shadow creates remarkable effects both inside and on the building, i.e. not only in the building’s impressive interior, but from the outside as well during the night-time hours.

Puk Wall lights were used in the central staircase, the heart of the building. This simple but appealing luminaire provides functional and yet up-beat lighting in the entrance area. The play of light on the walls, which is also visible from outside, gives the staircase a more relaxed ambiance. Both Puk Turn ceiling lights and

Puk Drop pendant lights are used in the interior. The pendant lights above the reception desk in the entrance area create an arresting play of light thanks to this model’s complex lens, immediately making clients and guests feel welcome.

In addition to the luminaires being a special eye-catcher, their effective lighting also creates a pleasant atmosphere.

The ceiling lights are also used in Bad Kreuznach when paintings are to be illuminated or to create special lighting effects on the walls.