Building Across Worlds: International Projects by Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner 9783955533205, 9783955533199

Table of contents :
Content
From Simplicity and Structural Order
Raising the Curtain on Building Culture
The Fourth and Fifth Quality of Building
Arvo Pärt’s Game of Dice and the Kings at the Lake
Feng Shui, Interrelationships and Parametric Design
The Stadium as a Stage for the Choreography of the Masses
From Here to There
New Public Dialogues
Project Credits
About the Office
Authors
Picture Credits

Citation preview

Building Across Worlds

Building Across Worlds International Projects by Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners

Editor Christian Schittich Authors Wojciech Czaja, Oliver G. Hamm, Falk Jaeger, Katharina Matzig, Nina Rappaport, Jürgen Tietz Editorial team Cornelia Hellstern (project management), Cosima Frohnmaier, Florian Köhler, Anne Krins, Kai Meyer, Natalie Muhr, Nina Müller; Sandra Leitte (copy editing German version) Translation into English Susanne Hauger, New York Copy editing Emma Jones, Zurich Design concept Cornelia Hellstern Drawings Ralph Donhauser Production /DTP Simone Soesters Reproduction ludwig:media, Zell am See

© 2016, first edition DETAIL – Institut für internationale ArchitekturDokumentation GmbH & Co. KG, Munich www.detail.de ISBN 978-3-95553-319-9 (Print) ISBN 978-3-95553-320-5 (E-Book) ISBN 978-3-95553-321-2 (Bundle) This work is subject to copyright. All rights reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in databases. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained. Bibliographical information published by the German National Library. The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographical data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Printing and binding Grafisches Centrum Cuno

GmbH & Co. KG, Calbe

The FSC-certified paper used for this book is manufactured from fibres proved to originate from environmentally and socially compatible sources.

Cover Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha Brasília Page 7 National Stadium Warsaw

Content

Christian Schittich Katharina Matzig

Falk Jaeger

Wojciech Czaja

Oliver G. Hamm

Falk Jaeger

Jürgen Tietz

Nina Rappaport

From Simplicity and Structural Order

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Raising the Curtain on Building Culture Tianjin Grand Theatre • Culture Palace Dresden

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The Fourth and Fifth Quality of Building Universiade Sports Center Shenzhen • Bao’an Stadium Shenzhen • Shanghai Oriental Sports Center

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Arvo Pärt’s Game of Dice and the Kings at the Lake Christ Pavilion Expo 2000 / Kloster Volkenroda • Holiday Houses “Apfelhof” on the Fleesensee

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Feng Shui, Interrelationships and Parametric Design Wanxiang Plaza Shanghai • SOHO 2 Beijing • 3Cubes Shanghai

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The Stadium as a Stage for the Choreography of the Masses Olympic Stadium Kiev • National Stadium Warsaw • Arena da Amazônia Manaus • Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha Brasília • Estádio Santiago Bernabéu Madrid

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From Here to There Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport BER • Tianjin West Railway Station

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New Public Dialogues Hanoi Museum • Kunsthalle Mannheim

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Project Credits About the Office Authors Picture Credits

154 158 159 160

From Simplicity and Structural Order

On the international stage, the Hamburgbased architects von Gerkan Marg und Partner, known as gmp, are without a doubt one of the best-known German architecture firms. With projects such as the Berlin Olympic Stadium, the Tianjin Grand Theatre, the Vietnamese National Assembly Building in Hanoi, and the new football stadium in Cape Town, they have reshaped the image of many cities and created impressive landmarks all over the world. The firm is represented in just about every important building category: airports and railways stations, concert halls and exhibition spaces. The building of stadiums, however, has garnered gmp some of their greatest international recognition. In each of the most recent World Cups – in Germany, South Africa, and two years ago in Brazil – they were responsible for at least three large new construction or refurbishment projects. The stadiums have come to serve as especially clear displays of the firm’s essential design principles. In their work, the architects of gmp task themselves with designing buildings that keep functional circumstances as well as the special characteristics of each individual site in mind. They are as unlikely to engage in formal excesses as they are to adopt the passing trends of the day. Simplicity and structural order are paramount,

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Preface

in the outlines of the overall concept as well as in the support structure. Attention to detail and carefully executed, well thoughtout construction processes are among the firm’s key strengths. Attention seeking is avoided. At gmp, in accordance with their very clear philosophy, form follows logic and therefore also the fundamental imperatives. This approach holds not only for large transportation buildings, cultural buildings, and office buildings, but especially also for smaller, meditative houses, a fact impressively illustrated in two examples featured in this book. One of these is the Christ Pavilion. Designed at its outset to be easily dismantled, it first turned heads at the Expo 2000 in Hanover before being transported and reassembled in the Thuringian village of Volkenroda to complete a monastery. Visitors can still experience its contemplative atmosphere, which the architects were able to create despite the standardisation and prefabrication that its construction necessitated. This publication illustrates mostly contemporary projects by gmp, some of which are still in the process of completion. Whereas most typical retrospectives of renowned architects present projects in chronological order, the arrangement here is different. Prominent technical authors compare and contrast two or more buildings to one

another on the basis of a specific topic or a particular typology. In this way, the Kunsthalle in the German city of Mannheim is compared to the National Museum in Hanoi; the new international airport in Berlin Brandenburg is set opposite the West Railway Station in the Chinese city of Tianjin. And the refurbishment of the National Stadium in Brasília, as well as other new international arenas by gmp, are elucidated alongside the modernisation of the Estádio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, which is currently in its design stage. With this approach, the authors point out the similarities and differences between buildings, but also examine lines of devel-

opment, distinctive features of the given country or place, and questions regarding appropriate scale and cultural differences. In addition, they frequently address the working relationship between gmp and building clients or specialist planners. Lastly, they include a discussion of the political and societal aspects as well as the urban development context of each project. Their analyses reflect the architects’ own preference of dealing with every phase of a new project, starting with the master plan and ending with the interior design. This generalist approach occupies centre stage. Christian Schittich

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Raising the Curtain on Building Culture Tianjin Grand Theatre • Culture Palace Dresden

Culture: according to the original meaning of the Latin cultura, this word describes everything that humans create. The term is perhaps better understood through its opposite: nature – that which is not made by man. This is not to say that culture does not lie in the nature of man – it most certainly does, everywhere, in China as well as in eastern Germany. The cities of Tianjin and Dresden – separated by 7,544 kilometres – are thus united by far more than the architecture firm gmp, which is responsible for the new construction of the Grand Theatre as well as the modernisation and refurbishment of the Culture Palace. Both buildings not only expand the cultural programme of their cities spatially, but substantively as well, and they offer their visitors a variety of experiences. Under a large roof in Tianjin, or within an enclosing shell in Dresden, diverse cultural events take place, ranging from choral concerts to comedies, from oratorios to operas. In the case of Dresden, the selection will even range from lectures to lending, since the city’s Central Library will be relocated into the 1969 building after the renovation work is completed in 2017. In the middle of the old city, on the Altmarkt (Old Market Square), the Culture Palace will reinvigorate and itself be reinvigorated. The Grand Theatre in Tianjin became the engine

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Cultural Buildings

of the newly created Cultural Centre some time ago. And here as well as there, it is the people that fill these architectural offerings with life... as is their nature. Tianjin: the Enormous Stage Anne-Sophie Mutter beams. Larger than life, an image of the famous violinist hangs above a creamy white upholstered seating area that huddles around a cobalt blue carpet in the backstage of the Tianjin Grand Theatre. With a dynamic stride and waving hair, she is pictured heading toward the stage entrance, her orchestra behind her. The enormous photograph must have been taken in June of 2013. At that time, according to the highly polished brass plaque

Tianjin Grand Theatre, Tianjin (CN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Nicolas Pomränke • Construction period: 2010 – 2012 • GFA: 85,000 m2 • Seats: 1,600 (Opera hall), 1,200 (Concert hall), 400 (Multi-function hall)

Modernisation and Refurbishment Culture Palace, Dresden (D). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Nicolas Pomränke • Construction period: 2013 – 2017 • GFA: 37,062 m2 • Seats: 1,818 (Concert hall, incl. 18 wheelchair spaces), 240 (Cabaret hall, incl. 4 wheelchair spaces) • Central library: 5,463 m2

Tianjin Grand Theatre Aerial view (right) • Design rendering showing the Culture Palace Dresden after modernisation and refurbishment (below)

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under its frame, the German violinist gave a concert: “Anne-Sophie Mutter and Mutter’s Virtuosi performed in the Tianjin Grand Theatre Concert Hall on June 15, 2013.” Whether she sat on the pale sofa backstage is not documented, but it is probable. What is certain, however, is that she walked across the blue rug, across a composition of horizontal, vertical and diagonal strokes woven in gold, over which golden letters proclaim: Tianjin Grand Theatre. Not every building manages to have its image – stylised, perhaps, but recognisable – rendered on carpet. Certainly not on one over which a good-humoured Anne-Sophie Mutter strides. Or a Riccardo Muti. He and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra had been guests at the Grand Theatre a few weeks earlier, on 4 February 2013. At that time, the building delineated in abstract lines on the carpet was exactly a year old, as the Grand Theatre had celebrated its opening

Tianjin Grand Theatre The roof soars above the raised podium level. On the southern shore of the lake are the library by Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop and the Art Museum by KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten.

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Cultural Buildings

on 3 February 2012. In fact, no fewer than fifteen international classical stars took the stage there in the Grand Theatre’s very first season. The centre of Tianjin is located 120 kilometres southeast of Beijing. If you take a train on the JingJin Line (which neatly connects the terminal stations BeiJING and TianJIN with one another) from the Beijing South Railway Station, you will arrive at the Tianjin West Railway Station in 30 minutes, reaching a speed of 300 kilometres per hour on the way. There is no better way to get to the Grand Theatre from the capital: Tianjin’s West Railway Station, whose high, barrelshaped roof is recognisable from afar, was designed, like the Grand Theatre, by gmp and completed in 2011. The city of Tianjin currently has 14 million residents. It is one of four directly controlled municipalities, meaning it is under the direct administration of the central government in

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Tianjin Grand Theatre Site plan, scale 1:10,000 1 Tianjin Grand Theatre 2 Library, 2012, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop 3 Art Museum, 2012, KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten 4 Museum of Culture, 2012, Architectural Design Institute of South China University of Technology 5 Museum of Natural Sciences, 2004, Shin Takamatsu 6 Galaxy Mall, 2012, tvsdesign

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Beijing and is therefore equal in status to a province. Its area comprises 11,943 square kilometres, only slightly smaller than Schleswig-Holstein. Of that total, the true urban core, with its high building density, only accounts for 167.8 square kilometres, while the remaining 98.6 % are suburbs and regions with rural settlement structures. Tianjin is the third most powerful trade centre of the People’s Republic. Many industries are based here: machine construction, textiles, electrical technology, petrochemistry and steel. The latter has been used since 1950 to manufacture the iconic “Flying Pigeon,” China’s most popular bicycle brand, which has sold, if the published numbers are to be believed, 75 million units. On August 12th, 2015, Tianjin gained sad notoriety when a series of explosions in the harbour killed more than 150 people, injured

almost 800, and released highly toxic chemicals, initiating an environmental catastrophe. The accident hit the city hard: Tianjin is the most important river port on the Haihe and one of the largest international trade ports in China. In 1858, it became a treaty port with European concessions. And while the Austrian, Italian, Russian and Belgian concessions on the northern bank of the river were largely destroyed, the chateaux of the French concession south of the Haihe in the inner city, the mansions of the British to the east of them, and a few German buildings can still be seen today. Incidentally, one of the latter sights includes the historically listed former West Railway Station of 1909; when the new station was built, the old was simply moved a few metres, and now awaits its renovation and rededication as a museum.

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Culture as a Means of Urban Development Stagnation in urban development? Not in present-day China – and not in the former GDR in the 1960s and 70s. The method of choice for keeping citizens happy is culture, and Tianjin is as unwilling to be content with its 600 years of history as it is with its economic power. Stagnation and urban development are mutually exclusive, both in China and in the GDR of the 1960s and 70s. It is and was well-understood by the political leaders in China and in the GDR that an investment in education and culture pays a high dividend. Bread must be accompanied by circuses: In old China, they say, every city worth its salt had a drum tower. In the socialist era, the sine qua non was the enormous square for political rallies, usually called the “People’s Square” – a phenomenon by no means limited to that part of the world. Now, in the age of capitalism, the money is on powerful architectural symbols

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Cultural Buildings

in the form of Grand Theatres. “BauNetz” claims to have counted 40 – 50 newly built Grand Theatres in the People’s Republic in the first decade of the 21st century. More have been added since, such as the one in Tianjin, which owes its existence to a decision reached in 2008 by the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and the Tianjin Municipal Government. The theatre’s director, Qian Cheng, asserts that “investment returns alone are not enough for people anymore. I believe it is art that facilitates a social life determined by respect and values.” Otto Grotewohl, prime minister of the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1964, would certainly have agreed with this sentiment. In 1951 he declared that “the struggle for the democratic renewal of cultural life plays an important role.” Eighteen years later, the Culture Palace was opened in Dresden. Dresden’s development was met with obvious approbation. In the pref-

Tianjin Grand Theatre Horizontal layering achieves a unification of roof, facade and podium; the rear portion of the roof houses functional spaces (above) • An oyster with pearls as a model for the roof construction (below) • Night-time rendering, competition entry (right)

ace to the Architekturführer DDR Bezirk Dresden (“Architectural Guide GDR, District of Dresden”) published in 1978, it says: “Dresden, the city on the river, once famous as the Florence of the Elbe, a splendid harmony of countryside, architecture, and fine arts, barbarically destroyed by Anglo-American bomber wings in 1945, has risen from the ruins. Under the leadership of the Worker’s Party, the SED [Socialist Unity Party], it has developed into a socialist metropolis.” Though the GDR is now history, the story of the Culture Palace is still being written: the first concert after its four-year refurbishment is scheduled to take place there in the spring of 2017. Large Dimensions The Culture Centre in Tianjin and the Altmarkt with its Culture Palace in Dresden are both large-scale designs, with one difference: while China converts architectural drawings into reality in record time, the craze for the huge and spectacular in Dresden’s urban development has remained a utopian dream. The site of the Culture Centre, located about two kilometres south of the Tianjin city centre and easily accessed by public transportation, has an area of 100 hectares. Even Beijing cannot compete: the Forbidden City

covers 72 hectares and Tiananmen Square 44. Dimensions like this are unimaginable in Germany. The historic Altmarkt (the oldest square in Dresden, first mentioned in 1370), measures scarcely 1.3 hectares. The square, on the northern side of which the Culture Palace was built, was supposed to have been enlarged to twenty hectares after its destruction in World War II, complete with stands for rallies and marches, a Socialist Unity Party (SED) House, and a Council House. But after the 1952 competition, the medieval square underwent no such radical enlargement; the GDR’s “Sixteen Principles of Urban Development,” drawn up in the Soviet Union on April 28th, 1950, remained theory. Even though the city centre was supposed to be the “political centre” with the “most important and most monumental buildings,” with squares for “political rallies and marches,” the Altmarkt was rescaled with an eye to traffic and not mass demonstrations. It kept its rectangular shape and its view of the Kreuzkirche, the most important religious building in the city for centuries, as well as of the Neumarkt (New Market), created in the first city expansion of 1550, and the Frauenkirche, reopened in 2005. Dresden’s reconstruction concept was based on a small-scale approach and a lively diversity in the inner city.

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Tianjin Grand Theatre View with the lake in the foreground (above) • View into the interior courtyard: in the centre is the Multi-function hall, on the left the Concert hall, on the right the Opera hall (right)

Nevertheless the construction of the Culture Palace set new standards, and like the Grand Theatre in Tianjin, it exceeded them – because in today’s China and in the GDR of 50 years ago, the attitude toward size is and was very different. The authoritarian socialist systems of the past and the present would agree that “size matters.” But it is not size alone that is expected to propel Tianjin or Dresden to (even greater) greatness. It is, rather, the quality of the architecture, in terms of both urban development and design: newly conceived and built in Tianjin, carefully refurbished and completely internally rebuilt in Dresden.

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The Tianjin Culture Centre In the heart of the Tianjin Culture Centre, created on the site of a former amusement park, lies a large artificial lake, a reminder of the lifeblood of Tianjin, the Haihe River. Here, at half past eight every evening, a circular arrangement of numerous fountains imported from Las Vegas jets into the air in a 10-minute display, appropriately illuminated and accompanied by classical music. If the lake is the heart, the Grand Theatre is the head. While it was being built, several other buildings, based on the master plan developed jointly by the Tianjin Urban

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Tianjin Grand Theatre Floor plan with traffic flow patterns, scale 1:2,000 (above) 1 Pedestrian level 2 Opera hall 3 Multi-function hall 4 Concert hall Pedestrians VIP entrance Vehicular traffic Deliveries

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Planning & Design Institute and SOM, were also taking shape: a library designed by competition winners Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop, an art museum by KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten and the Tianjin Museum, designed by the Architectural Design Research Institute of the South China University of Technology (SCUT). Graceful and discreetly spaced, the three buildings line up along the southern lake promenade. Across from them, Tianjin Architecture Design Institute’s Galaxy Mall occupies almost the entire waterfront. Facing the Grand Theatre on the other

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side of the lake is the Natural History Museum, whose form is based on two overlapping circles. Originally designed as a city museum by Shin Takamatsu und Mamoru Kawaguchi in 2004, it was converted in 2014. Stephan Rewolle, who has headed the Beijing office of gmp for twelve years, remembers meetings at which all the architects and developers involved in the Culture Centre gathered around a single table to discuss the best possible results not only for each individual design, but for the Culture Centre as a whole: a balance of

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integrity and individuality; and a harmonisation of Chinese landscape composition elements (mountain, water, tower) with Western urban design tools (axis and boulevard). As it happens, whether in form, colour, or material, nothing falls out of line here. And because ecological concerns have become an issue in China, three power stations, partly fuelled by renewable energy sources, supply the district. The cobalt blue carpet, by the way – the one with the form of the Grand Theatre outlined in golden strokes – is unique. It is not for sale. But in the museum shop of the Tianjin Museum, for 50 renminbi (about 7 euros), you can buy a blue booklet published by the Tianjin Philatelic Company. It presents stamps bearing detailed depictions of the architecture of the Culture Centre and all of its buildings. The phrase “the arts enrich the character of a city” is written over the stage entrance of the Grand Theatre beyond the carpet. Tianjin has quite clearly taken this statement to heart. The first page of the philatelic booklet illustrates the entire ensemble. The second page is dedicated to the Grand Theatre, which emphasises its prominence within the Culture Centre. Alone the Grand Theatre’s solitary position on the eastern shore of the lake makes it obvious that it dominates the other buildings. The structure, acting as the starting point as well as the terminus of the Culture Centre, is both a gesture to the lake and a link to the city centre. It was completed in record time: a mere three years separate the 2009 design competition and the building’s opening in 2012.

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Tianjin Grand Theatre during construction period 2010 – 2012 (facing page) • Culture Palace Dresden Night-time rendering (above) • Competition entry by the Wiel Collective from the year 1959 (below)

Victory of Building Culture In the National Museum in Beijing designed by gmp, all of the competition results for that building are generously and permanently on display. Neither the Grand Theatre nor the Culture Palace feature a similar educational space. Each of the two competitions certainly has a story to tell: 40 renowned national and international architecture firms conceived ideas for Tianjin, such as OMA’s entry, the “Tide of Tianjin,” which proposes the form of an expressive wave. But the jury wisely chose not to select a so-called “signature building,” which values form over function and rarely combines both in a sensible way. Gmp’s victory and commission instead honoured a design that constitutes an invitation to a sensory submersion, an art experience that would gratify director Qian Cheng. In Dresden, an exhibit featuring the 28 submissions by international firms for the refurbishment of the Culture

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Palace was dismantled early on. This competition was held in 2009, the same year as the competition for Tianjin. It is clear, however, that the various parties involved in the construction of Tianjin’s Culture Centre reached a consensus much more quickly than was reached in Dresden by the city, the state, the citizens, the State Conservation Office, and the architect Wolfgang Hänsch; who built the Culture Palace in 1969. Although perhaps this is just an indication that, in China, “speed matters.” In 2003, debate over the best solution for the aging Culture Palace was already raging in Dresden. Every possibility for the

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building was discussed: complete or partial demolition, preservation and renovation. In 2007, the State Conservation Office placed the Culture Palace under protected status as a prominent architectural monument of the GDR Modernist era, “because it possesses special characteristics that make it valuable to the community.” This did not mean that no changes could be made to it. The city council of the State Capital of Dresden therefore decided in 2008 to house a first-rate concert hall, the Central Library and a venue for the cabaret theatre “Die Herkuleskeule” in the Culture Palace, after the building had been energetically upgraded and made compliant with all

Culture Palace Dresden North-south section, scale 1:1,000 (top) • Floor plan 2nd floor, scale 1:1,000 (bottom): In the process of the acoustical optimisation of the Concert hall both width and height were reduced with respect to the original (red line)

German Pavilion Sep Ruf & Egon Eiermann, Brussels (B) 1958 (left) • Culture Palace Dresden Photograph taken after its completion in 1969 (below)

safety specifications. This was the foundation for the architectural competition that gmp won on the basis of their “commendably good balance of functionality, aesthetics, new structure and building conservation,” as the jury emphasised. Thus, building culture won out over a flashier approach, though a “signature building” had certainly been desired in the past. In the 1950s, plans were proposed for a House of Socialist Culture (later renamed Culture Palace), to be built on the northern edge of the Altmarkt. In the competition held in 1959, the brief called for a high-rise.

Twenty-nine design collectives vied for the prize. Walter Ulbricht demanded that “modern technology absolutely be considered in the construction of this culture building, including the use of reinforced and prestressed concrete, large panes of glass, aluminium, [and] new chemical building materials.” Twenty-eight of the design collectives thereby proposed high-rises in diverse forms. But none of these designs came to fruition; the urban pinnacle failed due to financial constraints, sustained protests, and new political guidelines, and in 1966 the commission went to the one archi-

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tect who had not attempted to squeeze the hall into a vertical volume: Leopold Wiel. The long-haired professor of material science, structural theory, residential construction and design at the Technical University of Dresden had successfully ignored the competition brief, replacing the high-rise with a “sky needle,” an absolutely sufficient and certainly more sensible urban peak. His design did even more, however: the Culture Palace broke with the traditionalism imported from Moscow and instead aligned itself with the architectural language of Modernism; of Egon Eiermann and Sep Ruf. Together with the collective around Wolfgang Hänsch and Herbert Löschau, Wiel proposed a flat building with a reinforced concrete skeleton that encompassed a multi-functional hall with 2,740 seats, a multi-storey foyer, a restaurant, club rooms, and a studio theatre with 192 seats. His original design also featured a dome covered with gold leaf that was never realised. Heaven and Earth in Balance Gold is likewise unnecessary in Tianjin’s Grand Theatre. After all, the formal concept of the building is already as breathtaking as it is persuasive. On the western end of the lake, the volume of the Natural History Museum juts out of the earth like a shallow

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convex bowl intersected by a perfectly circular water basin. The Grand Theatre responds to this with a large, half-rounded roof that looks like a narrow spherical wedge cut from an enormous ball. The three-dimensional semicircle lies flat atop a squared-off U-shape open to the lake that encloses a generous courtyard. A very large skylight is cut out above the courtyard, and to the right and left of it, two rectangular structures punch through the roof and project upward. They pinpoint the locations of two of the three freestanding, independently usable halls. Ground contact is supplied by a podium, whose rounded form on the landward side mimics that of the roof. On top of it rests the entity which is so strikingly depicted in vertical, horizontal and diagonal strokes on the carpet. All on- and offloading of deliveries is handled entirely on the eastern side of the podium, so that the site of the Grand Theatre functions entirely without traffic. The single storey of the podium, reserved for performers and staff, rises above ground level, creating a curved street canyon. But on the water side, the stone plateau steps down from its sixmetre height in stairways that run along its entire breadth, creating a gigantic stage. This, however, remains closed to the public – an unequivocally inviting gesture that has so far come up empty – something that is a great pity. It is to be hoped that China will adapt to the idea that urban culture can exist only where it is allowed as a matter of course, unorganised and unmonitored, as quickly as it adapted to capitalism. After all, the arts enrich the character of a city only if you let them. And as history has proven, few political systems can last forever if they do not perceive the people as people. The architecture of the Grand Theatre has nothing to prove concerning the enrichment of Tianjin. Heaven and Earth are in perfect balance. Does the circular Natural History Museum not push itself into the ground?

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Tianjin Grand Theatre Functional diagram (left) 1 Opera hall 2 Multi-function hall 3 Concert hall

Bronzed glazing in the old Culture Palace Dresden (above) • Functional diagram (right) 1 Copper roof 2 Public library 3 Dresden Philharmonic 4 Concert hall 5 Dresden Information Centre 6 Visitor centre for the Stiftung Frauenkirche 7 Cabaret theatre “Herkuleskeule” 8 Entrance foyer

Does the circular Grand Theatre not open up toward the sky? According to Taoist teachings, this is how yin and yang, the two cosmic elemental forces whose harmonious dualism is so important to the Chinese, balance the scales. If one looks across the lake at the Grand Theatre, one is reminded of an open seashell. Like three pearls, the three halls, behind their horizontally structured glass facades, seem to be slumbering within. Such images are meant to call forth emotions, not to be replicated in every natural detail. Kitsch is not one of the firm’s stylistic devices. The roof is neither blue nor motherof-pearl; the pearls are cubic. The intrinsic value of this building is achieved through subtlety, propriety, and sensitivity. Culture Palace Dresden: Back to the Future The same can be said of the refurbishment in Dresden. Christian Hellmund from the firm gmp, who worked as the project leader

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for the renovation and the repurposing of the Culture Palace, still vividly remembers a meeting with Wolfgang Hänsch. The atmosphere was very pleasant. The original architect of the Culture Palace liked the ideas of accommodating a completely new concert hall within the hollowed-out hexagonal interior, replacing the former restaurant and the old club rooms with a library, and housing a hall for “Die Herkuleskeule” in the basement to incorporate a third functionality. But the old gentleman was still determined to bring a suit against the city to safe-guard his intellectual property. It was a matter of principle. The verdict of the Higher Regional Court was handed down in 2012: “The large hall is an outstanding architectural achievement,

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but the renovation needs of the city are of greater importance.” Wolfgang Hänsch died in 2013 at the age of 84. Presumably he would have made peace with the refurbishment, had he seen how carefully solutions were sought during the process that would preserve – and sometimes even recover – the character of the Culture Palace. Even during Hänsch’s lifetime, some interventions had already been necessary. Shortly after its opening, the large clear glass panes suspended between two white concrete sills were replaced with bronzed glass, which had a lasting negative impact on their effect. In 2006, the year of Dresden’s 800th anniversary, the southeast corner of the building

was converted into an information centre for the Frauenkirche; and the red granite slabs that were so characteristic of the Culture Palace but so untypical for Dresden were removed and replaced with glass. In the 1990s, a glass ticket window had been installed in the previously closed western corner. At the time, Hänsch yielded to the entirely understandable desire for transparency and merchandising, though the changes did not make him happy. The city was not entirely willing to grant him his wish of restoring the base of the building to granite, but it supplied gmp with a good argument for rebuilding large sections of the base with slabs from the original quarry in Ukraine.

Tianjin Grand Theatre View from the stage into the Opera hall (facing page) • Foyer of the Opera hall (below)

A Union of Diversity In Dresden one must enter the Culture Palace in order to view its “pearl,” the new concert hall, slumbering in its hidden depths. The elegance of the Grand Theatre, on the other hand, manifests itself from afar in the skillful construction of the geometric forms with their colour scheme of silver, grey, white and beige. The stone from which the podium is fashioned, a grey-white granite

from the north of China, is called Baima. It has been used in so many of gmp’s buildings in China – both inside and out, polished and rough-sawn, always hewn to gmp’s overarching architectural concept of seeking uniformity within variety – that the architects of the firm jokingly marvel at the fact that the quarry hasn’t long since been depleted. In Tianjin, the stone was laid on the floor as well as the walls. Its colour corresponds to the silver-grey spray-painted aluminium profiles that form horizontal protruding fins inside and out, and that combine with supports which also project out from the glazing, forming a sculptural lattice. The sixth facade of the Grand Theatre, the roof soffit, is likewise silver-grey. At night, delicate light strips overlaid on the soffit geometry give the building a fantastic appearance. In daylight, one can see the expanded metal panels that are fastened flush between the ceiling beams running parallel to the waterfront. The beams reflect the rhythm of the facade supports and determine the stepping that makes the form of the roof readable from the interior courtyard. The regular and colour-coordinated structure projects a soothing serenity;

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the restrained choice of materials lends the building an unpretentious, yet noble aura. The waterfront facades are canted slightly with respect to the ground, indicating the entrances to be found on all three sides, and mitigating the effect of their massive size. The interior was outfitted in a slightly more representative fashion. Here, travertine replaces granite, and stainless steel is used in place of aluminium. On two levels, the galleries of the foyer curve into the truly generous space, following the contours of the concert hall tiers and providing access to them. The beige travertine is found on the floor as well as on the walls, where vertically applied strips form a pattern that is reminiscent of the folds of a hanging curtain. All this provides a fitting introduction to the two large concert halls, which the visitor enters via glossy red timber doors set into slanted niches. An Opera House is an Opera House is an Opera House? The interior elegance makes sense, given that the name Grand Theatre contains the word “grand.” But the designation of “opera house” does not really do justice to the

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Grand Theatre, as the giant building in China is not an opera house in the European sense. Certainly the term “opera” is familiar to the Chinese – operas have existed in China since the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906), long before they emerged in old Europe. But in contrast to its European counterpart, the Chinese opera, including its most well-known variant, the Beijing opera, never developed its own architectural typology and did not become an urban fixture of elitist high culture – unlike, for example, the Semperoper in Dresden, located not far from the Culture Palace, which was built in its present form by Gottfried Semper in 1878 and reconstructed in 1985. A combination of music, singing, pantomime, theatre, martial arts and acrobatics, Chinese opera was always more accessible to the people; Berthold Brecht probably came closest to transferring its character to Europe in his anti-illusionist theatre. The Grand Theatre in Tianjin, like the Grand Theatres in Chongqing or Qingdao (which gmp also designed), is thus much more of a stage house that accommodates many different formats and performances: musicals and chamber concerts, comedies and orchestral works, and, the occasional opera.

Tianjin Grand Theatre Section, scale 1:1,000 (facing page) • Floor plan, Multi-function hall, scale 1:1,000 (below) • View into the Opera Hall (right)

The Culture Palace is also a playhouse. Since its opening in 1969, it has served as a multi-functional building for diverse cultural offerings, more of a municipal hall than a concert hall, whose central hexagonal ballroom, with its then-innovative Kippparkett (“Tilting parquet”) was built as much as for balls and conferences as it was for concerts. It is not hard to see why this was inadequate for the Dresden Philharmonic’s needs, but that will change. In a 2009 brochure for the Culture Palace, Anne-Sophie Mutter writes, “I value the Dresden Philharmonic a great deal, and I am also familiar with the completely inadequate acoustics of the hall in which this fantastic orchestra has had to perform to date. So I am very pleased that a world-class orchestra will now finally receive a world-class hall.” Despite what the term “Palace” suggests, the Culture Palace will remain a hybrid building, housing a concert hall, cabaret theatre, and a central library under a single roof. But its acoustic quality will – finally – do justice to the music. It is an interesting coincidence that the high point of this year’s event schedule at the Grand Theatre was a guest appearance by

the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolf Buchbinder. On April 30th, 2016, they performed piano concertos by Mozart, and a series of photos posted on social media show a sold-out concert hall. The musicians of the Staatskapelle Dresden were already familiar with the building and its surroundings, having been there last year in the course of their China concert tour. Commending the silence in the hall during their performance, they state on their website that “the attentiveness on the part of the audience has been of an international standard now for several years.” On this point, the music has clearly already altered not only the character of the city, but the behaviour of concert visitors as well. While the challenge for local audiences was to adapt to the unfamiliar etiquette governing European musical performances, the architects’ challenge lay in providing lighting and stage technology for all conceivable event types. Their solution? Different halls: variety within uniformity. Three Halls, Endless Possibilities The smallest of Grand Theatre’s three “pearls,” a multi functional stage for 400 visitors, lies in its centre, between the opera and

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The southernmost pearl is the opera hall, with seating for 1,600. Classically oriented toward the stage, the rich brown seats are distributed over the floor as well as over three balcony tiers that rise up toward the domed ceiling. Who has the most exciting view? In some performances, it might well be the artist onstage, who sees before them a symmetrical room that looks as though it has been milled from a single piece of timber. Thin, evenly spaced horizontal ribs cover the walls, while thousands of lights are nestled into the grooves between them. They, too, are evenly distributed, culminating in an illuminated halo under the dome. The effect is magical, reminiscent of the Hall of Stars of the Queen of the Night as Karl Friedrich Schinkel imagined and built it in 1816 (it was unveiled in what later became known as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin). But to understand this space requires no knowledge of either Mozart’s “Magic Flute” or Schinkel’s design: according to Chinese tradition, the Earth is square and Heaven is a sphere.

Tianjin Grand Theatre Opera hall (facing page) • Floor plan, Opera hall, scale 1:1,000 (above) • The Star Chamber of the Queen of the Night. Stage set design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the opera “The Magic Flute”, from about 1815 (right)

Acoustic Quality The final, northern pearl of the Grand Theatre is the concert hall, with seating for 1,200 people. The room is dominated by wood. Whereas the opera hall’s structure is executed in a regular rhythm of ribs and grooves, the concert hall’s structure appears dynamic. The walls around the

concert halls, deep within the encompassing structure. It is accessed from inside the courtyard. The volume of the multi-functional space is rectangular inside and out, and features modifiable seating. It presents itself, as befits its purpose, in a deliberately unostentatious way. Its aesthetic lies in its stage technology. Steel beams are visible on the ceiling, and anthracite-coloured acoustic panels plunge the room into darkness that is reminiscent of the atmosphere of a cinema.

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Tianjin Grand Theatre Concert hall with terraced tiers (top) • Floor plan, Concert hall, scale 1:1,000 (bottom)

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stage seem to ripple like waves. Only up near the ceiling do the ripples smooth out and join together to form large circles. Suspended sails guide sound and eye; like the hall itself, these were optimised in numerous studies for acoustics, optics, lighting technology, and haptics. The hall was organised in the so-called vineyard style (as opposed to the shoebox), which means that the seats rise in serried rows from a central stage, and which provides the best sound for large orchestras and soloists alike. Small wonder, then, that the style chosen for the concert hall in the Culture Palace in Dresden was also the vineyard style. In the initial competition, it was said that the concise thematic use of “tectonic floes” lent the concert hall a “characteristic, unmistakable and modern form.” In fact, the image of the floe is a good fit for the vineyard design that characterises this hall. It has 1,818 seats, distributed over the floor

Culture Palace Dresden Concert hall designed in the vineyard style (below)

and two tiers, ranged around and closely approaching a large stage in the centre. In an agreement reached with the State Conservation Office, a space was defined within the Culture Palace, in which the restructuring could take place, a sort of internal building footprint. The fact that the new hall is smaller for acoustic reasons than the old one has positive repercussions, not only for the post-construction sound quality, but also for the spatial experience. Polymorphic transitional spaces offer exciting connections between old and new, like little time capsules. A reflector above the stage supports the musicians in hearing one another. This was verified, incidentally, not only by computer modelling, but also via tests run on a 1:10 scale structural model of the concert hall. The model indicated that a scattered structure for the ceiling, which ensures acoustic blending, made more sense than the originally intended flat

design. The exact details of the ceiling composition, which is now made up of triangles, will be adjusted at full scale before the opening of the hall – that is, trial “concerts” given before a full test audience will determine if and where acoustically reflective or absorbent panels will be inserted into the ceiling. An organ with 55 registers has already been permanently installed. Best suited to a symphonic repertoire of 19thand 20th-century music, it broadens the organ landscape of Dresden and visually characterises the hall in which it sits. Remembering, Preserving, Developing: The New Old Culture Palace In a yellow booklet on architecture published by the VEB Verlag, which is currently priced at 14.50 euro in one Dresden bookshop, but whose price is listed as 6 (GDR) marks on the back cover, the following is still written: “built 1966/69, concept by L. Wiel, Design

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Culture Palace Dresden In collaboration with acoustic planners, the cubature and the folded ceiling construction of the concert hall were analysed using simulations and then refined. Using measurements in the acoustic model, designers tested the resulting changes. In this way, the angles of individual ceiling and wall panels could be studied and adjusted (below) • Installation of the ceiling panels (right)

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1 4 Culture Palace Dresden Detail section of the suspended ceiling, scale 1:20 1 Folded ceiling plasterboard screwed onto a triangular frame 2≈ 12.5 mm 2 Triangular frame aluminium 80 / 40 / 3 mm, with folded aluminium sheet 200 / 0.6 mm as screw base for the plasterboards 3 Threaded suspension rod, allowing for three-dimensional height adjustments M10 4 Joint in the upper panel layer 5 mm 5 Housing for lights, matte white powdercoated aluminium 5 mm 6 Steel profile ∑ 22 / 28 / 2 mm for positioning the light housing on the triangular frame 7 LED light, aluminium 5 mm, can be swivelled and reconfigured in height 8 Steel I-beam (existing building) 9 Grating (existing building)

Arch. W. Hänsch, H. Löschau and Collect.; Inter. Des. H. Zimmermann; […] Spiritual and cultural centre of the city and the district, flat structure 102.80 m ≈ 71.80 m by 19.35 m. Forms urban border of the Altmarkt to the north. Monolith. reinf. steel skeleton (grid 6 m ≈ 9 m), ground level natural stone, upper levels aluminium-glass elements, partly concrete struct. walls, hall struct. Contoured copper roof; multi-funct. hall w/ Kippparkett 2,740 seats, studio theatre 192 seats, restaurant 205 seats., club rooms 584 seats; mural ‘Weg der roten Fahne’ by G. Bondzin; bronze reliefs entr. doors by G. Jäger; open space design by G. Krätzschmar.” But of course, even then, the building of the Culture Palace was much more. In 1966 the castle and the Frauenkirche lay in ruins. The flat structure of glass and concrete, resting on polished red granite and crowned by a copper roof whose contours followed those of the hall within, represented a cultural-political act: an architecture that was contemporary and perhaps even a little visionary. The speed with which such a building was built back then still elicits respect from gmp architect Christian Hellmund, irrespective of the fact that the shining gold dome called for in the competition design was replaced by a hexagonal roof; the structure was reduced in height by one sto-

rey; its footprint was somewhat compacted; and the sky needle was cut up into three flag poles. But even this trimmed-down version of the Culture Palace was enough for it to be written indelibly into the biography of countless Dresdeners. One of those, incidentally, was Hellmund’s father-in-law: shortly after the building’s opening, he earned money as a student by scrubbing the copper roof with a scouring agent so that at least a hint of gold would shine out over the city. The original seal applied to the copper did not prevent the present patina, proving to be as impermanent as the political convictions that were propagandised at the opening of the Culture Palace. The foyer will open in 2017 in its original splendour, simple, and as before, with a few added elements of noble materials, such as the ebony of the staircases or the golden elm veneer of one of the walls. The specifications for the concert hall called for the best possible acoustics and a beautiful atmosphere, but the foyer remained under a preservation order. As before, it faces the Altmarkt, where it looks out onto urban life, in contrast to the water in Tianjin. The carpet on the floor will once again blaze red, and the MoKi ceiling will shimmer white. For a long time, Christian Hellmund thought that MoKi – rendered in the Saxon dialect as “Mogi” – stood for “monolithic plaster”

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(‘Gips’ in German). But the acronym has a different origin: it stands for “Modell Kino International.” The cinema Kino International, designed by architects Josef Kaiser and Heinz Aust, opened in Berlin in 1963 and features the same plaster ceiling. Is it coincidence or fate that one of the men working for one of the firms contracted to refurbish the Culture Palace helped install the original ceiling when he was an apprentice? And that he, whether by coincidence or fate, found a few of the old plaster moulds at home? Instead of carving new moulds as had been planned, plasterers in the Ore Mountains re-cast the old moulds and then filled them with plaster – 280,000 times... in the same way and in exactly the same numbers as had been done during construction in the 1960s. The 1,600 characteristic lamps are being manufactured in Marienburg after the old model, outfitted with new lighting technology. In dealing with a historically listed building, gmp’s philosophy is as follows: It is fine to replicate an original, and a modi-

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fied replication should be recognisable as such – but imitating something that is not original is the worst architectural solution. This approach was used for the facade as well. “That’s from the 1960s, it has to be replaced,” others said. Really? Extension work on one axis revealed a handcrafted mixture of window construction and post-and-beam facade, presumably the first facade system of the GDR. A similar system had already been used in Berlin, in the 1964 Café Moskau designed by Josef Kaiser und Heinz Aust. When the Café was refurbished, the facade was left intact. Why not do the same in the Culture Palace? In the end, only the double-glazing was replaced in Dresden. Christian Hellmund is glad that the original “curious mixture” could be reinforced and did not have to be reconstructed or imitated. The balustrades of the historically listed staircases, on the other hand, are simply not high enough to conform to modern safety regulations, and will be rebuilt to meet the new standard.

Culture Palace Dresden Rendering of the foyer (left) • Mural Weg der roten Fahne (Way of the Red Flag) by Gerhard Bondzin (1969) on the west side of the Culture Palace (facing page)

A contemporary appearance will naturally also be accorded the main and music collections as well as the youth section of the City Library, all of which are currently housed in an office complex and are hard to reach by public transportation. The library’s spaces will include a reading lounge in the foyer as well as a reading room, work stations, and group work areas in the first and second upper levels, arranged around the concert hall. The decision to accommodate the library within the Culture Palace may turn out to be a felicitous move: While the culturally minded public in Tianjin is spread out over three buildings and different times of day, the library in Dresden will draw an estimated 3,000 – 4,000 people a day into the building – young and old; intellectuals, or those who otherwise would not necessarily attend Dresden Philharmonic concerts – or a cabaret by the “Herkuleskeule.” The cabaret theatre company was founded in 1961 and currently performs 350 shows a year to audiences of up to 210 people, as well as about 120 guest performances in Germany and Switzerland each year. Many performances are incidentally also in the works for the Culture Palace. While guests can mingle freely, the individual technologies are completely compartmentalised. The hall for the political cabaret, which will occupy

the level between the stage floor (with its musical warm-up rooms, dressing rooms, and offices), and the basement (with its storage rooms and percussion rehearsal rooms), is completely acoustically separated. Tianjin and Dresden are both making cultural investments in the future. In China, the investment is distinctly contemporary; in Germany, it sensitively dusts off the zeitgeist of a past age while presenting a completely new, emphatically modern core for the present. The facade of the Culture Palace on the Schlossstraße will once again feature the mural Weg der roten Fahne (The Way of the Red Flag) by Gerhard Bondzin. Perhaps some will remember that Rudolf Sitte’s artwork used to be there, which twice won the mural competition to grace the Culture Palace in Dresden. It was called Die Veränderbarkeit der Welt (The Changeability of the World) and it displeased the SED, who gave the commission to Bondzin. Changeability has nevertheless asserted itself – not in social realism, but in reality itself. Our world, our cities, our societies are changeable. And this changeability and change are manifest in our buildings, whether on a large scale as in Tianjin, or in a smaller space as in Dresden. Culture determines the nature and the the character of a city and its citizens.

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The Fourth and Fifth Quality of Building Universiade Sports Center Shenzhen • Bao’an Stadium Shenzhen • Shanghai Oriental Sports Center

Boom Time is Construction Time It was the time of double-digit growth rates in the Chinese economy. Rising megacities competed with one another, outdoing themselves in the construction of new city administrative buildings, sports complexes, opera houses and the like, spurred on by the huge projects for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the state television network CCTV. Administrators of the provincial cities, functionaries sent from Beijing, made every effort to use their five years in office to produce results and to make their marks, especially architectural marks. The pointless prestige projects and exotic technical excrescences resulting from this unbridled competition finally prompted the Central Committee to put on the brakes in 2015. Large buildings of bizarre “un-Chinese” form would no longer be tolerated. Since foreign star architects were deemed to be the authors of these creations, Chinese architects would henceforth be given preference in the design of public structures – though they were often themselves responsible for many of the bizarre buildings. Future developments in this arena should be interesting to watch. Up until this point, gmp had successfully competed in design competitions in one of their core competencies: the construction

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of sports centres and stadiums, both in Shanghai, where the World Swimming Championships were to be hosted, and in Shenzhen, the booming economic powerhouse in Hong Kong’s sphere of influence, where the Universiade 2011 (the international student games and world’s secondlargest sporting event) was to take place. Two dozen new sports facilities were to be pulled out of a hat for these events. The architects of gmp won the invited competitions for the Universiade Sports Center as well as the Bao’an Stadium in 2006, and were able to realise these projects in the following years without significant changes.

Universiade Sports Center, Shenzhen (CN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Nicolas Pomränke • Construction period: 2007– 2011 • Seats: 60,000 (Stadium), 18,000 (Multi-function hall), 3,000 (Swimming hall) Bao’an Stadium, Universiade 2011, Shenzhen-Bao‘an (CN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan with Stephan

Schütz and David Schenke • Construction period: 2009–2011 • Seats: 40,050 Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, Shanghai (CN) • Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Magdalene Weiss • Construction period: 2009–2011 • Seats: 18,000 (Hall stadium), 5,000 (Natatorium), 5,000 (Outdoor swimming pool)

Olympic buildings Tokyo Kenzo Tange, 1964 (above) • Olympic Stadium Munich Behnisch & Partner with Frei Otto, 1972 (left)

The Concept of the Building Family As in historical Chinese gardens, where buildings resemble one another because they share the same construction style and thus form a sort of architectural kinship, the idea of a building family assumes a significant role here. What Kenzo Tange attempted in a rudimentary fashion in Tokyo in 1964 with his Olympic buildings, and

what Behnisch & Partner resoundingly succeeded at in Munich in 1972 with a canopy that linked an entire complex together, became a goal for the Universiade complex in Shenzhen and shortly thereafter for the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center (SOSC) as well: namely, the unification of different sports facilities into a family by means of structural and design similarities.

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This sort of “family togetherness” is not otherwise found in China, where large adjacent buildings vie with one another for attention as individual entities. That is the case even for entire urban planning structures. There are carpets of high-rises in purely residential districts that look as though they were cut from the same cloth, and whose only rationale for existence is the return on investment achieved through serial construction. However, when design competitions are held for larger urban development complexes, gmp often sets itself apart with its eminently holistic thinking, which places great emphasis on urban integration and extends a design from an individual building out into the surrounding district, as in the SOHO Group project in Beijing or in Financial City II in Nanjing. The architects approach these projects following the principle of the Rockefeller Center in New York; that is, they design and arrange a collection of buildings so as to achieve a harmonious whole: a building family. Glowing Crystals in a Graceful Landscape In the Universiade Sports Center, the family consists of a full-fledged track-and-field stadium built to international standards for 60,000 spectators, a multi-functional sports arena for 18,000 spectators, and an aquatic centre with 3,000 seats. All three are placed

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geometrically with respect to one another so as to form a right isosceles triangle. The main north-south axis of the stadium is aligned with the midpoint of the arena. At right angles to this line lies the aquatic centre, whose own long axis points toward the centre of the stadium. Bizarre building spectacles, of the type the Chinese government wished to ban, were not to be expected from gmp. The Sports Center in Shenzhen is one of those great architectural successes that reveals the hand of gmp in a completely new, yet somehow familiar way: a distinctive design concept that finds its expression and justifi-

Universiade Sports Center Shenzhen Urban environment of the athletics park (above) • Facade lighting of the Multifunction hall (below) • Bao’an Stadium Shenzhen in its urban context (facing page)

cation in its physical construction, fastidiously fleshed out and perfected down to the last detail, but a grand gesture all the same. It is this gesture that forms the basis of the Center’s success in China, a land that prizes symbolism. Perhaps the Sports Center will be more readily “understood” by the Chinese, exposed as they are to symbolism on a daily basis, than by Europeans. A Chinese person viewing these structures might, depending on their point of view and the time of day, recognise origami artworks, paper lanterns or, most likely, rock crystals. The mineral crystal with its ideal stereo-

metric shape, set in soft, organic verdant surroundings – this contrasting pair based on natural forms, smooth and rough like the yin and yang of Chinese philosophy, represents the theme of the complex and its underlying symbolism. The Bamboo Grove as Inspiration The second gmp project for the Universiade lies in the Shenzhen district of Bao’an, 35 km southeast of the Sports Center. Conceived as a track-and-field stadium for 40,000 spectators, it also served as a football venue in 2011 and proved its worth in that capacity. Its design is based on a com-

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pletely different concept; unlike the buildings of the Sports Center, it does not appear dominating, but instead looks like a gentle, ultra-light, somewhat tent-like structure that one could disassemble and reassemble elsewhere at will. While the Sports Center resembles a collection of hard, mineral shapes, the Bao’an Stadium echoes a different, organic natural form – a bamboo grove. Both are inspired by nature, and thus serve as symbolic representations met with empathy by the Chinese.

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White Sails Along the Huangpu The arrangement of the Shanghai Olympic Sports Center (SOSC) follows a similar concept as that of the Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen. Here, too, three large sports facilities – an aquatic centre, a multipurpose arena, and the grandstands of the outdoor swimming pool complex – are arranged on the site so as to form a family. A sixteen-storey administrative building, the media centre, is the vertical exclamation point of the campus. The three sports facilities also form a triangle, though their freeform arrangement lacks the geometric rigidity of the one in Shenzhen. From the outset the SOSC served as a landmark, visible from afar from the city’s freeways. There are few buildings in Shanghai that match it in significance. Its look is unmistakable, even on an international scale. One of the reasons for this is the architects’ fundamental idea to use design techniques to unify the three structures into a recognisable family, as they did in the Universiade Sports Center; that is, to furnish them with similar frameworks. Additional reasons are their sheer size, the extravagant forms reminiscent of sails, and their bright white colour.

Shanghai Oriental Sports Center View of the sports buildings in front of the Shanghai skyline (above) • Sketch outlining the integration of water into the athletics park (below) • Shanghai Oriental Sports Center Site plan, scale 1:10,000 (facing page) 1 Hall stadium 2 Natatorium 3 Outdoor swimming pool

The design concept flowed out of a holistic urban development approach and embraces the spiritual history and the topography of the place. In a landscape characterised by urban density and open bodies of water, through a process informed by natural spirituality, an organic-architectural atmosphere was created that is many things at once: shining monument and elegant artefact, urban structure and living space, attraction and recreational entertainment for the stressed citizens of a vibrant metropolis. A Living Part of the City The concept of form is one important aspect of design, to which gmp certainly does

ample justice. Of equal weight is contextual integration into an existing urban framework. The challenge with the Sports Center in Shenzhen was to surmount the multilaned streets surrounding the complex in order to establish a connection between the dense and highly built-up city districts to the north and the hilly landscapes to the southeast. This green corridor now descends from the local hill Tongo Lin, continues into the sports campus across a six-lane boulevard via a broad landscape bridge, and merges there with the artificial lake scenery of the Sports Center, while the residential and industrial district Shatangwei connects to it from the north. The buildings are

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reflected picturesquely in the lakes, an effect which is greatly heightened at night thanks to the dramatic internal lighting of the facades. Parking lots form a buffer between the surrounding streets and the stadium. An enormous underground parking garage ensures that visitors to the complex can make use of its delicately shaped open green spaces. No doubt it was the integration of these buildings into the graceful landscape as much as their symbolic significance that led to gmp’s first-place finish in the 2006 design competition. In addition to the green space, another unifying element is water. Where no water features previously existed, a series of organically shaped man-made lakes now dot the landscape. Water plays an important role in the natural philosophy imbued culture of China, and can have a significant effect on

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Universiade Sports Center Shenzhen Stadium with nearby mountain Tongo Lin in the background (above) • Site plan, scale 1:12,000 (left) 1 Swimming hall 2 Multi-function hall 3 Stadium Bao’an Stadium Shenzhen Section, scale 1:6,000 (top right) • Floor plan, scale 1:6,000 (bottom right)

the success of construction projects. In the SOSC in Shanghai, the architects made use of this predilection in their design of the open areas and the integration of the buildings into their surroundings. In this case they drew upon the topological traits of the Yangtze River delta and the Greater Shanghai region, which are characterised by numerous bodies of water. Custom-fit into the Rectangular Grid The second Universiade project, the Bao’an Stadium, is in many respects a contrast in design as well as urban planning. Here, clear urban references were already in place. The building site, surrounded on all four sides by city streets, forms an entire block of the urban street grid in the middle of the city, into which the stadium complex was custom-fit. The sports arena and the swimming pool in the neighbouring block to the northeast formed an axis of sports facilities upon which the new building design was expected to elaborate. This axis runs diagonally from northeast to southwest. However, according to “Chinese Code” and also the FIFA and Olympic guidelines, the playing field in the stadium had to be oriented precisely north-south, so as to provide the best lighting and viewing conditions for the press and VIP-boxes during customary playing times. For this reason, the architects chose a circular shape as a mediating element, within which the pitch could be oriented as desired. But the associated warm-up and training field is aligned with the diagonal axis. The result is that the entire sports campus is composed of a pleasing arrangement of geometric shapes, in which rectangle, square, circle, and oval are all represented. A low structure around the southwest side of the training field, occupied by an athletics school, extends the podium of the stadium. Of great importance to the architects was barrier-free access to the facility as well as its integration into the established connectivity of the surrounding city.

Conference of Engineers The space allocation plans for the Universiade Sports Center were roughly defined. Though the building’s clients certainly banked on the expertise of gmp in the implementation and physical realisation of the programme, they nevertheless insisted on an elaborate kick-off meeting in which the architects and engineers were seated across from a multitude of experts and subcontracting specialists to defend the many details, functions, procedures, etc., as well as the technical specifications of their design. Thanks to their extensive experience with similar projects, the architects overcame this hurdle. The most difficult aspect of the planning turned out to be the traffic patterns and infrastructure, which had to function reliably even when all three facilities were in use simultaneously.

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a 30-metre 1:10 scale model was built to study the load distribution and building physics of the steel framework. Other models were used in the development of the spatial acoustics. The firms that competed for the building contract were required to provide full-sized facade sections for consideration. The row of facade samples erected by the bidding firms behind tarpaulins, away from the prying eyes of the competition, provided evidence of how they imagined the construction of the support structure and facades. Once a firm was selected, a jointly built mock-up pavilion allowed for the visualisation and development of all details. This trial pavilion was later used as a café.

In order to construct the buildings in their projected forms with the desired transparency, the architects and engineers fell back on a steel lattice formwork technique, covering the frames with doubleshell facades. While the outer glass skin provides weather-proofing, an inner translucent membrane takes on shading and acoustics functions. It scatters daylight, and at night serves as a reflective screen for the all-over facade illumination, which uses colour-changing LED lights. In the dark, the entire volume of the three buildings glows invitingly like beautiful Chinese garden lanterns. Since Shenzhen lies in the subtropics, the considerable energies transferred by solar radiation, especially through fully glazed facades, had to be addressed. The doubleshell facade is therefore equipped with an active tunnel ventilation system, which expels the heated air upward from the space between the facades. An extensive research project at Shenzhen University provided testing and monitoring functions throughout the planning and construction stages of the facade. Among other things,

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Phalanx of Prisms The three arenas are able to form a family because their rock crystal motif represents a unique form, independent of building type. For the stadium, the enormous crystals, threaded together into a cyclopean necklace, prove to be a somewhat unusual choice. The bowl of the stadium within the steel hull is built to be statically independent. The construction with exposed concrete, which is atypical in this country, and the production of prefabricated parts both

Universiade Sports Center Shenzhen Double-shelled facade (top) • Construction site of the Multi-function hall (below) • Internal view of the Stadium (facing page)

required extensive training on the part of the subcontracted firms. The stands form a huge expanse of quiet, disciplined regularity, and combine with the overarching roof to create an impressive spatial experience. Even the colour scheme contributes to the overall serenity. The intense green of the grass and the red of the track draw attention to the scene of the action, whereas the enveloping building hangs back with its palette of grey hues. The specially designed seats (which have since also been utilised by other architects in stadium construction) come in five different shades of grey, and are mixed in different proportions to yield a darker effect in the lower sections and a lighter in the two upper tiers. The pixel-like distribution of the seats, often employed by gmp, hints at a filled stadium even when attendance is low. A VIP stand for 200 visitors is located on the western side of the

middle section, and 60 VIP boxes occupy the space between the middle and top tiers. Access routes for the individual user groups do not conflict with one another. Entrances on the main access level leading to the lower and upper tiers alternate with kiosks and sanitary facilities. The broad passageways afford the visitor generous glimpses of the stadium interior. On the northwest side, the passageways open out onto the Sports Plaza, which connects all the buildings with one another. From there, the path continues on to the sports arena, whose oval internal construction within a circular shell echoes the design concept of the stadium. It has two fixed spectator tiers, in addition to a lower section of nine seat rows which can be installed and utilised as needed, depending on demand and the type of event, to round out the maximum capacity of 18,000 spec-

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tators. Events range from all types of indoor sports (including ice sports) to conventions, concerts, and exhibitions. The aquatic centre has a long rectangular footprint. Since its framework is constructed of similar triangular modules, on its long sides the building’s phalanx of tall vertical prisms reveals its kinship with the two circular buildings. The short sides, in contrast, consist of vertical glass walls overshadowed by the projecting framework. On the inside, another glass wall divides the hall into two equal-sized areas, one for the competition pool, flanked on both sides by spectator stands, and one for the training pool. The first impression is one of transparency and brightness; the roof structure is the spatially defining element. Opaquely luminous membrane surfaces alternate with clear glass surfaces equipped with light-guiding louvres to deliver generous yet glare-free illumination. Several hundred spotlights, mounted on four catwalks, ensure that there is plenty of light at night as well. Kicking Around in the Bamboo Grove In the Bao’an Stadium, the combination of the oval track and the circular building has geometrical consequences for the design:

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On the long sides the stands rise up higher than on the ends. The upper edge of the stadium bowl therefore undulates up and down, reaching its highest point on the long sides and its lowest point at the corners of the field. This oscillation, in effect “the wave” made manifest, can clearly be seen from the outside, since budgetary constraints precluded the addition of a facade. Highly visible and freely accessible, the stadium stands on a broad podium that visitors reach via wide flights of stairs on the diagonals. The podium level is also the entrance level between the upper and lower tiers of the stands. Visitors circulating on this passageway have an immediate overview of the stadium layout by which they can orient themselves. The unbroken circumferential geometry of the stands and the recognisable logic of the overarching roof create a serene image, contrasted by irregular elements that appear to be in motion. Green represents movement here, whether it be in the dancing support columns, the pixelated sprinkling of seats enlivening the stands, or the grass of the playing field on which the athletic events are held. The elements that form the structure of the building are in shades of grey: the steel parts of the roof, the concrete structures of the stadium bowl – even the track oval. The entire building is based on the colour palettes of green and grey/white. Only in the interior spaces are these colours joined by a third. Here, brown bamboo slats on the walls ensure that the overarching theme of the building, the bamboo grove, is represented inside as well as out. On the outside, the appearance of the building is dictated by the unusual collar of pillars that support the roof and the stands. The supports seem to be placed in a random, haphazard fashion, vertical in some spots, slightly slanted and clustered in others, much like the stalks of a bamboo grove. Varying hues of green underscore

Universiade Sports Center Shenzhen Roof structure of the Swimming hall (facing page) • Bao’an Stadium Shenzhen Stadium roof constructed on the spoked-wheel principle (below)

this effect. A closer look at the grove reveals the underlying system. The tubular steel supports, up to 32 metres in length, vary in strength according to their load and function. The ones that hold up the compression ring, and therefore the main load of the roof, have a diameter of 80 centimetres and occur at regular intervals at the 36 supporting axes of the compression ring. More slender 55-centimetre supports lean slightly in different directions, thereby providing the horizontal rigidity of the support structure. Of the inner pillars, every other one is only seemingly connected to the roof, but in actual fact supports one of the stepped

beams of the stadium tiers. This separation is necessary so that the roof and the concrete structure of the stadium bowl can flex independently, since the roof is comparatively elastic and can shift up to one metre in extreme cases. The transportation of steel tubing in 32-metre lengths would have presented a serious problem, so the supports are actually assembled from three or four more easily transportable pieces. The connecting joints are conspicuously visible as black rings. They are reminiscent of the nodes of bamboo stalks, and serve to underscore the theme of the bamboo grove.

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Bao’an Stadium Shenzhen Bamboogrove-inspired tubular steel supports (facing page) • Section through one of the cantilevers, scale 1:500 (below)

Thanks to the load distribution among 320 exceedingly slender individual supports and the use of a cable construction following the principles of a spoked wheel, the roof appears light and delicate, despite its impressive 30,000-squaremetre area and cantilever projections of 54 metres. The outer compression ring, the most massive building element, is actually composed of two tubes connected by crosspieces, of which the inner one has a trapezoidal and the outer a circular cross section. Where the designers of the stadiums in Cape Town or Warsaw reacted to the rectangular shape of the pitch by making the open eye an oval, the roof construction in Bao’an is a classic spoked-wheel design with a circular outer steel compression ring

and two equally circular inner tension rings of stranded wire rope. The slight undulation of the outer rim departs from the ideal; this confers the little bit of extra height above the stands on the long sides that is unnecessary at the ends. Thirty-six radial cable trusses form the primary support structure of the roof. The spatial stability the roof needs to be able to manage winds and other loads comes from the fact that the spokes are not simply towing cables, but instead form stable triangles. Their sides consist of a lower chord between the compression ring and bottom tension ring, an upper chord between the compression ring and top tension ring, and the eighteenmetre-long air support that forms the strut keeping the tension rings apart. In this way, a two-dimensional roof surface becomes a

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spatial structure with its associated stability. A translucent roof membrane is stretched over the 36 upper spokes and the thin, arched trusses that connect them. Since there are no additional building elements – no cantilever beams for an internal extension of the roof, no rain water drainage, and no sarking membrane – the Bao’an roof constructed by the engineering firm schlaich bergermann partner is one of the most delicate surface structures that can be devised. The most noticeable feature beneath the roof membrane is the unavoidable catwalk that houses all the installations, especially the spotlights and loudspeakers. Considering its roof structure weight of only 2,800 metric tonnes, the ratio of materials to covered surface in the 245-metre diameter Bao’an Stadium certainly ranks it among the most economical buildings in the world. It is undoubtedly one of the most elegant and significant buildings as well. Aquatic family The modules that make up the three buildings of the SOSC in Shanghai have a triangular cross-section and are clad in whitecoated aluminium, prompting the architects

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to jokingly refer to them as “rows of ceramic knives.” A series of 13 straight, nearly equal-length modules was used to shape the rectangular swimming hall, the Natatorium. The oval layout of the multifunctional sports hall was achieved through arranging the supports by increasing and then decreasing lengths, while the outdoor pool complex is surrounded by a canted twothirds circle of half-modules, projecting inward and connected by roof membranes to cover the stands. The 220-metre-long Natatorium turns out not to be perfectly rectangular in its outline, but instead features a waist, thanks to a protected Gingko tree that had to be preserved. In the competition area the hall provides enough space for a pool in the standard 50-metre length and a diving pool with 3,500 fixed spectator seats. An additional standard-sized pool and a recreational swimming area with five distinct swim basins complete the list of options. The multifunctional sports centre was temporarily outfitted with a stainless steel basin for the FINA World Swimming Championships, and was thus also available for competitive swimming events. Its featured capacity of 14,000 seats can be expanded according to need to 18,000. The arena is currently used for all sorts of sporting events, including boxing, basketball, badminton, and ice hockey, as well as for concerts. The third family member is the outdoor pool complex with a 50-metre standard pool and a diving pool. Changing facilities and other functional spaces are located beneath the spectator stands, which in turn are protected by the significant roof structure. The roof consists of seventeen cantilever elements arranged in a 240-degree circular arc, and provides some wind protection. The ensemble is complemented by a sixteen-storey high rise, modest by Chinese height standards, that towers above the

Bao’an Stadium Shenzhen Construction site (facing page) • Shanghai Oriental Sports Center Hall stadium (above) • Outdoor swimming pool (right)

halls. During the Swimming Championships, it was made available to the media as an organisation and press centre; now it is an administrative building. Its glass facade is clad in similarly white-coated perforated aluminium sheets, giving it a rippling, reflective wave effect that ties into the overarching water theme.

Concealed Structures When considering the design of these amazing forms, it is worth looking at the manner in which they were conceived, and how they were structurally generated – especially since, in this case, the

manner was somewhat unusual for gmp, stemming from the fact that the project presented an extreme challenge even for an architecture firm that boasts many successes in China. From the design competition to the opening date, the stately ensemble was to be completed in a mere two and a half years. This short time period directly influenced the architectural and technical engineering design in several ways. Based on their extensive mutual collaborative experience in the design and construction of largescale buildings and support structures, the

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architects of gmp and the engineers of schlaich bergermann partner decided to depart somewhat from their usual position. Normally they develop structures for stadiums, halls, bridges and other large buildings whose designs are expressions of their functions: columns for which the loads can be guessed, broad beams that reveal their forceful effects, cables whose enormous tension is palpable – in short, structures for which functional task and appearance are apparent. The designers’ goal is not to demonstratively turn loads

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and bearings into a design motif in their own right, which was the intention of the High-tech architecture of the 1980s, but a natural and matter-of-fact manifestation of functional form. This stance leads almost automatically to beautiful, impressive structures, as is evidenced in all the buildings in which the two firms collaborated. Almost: because a little ésprit, and lately a certain design-added value, are also essential factors in success. In the case of the SOSC the principle of self-explanatory construction was aban-

Shanghai Oriental Sports Center Framework construction on the building site (above) • Construction site of the Natatorium (below) • Design sketches of the arrangement of the cantilever elements (facing page)

doned. The steel frames disappeared behind a covering, a chassis that generates its own stylistic value. It no longer showcases the structure itself, but instead acts as its corrective, idealised, and if you like, beautified reflection. The reason for this paradigm shift was the limited time available for planning and construction. To develop a visible framework requires a lot of detailed work such as the design of joints and hinges, the finishing of surfaces, corrosion protection and such. There was no time for this. Large pieces of the steel structure were created quickly and without built-in planning redundancies, in part on the basis of crucial decisions taken on the construction site itself. Since these conditions precluded the realisation of an exposed structure, a covered building was built instead. An additional complication arose from the licensing procedures in China, which differ from those in Europe. For special construction of large-scale buildings, so-called Overcode Meetings are held in which commissions of experts, in this case renowned structural engineers from various Chinese universities, evaluate and approve the designs. Because of the time constraints it was absolutely imperative that the SOSC project overcome this hurdle on the first

attempt. The experiences of schlaich bergermann partner in China led them to believe that the high-level plans of the advanced material- and cost-saving construction would face considerable obstacles in garnering the confidence of such a commission. The procedure did lead to some changes in the execution, in that additional anchoring of the base of the framework was required, rendering them bulkier than originally designed – “combining a belt with braces” for safety reasons, as the engineers put it. Now, however, the advantage of separating the structure and cladding became apparent, because the shell, which was formed from biaxially curved aluminium sheets, could be rapidly modified using the parametric BIM planning system. Initially, the designers had considered utilising prefabricated concrete sections for the cladding, but then rejected this plan because of time constraints. With CNC tools, aluminium sheets can be manufactured more quickly and flexibly. Each support is an independent static system, which simplified the assembly. The doubly curved surfaces in the spherical sections contribute to stability and signifi-

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Shanghai Oriental Sports Center Construction site of the Outdoor swimming pool complex (left) • Construction of the steel support structure (below) • Design sketches (top right) • Topping-out ceremony (bottom right)

cantly facilitate the serial manufacture of the aluminium panels, since the curvatures along both axes are circular and not of varying radii. This in turn reduced the variability among individual panels, as well as their overall number. During construction of the steel frame, fewer sections than usual were prefabricated at the factory, while many were welded on-site. Accelerating construction with manpower is a proven method in China. One of the prerequisites for this is the taking on of the role of principal contractor by a building consortium, which effectively means the unification of the various powers governing the construction. Management, control and execution are all rolled into one, which facilitates efficient methods and requires little discussion across different factions. The planning execution in China must be entrusted to a local partner firm, which can potentially lead to problems in preserving the design specification’s integrity and quality. Therefore the architects try to safeguard the realisation of their ideas with comprehensive documents and the provision of plenty of key details. Gmp succeeded in providing a sort of consulting function for the building client, and retained influence over the execution of the construction and design concepts by testing and verifying plans in the BIM model.

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For Love of the Environment As is always the case when the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party has come to some decision, there is no dithering in implementing the new rules. Sustainability has become the watchword of the hour, in China as much as elsewhere. No sooner had the need for sustainable building practices been recognised than professorships

for ecological construction were endowed at all Chinese architectural universities. Environmental problems and scarcity of resources are openly discussed in China, and legislation to address these factors is being adopted (based in part on German examples, incidentally). German architects have already embraced this approach, sustainability having become part of the DNA of the profession for them. The issue is not limited to “grey energy”, ecology of building materials, or operating costs. Sustainability also encompasses the sensible secondary use of event-inspired architecture. The campus of the Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen, for example, is now intensively utilised, and serves people in the neighbouring, densely built-up city districts in an athletic and recreational capacity. The sports complex was expressly designed to fulfill its important secondary purpose as a multifunctional, local recreational facility after the Universiade was over. “White elephants” is the term used to describe prestigious buildings, erected for major international events, which are subsequently used minimally or not at all. The Olympic Stadium in Beijing (the “Bird’s Nest”) is one such example. The Shenzhen stadium, however, is far from useless, even though football is no longer

played there. The Natatorium has become a heavily frequented public swimming hall. A free-form basin now abuts the southern end wall and expands options for familyoriented recreational swimming to the outdoors. Anticipating general bathing trends after the Universiade, the architects included this pool in their design concept and planned for it in advance.

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Shanghai Oriental Sports Center Event in the Outdoor swimming pool complex (left) • Natatorium steel beams clad with aluminium panels (facing page)

The ice sports arena, conceived as a multifunctional hall, is the venue for sports and music events of all kinds, as well as shows. Shops and restaurants catering to the needs of large numbers of recreation-seeking visitors have been built along the slopes of the open areas as well as on the outside of the stadium. The Universiade Stadium in Bao’an is likewise not a “White Elephant,” since it is regularly used for league football games. It has become the favourite venue of the Chinese National Team because they succeeded in winning the occasional home game there. In the case of the SOSC, the architects and the building client were especially concerned with ensuring sustained usability. Today, five years after the 2011 FINA World Swimming Championships, it is apparent that the complex on the east bank of the Huangpu River has proven its functional longevity, its ongoing potential and its ability to merge successfully into the urban structure. Gradually the brownfield areas south and north of the SOSC, extending all the way to the former exhibition site of the EXPO 2010, are being preponderantly built up with residential flats. A new district is emerging; soon the fences will fall, and the SOSC grounds will become a public city park.

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The Responsibility of the Architect Many architects in China, both foreign and native, set their sights on creating large buildings that are as spectacular as possible, to enhance the fame of the building client (as well as their own). The architects of gmp also make a point of considering the social responsibilities of an architect, who after all uses national wealth to build for the people, and whose interventions in nature and the environment have potentially serious consequences. This is why urban connectedness and social function are so important to them. Large projects are constituent parts of the city; they must be fully integrated structurally and functionally and they must serve the people; both occasional visitors as well as the directly impacted residents. And they must – more importantly now than ever – be sustainable in construction, upkeep and function. Besides function, construction and design, urban interconnectedness and sustainability (in both operation and continued use) constitute the fourth and fifth qualities of building. The architects of gmp want to know that these standards are being applied to their large sports facilities in China as well.

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Arvo Pärt’s Game of Dice and the Kings at the Lake Christ Pavilion Expo 2000 / Kloster Volkenroda • Holiday Houses “Apfelhof” on the Fleesensee

The Christ Pavilion in the medieval town of Volkenroda and the Apfelhof König holiday houses owned by the König (“King”) family in Nossentin on the Fleesensee could hardly be more different. Yet both buildings have more in common than first meets the eye. This is a novella about light, peace, cows, caffeine – and little surprises from a large firm. “My apologies, but this is taking longer than expected. I will be a little late.” The road gets progressively narrower, the path more convoluted, the map whiter. The way to Volkenroda, a small monastery village at the intersection of the axes between the city pairs of Göttingen / Erfurt and Leipzig / Kassel, forces the widely travelled journalist to go unusually slowly. After hours in the car dealing with detours and various errors in navigation, one begins to question European Christendom and flirt instead with Buddhism, according to which the journey itself is the objective. But when one finally arrives, somewhere in the middle of Thuringia, one must acknowledge that the destination is the objective after all. Jutting right out of the medieval town structure of Volkenroda is a white, opaquely glistening cube. At first glance, the blocky building looks like the inside-out backdrop

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of the low-budget horror movie classic Cube – many squares, many black lines, many lightly shimmering surfaces that appear to hang in the sky like a weightless tablecloth. On this cloudy day, against the backdrop of a pale, washed-out sky, white becomes lost in white. Unlike Cube, however, this story does not end here, but rather begins. Because this is not Hollywood – it is a church. “My apologies, but this is taking longer than expected. I will be a little late.” You would think one might have learned from experience, but the opposite is true. What was a 30-minute delay in Thuringia grows into a full hour in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the picturesque Mecklenburg Lake District around Rostock and Schwerin seems even more splendid, and time seems to tick even

Christ Pavilion, Expo 2000 / Kloster Volkenroda, Hanover (D) / Volkenroda (D). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Joachim Zais • Construction period: 1999 – 2001 • GFA: 2,004 m2 • Volume (total): 18,548 m3

Holiday Houses “Apfelhof” on the Fleesensee, Nossentin (D). Design: Volkwin Marg and Joachim Zais • Construction period: 2010 –2012 • GFA: 445 m2 • Living area: 160 m2 (House 1), 107 m2 (House 2) • Volume (total): 1,330 m3

Apfelhof Nossentin Royal view onto the Fleesensee in Nossentin (above) • Christ Pavilon as expansion of the monastery in the Thuringian town of Volkenroda (left)

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1 2

more slowly. The slender birch avenues, the horses ridden out for exercise, and the numberless lakes and ponds and pools serve as a contemplative preparation for what the new arrival is about to see. The destination takes delays in stride. Everywhere peace reigns. Everywhere the gentle wind whispers through the trees; everywhere white Charolais cattle, like woolly ancestors of our own well-known cows, stand and graze before the reed belt of the lake called Fleesensee. A painter would immediately capture this motif on canvas – along with the three wooden houses named Apfelhof that wait quietly like sculptures in the landscape, forming a sort of frame for the flora (six apple trees) and fauna (six cows). Seldom has a modern, contemporary building merged so unostentatiously into the rural setting as here in Nossentin. It is beautiful here – picture-perfect, even. And if that is not exactly the sort of architectural criterion one wants to hear, so be it. The gut prevails. You never want to leave this place again.

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A Novella on the Love of Detail The two projects in Thuringia and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern could hardly be more different. Here a public building, there a private residence. Here a modern, innovative poster child for the steel and glass industries, there a conventionally built house with flaws and scratches and infinitely charming traces of local handwork. Here a church building that will be used for masses, concerts, and events for up to 2,500 people, and that most will still remember as the Christ Pavilion from Expo 2000 in Hanover; there a little refuge in the middle of nature, not far from the Baltic Sea coast, that offers a Hamburg family a much-desired escape. And yet, the two buildings have more in common than one might first suspect. They are both distinguished by a long – even years-long – design phase. They share a love for detail, for optical and haptic explorations on all scales, for the pleasurable reading of what seems like a novella made manifest in three dimensions, with a very distinct protagonist around whom everything revolves. And last but not least, the

Apfelhof Nossentin View of the front of the three larch wood cubes as seen from the lakeshore (right) • Site plan, scale 1:1,000 (left) 1 Parents’ house 2 Children’s house 3 Pavilion / semienclosed patio

Apfelhof Nossentin Studies of building arrangements (right) • View into the parents’ living room with fireplace in the northern house (below)

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Christ Pavilion in Volkenroda and the summer houses in Nossentin serve as surprising evidence that the internationally active architecture firm gmp can not only be big, worldwide, and true to its stereotypical image, but also delicate, small, and delightful. Or, as Gina König, owner of the Apfelhof, says: “My husband ran across his old paternal friend Volkwin Marg at a family celebration. They had a conversation about the Fleesensee. That’s how it all began. And to be honest, we had always been a little afraid of gmp. We didn’t want to build a Chinese opera house, after all!” In Volkenroda and Nossentin, even the most hardnosed architecture critic has the opportunity to rethink their opinions. The Cube and the Serving of Caffeine “No, we didn’t want an airport, and to be honest we didn’t want a cube, either,” says Jens Wolf, a 44-year member of the Brotherhood of Jesus and currently the director of the Volkenroda Monastery Foundation. What the monastery actually did want was for the monastery church that had been largely destroyed in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1525 to be completed in a modern, easy-to-understand version. The idea of reuniting the apse, the transept and the Room of Remembrance into a whole as it had been five centuries before goes all the way back to the 1990s. Because the site has such an eventful his-

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tory – having in turns been a monastery, a farm, a secular administrative building and, in bitter times, an unused ruin – Wolf was of the opinion that it had really earned the right to reconnect with its proud beginnings. Many sponsors and supporters were found, above all the Catholic and Protestant Churches. But despite the large number of benefactors, the execution of the ecumenical project still seemed much too expensive. “One day,” remembers Wolf, “we had

Christ Pavilion at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover with crypt and glass tower, floor plan and elevation, scale 1:1,000 (above) • Sketches by Meinhard von Gerkan on his design concept, from a letter to Joachim Zais, Doris Schäffler and Stefan Schulz (below) • Church interior with three portals (facing page)

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Christ Pavilion Site plan for Volkenroda, scale 1:2,000 (left) • Front view of the church (below) • Isometric drawing roof structure (top right) • Exploded drawing cloister (centre right) • Installation of the cloister elements (bottom right)

an ingenious idea that changed everything. We said: We will build the exact thing we need in Volkenroda for the Expo 2000 in Hanover.” The win-win concept was met with general approval and ultimately resulted in an invitation extended to five German architecture firms in 1997. The winner was gmp. The church was pleased at the prospect of powerful partners in industry and economy. The Expo organisers welcomed the project as a confirmation of their policy of building structures with sustained value and use,

beyond their temporary function. And the glass and steel industries felt challenged once again to use the Expo pavilion as a showcase for technical innovations that would garner notice and admiration, not only at the international exhibition but also by experts and professionals far and wide. “For me, it was by far the quietest place at the Expo,” says Wolf. “I remember a Benedictine nun dressed in her habit who stood next to the red-and-white Coca-Cola vending machine holding a bottle. This anachronistic image unified the two opposing poles of this place: the serenity of this building and the commotion of the visiting crowds.” Thus visitors found restoration not only in caffeine, but also in the atmosphere of the Christ Pavilion, which provided room for up to 2,500 people. To its Resurrection by Flatbed Truck But then the Expo was over, and the minutely designed and carefully erected modular building, with its breathtakingly simple Sigma Joints – solid steel plug con-

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nections developed and patented by Ewald Rüter in 1997 and deployed for the first time at this Expo – was taken apart piece by piece and loaded onto trucks. While most of the other Expo pavilions were scrapped, or still remain on the exhibition site in Hanover-Kronsberg as artefacts long reconquered by nature, the pavilion of the Christian church was granted life after death, in accordance with the western interpretation of the faith. “The dismantling and the transportation by flatbed truck were a part of the plan from the outset,” explains Joachim Zais, who is a former partner and project architect at gmp. For this reason, all of the building pieces were designed so that they could be taken apart again easily, dismantled into single transportable elements. Ultimately, the maximum allowable length of 17 metres for heavy loads at that time determined the length of the nine main supports and therefore also the height of the pavilion’s inner space. A small handful of modules from the circumferential cloister, disassembled into pieces, made their way toward Aachen. The bulk of the structure, however, including the entire pavilion and 180 metres of cloister, was transported over a distance of 200 kilometres to Volkenroda. “And so the pavilion, as it then stood at the Expo, was loaded piece by piece onto flatbed trucks. And every morning, over the course of one hundred nights, some enormous, oversized part arrived here in the village. After one hundred nights the reconstruction of our beloved Christ Pavilion began. It’s not just a hybrid with partly secular and partly clerical roots, but amusingly enough, it’s also a product of the German traffic regulations.” The smug note in Jens Wolf’s voice is quite unmistakable. It is fun to listen to the anecdotes and the vivid memories of this brother of Christ. By the time the Christ Pavilion was re-erected in Volkenroda, Jens Wolf had already made peace with the idea that the monastery

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church would not be built with its original contours, as he had first hoped, “but that instead they would set down an eighteenmetre-high cube. What had initially disappointed me somewhat, to tell the truth (the winning competition design by gmp had by no means been my favourite), matured within me over time and became a house of great joy,” says Wolf. “It’s a really great thing. And I must admit: the Christ Pavilion works at an Expo just as well as it works here, where the fox and the hare say goodnight to one another. Perhaps even better in fox-and-hare country.” Consensus between Cows and Kings A rabbit hops across the picture. The woolly Charolais cow seems unperturbed by this, chomping her way through the wildflower meadow and chewing, and chewing, and chewing some more. For years, Gina and Volker König, accompanied by their four sons and a giant poodle on a leash, searched for the perfect lakeside property where they could anchor their passion for the Mecklenburg Lake District, which they had discovered after German reunification, to a part-time home. “I cannot put it any other way; but sitting here and looking out onto the water, and

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Apfelhof Nossentin Floor plan, scale 1:250 • Lounge pavilion with synchronously movable louvered facade (left) • Southern facade of the parents’ house (top right) • View of the neighbours from the terrace: The new owners have granted the Charolais cattle lifetime visitors’ rights to the Apfelhof green space (far right).

seeing the cranes, wild geese, and ospreys – it makes me deeply, utterly happy.” The Königs drove out to MecklenburgVorpommern about fifty times to scour the real estate agencies for announcements, to ask farmers and the whole world where a property might be available; they wandered hither and yon, combing the landscape for wooden signs rammed into the earth, until finally, after more than ten years, an opportunity presented itself to strike a deal and give their fascination with East German nature and culture its head. “On that day we sent our sons a text message,” the artist remembers. “‘Boys, we’ve bought a cow pasture in Meckpomm!’” The process of generating ideas for the eventual style and form of the Apfelhof took many months, and could indeed merit its own world exhibition. Project architect Joachim Zais developed about 30 different designs and design variations before a consensus was reached that was compatible with both cows and Königs. “I did not know anything about building,” the owner says of her first experience. “We wanted way too many beds, a room for table tennis, a mudroom and of course a boat dock into the Fleesensee. And Mr Zais remained friendly

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Apfelhof Nossentin View from the parents’ dining room through the living area in the direction of the lake; the semi-glazed bedroom is visible above (left) • Sculptural oak staircase in the children’s house (facing page)

throughout. Until one day he said, ‘That’s it. I don’t make compromises. Something must be decided now. Otherwise I’m afraid I cannot help you any further.’” The Unity of the Three Houses But it turns out he could. On October 3rd, 2010, the anniversary of German unification, the Königs held the topping-out ceremony with the craftsmen. At that point, you could still get an idea of how the two houses were constructed: reinforced-concrete frames with in-filled elements of sand-lime brick. The substructure of the facade is a steel construction. The whole thing is snugly covered in a minutely designed cladding of Siberian larchwood with a grid spacing of ten centimetres. This otherwise barely perceptible facade grid draws attention to the wall edges and to the window and door openings. The geometric composition is a perfect fit. It’s a joy to follow its contours. Since the client had family ties to a sandlime brick company, this material was available at a bargain price. Consequently, the resulting building is not purely timber, but instead a mixed construction of reinforced-

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concrete pillars, sand-lime brick walls, steel supports in the facade, and bracing wood beams. Compared to a purely timber construction, this building type has the advantage of containing a lot of mass with high heat storage capacity; it is thus able to equalise temperature variations through night and day, summer and winter. The result is an improved internal climate. At first glance, the two houses appear identical. Only a closer look reveals the differences in height, access and spatial configuration in the supposed twins. While the larger of the two buildings provides sleeping accommodations for the parents and their friends and serves as the home base for feasts and expansive house parties, its little brother houses the four sons and their guests. In good weather, daily life moves outdoors onto the terrace or into the partially enclosed patio, which can be converted easily on both sides into a breezy, permeable garden sculpture. Deriving Pleasure from the Patina The next summer barbecue is already within seeing (and smelling) distance. In the joyful

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1 composite element marble 10 mm casting resin 3 mm + toughened glass 12 mm 2 250 / 80 / 10 mm steel flat 3 point fixing, stainless steel 4 500 / 500 / 50 mm concrete slab

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5 skylight: toughened glass 10 mm, inner surface printed + 14 mm cavity + laminated safety glass 2≈ 8 mm 6 60 mm diameter steel tube 7 2≈ steel flat 40 mm

Christ Pavilion Structure of the church framework (below) • Vertical section, scale 1:50 (above)

Christ Pavilion Cloister window filled with lighters (above) • Cloister, Horizontal and vertical sections, scale 1:10 (right) 1 150 / 150 / 10 mm steel angle 2 150 / 129 / 2 mm steel channel 3 150 / 50 / 4 mm steel flat 4 Toughened glass 8 mm + filling 16 – 63 mm + toughened glass 8 mm 5 15 / 50 mm compression member, stainless steel 6 170 / 6 mm steel frame 7 10 / 20 mm steel 8 180 / 90 / 10 mm steel angle 9 50 mm oak planks

hubbub of family and friends, Meinhard von Gerkan’s timeless motto is on full display: “Building is art in its social application.” Or, as client Volker König, real estate agent by trade, would have it: “This place really gives you joy. And it’s not the pure visual joy you get from a piece of jewellery that you’re almost afraid to touch. It’s the joy you get out of the purpose of a thing, the fact that this project is something that we can use, complete with all of its traces of age and wear and tear. Every single scratch in the surface, every single chipped edge has its own story. I think these marks of time are beautiful and valuable.” While the lower storey of both houses serves as a communal living and recreation area, with the free-standing kitchen island acting as the centre, an oak staircase winds up step by step into the private spaces. A lot of white, a lot of quiet, here and there an old rustic chair and yes, a stuffed moose as well. Thanks to the steeply rising monopitch roof, the bedrooms feature additional sleeping lofts, enclosed in sailcloth and accessible via leaning ladders, above the beds. Here, only a few metres from the Fleesensee, it is more than just the building elements that remind you of sailboats and Sylt. The rough plywood walls with their knotholes, varnished white after installation, lend the Apfelhof a maritime flair even here on dry land. The ingenious lee and windward perspectives of upstairs and down, of the grip holes cut into the closet walls, of the wonderfully playful narrow doors that fulfil many functions at once and that facilitate completely new spatial flow depending on how they are positioned, are often reminiscent of a ship’s cabin on the high seas.

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Sixteen Seconds of Reverberation and Much More Four hundred kilometres to the south, deep in the heartland of Germany, the waves have died down. The Christ Pavilion lies serenely at anchor among the medieval

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buildings of the old monastery complex and the half-timbered houses of the 18th and 19th centuries. From one point of view, the image appears alien, rich in contrast, hard to get accustomed to. From another, however, every minute spent looking at it further emphasises how unobtrusively the resurrected Christ Pavilion merges with the old walls and half-timbered buildings. “In the beginning, the Expo Pavilion seemed like a foreign implant,” remembers Bernward Paulick, architect of the Bauhütte Volkenroda. “But in time the building gained more and more charisma and adaptability. The effect grows year after year. Now, I would say that it would be difficult to picture Volkenroda without its pavilion.” The building has eventually become one with its surroundings, according to Paulick – and not only in the literal sense of its location, but in the minds of the people who live here. On most days the pavilion is used by the brothers as a quiet meditation space. The mood created by the sunlight falling downward along the steel columns is as dramatic now as on day one. But quite often, the otherwise so contemplative shell serves as a stage for music, dance and theatre produc-

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Christ Pavilion Different window fillings in the cloister: music cassette tapes, tea strainers, light bulbs (above) • Light refraction through the different fillings (left) • Pavilion within the monastery complex in the Thuringian evening sunlight (facing page)

tions. The Thuringian Trombone Festival or the evangelic Thuringian Youth Festival, which takes place here every other year, evoke fond memories. According to the Brotherhood, it stands to reason that this sort of thing is a big draw for Volkenroda, given its easily accessible space with lots of light and air, and a record-breaking reverberation time of sixteen seconds. Architect Bernward Paulick regularly gives tours through the complex. Most of the time he is trailed by apprentices and students, as well as architects and building engineers. “And then I ask the visitors: Where is the structural bracing? Where are the diagonals?” And as soon as he tells them about the rigid corner and points out the Rüter Joint, they are all amazed. Paulick is pleased that this flagship of the German steel industry, now more than fifteen years old, still harbours so many surprises today. “That speaks of a certain timeless quality.” A Whisper of Arvo Pärt Jens Wolf takes a stroll through the courtyard. “You know, the wonderful memories of Expo 2000 in Hanover are almost completely faded now. The young people that come here don’t know what to make of these reminiscences. It’s high time that the

Christ Pavilion undergo a little bit of a revival – nothing big, but big enough to make the project fit for the future.” What he would like best would be for the window fillings, the many gears, toothbrushes, and single-use syringes, to be removed in favour of a new form of display. “The possibilities are different now than back in the year 2000. Maybe we can do something digital, maybe something artistic... maybe we’ll just let the next generation decide.” And then there’s that additional, heartfelt wish that the director of the Volkenroda Monastery Foundation has been carrying around with him for years. Something musical, he says. Something very serene. “I would love to have Arvo Pärt performed in these rooms. And who knows, maybe he’ll even compose a small exclusive piece for us. I think that the space and the music would come together nicely in this reduced form. Nothing too fussy... just a whisper.” The wind carries the highest notes all the way to Nossentin. In conceptual space, the distance to this house is not too great. It is beautiful here. Picture-perfect, even. And if that is still not exactly the sort of architectural criterion one wants to hear, so be it. The gut prevails. You never want to leave this place again.

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Glossary of Similarities What is the same? What is similar? A twelvepoint comparison of the discovered commonalities. The In-Between “Sometimes I come to Nossentin, make myself a cup of tea, and just sit on the steps for the first half hour, looking at the Fleesensee and the white Charolais cattle. I always call that Nature TV. It really fills me with peace.” Volker König, real estate broker from Hamburg, declares the edge of the terrace to be his favourite spot. “This wooden open space between the two houses and the covered patio is almost a room in itself. It connects the buildings and at the same time creates a respectful distance that is good for all of us.” In the Christ Pavilion in Volkenroda, the area between the interior and exterior spaces also plays an important role. “We hold church services in the pavilion,” says Bernward Paulick, architect of the Bauhütte Volkenroda. At the same time, people going for a stroll through the village with their dogs can walk through the cloister and use their own discretion to decide how closely they want to approach the pavilion. “This empty buffer zone is as important as rests are in music... a sort of mysterious invitation.” The Fulcrum The function of a door does not necessarily have to be immediately obvious, a fact that Le Corbusier was well aware of. In his secu-

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lar and religious buildings, the Swiss architect often moved the hinge of the doors from the edge toward the centre, so that the radius of curvature is reduced and the open door remains like a vertical slab within the opening. The principle is timeless. In the cloister of the Christ Pavilion, the square doors follow the precept of the inward shift of the hinge. When the building is open, it looks as though it owes its porosity to a series of louvres. According to project architect Joachim Zais, this was intended in part to help visitors overcome their reluctance to enter. This modern trick makes an appearance at the Apfelhof in Nossentin as well: In the open lounge pavilion between the two houses, the side walls can be opened individually. A flat steel bar attached to the lower edges of the five verti-

Apfelhof Nossentin View of the Fleesensee to the east with grazing Charolais cattle (top left) • Christ Pavilion Cloister with “enclaves“ protruding into the church space – the little rooms of peace (top right) • Apfelhof Nossentin North- and south sides of the 65 m2 garden pavilion can be louvered open (bottom left) • Christ Pavilion Three steel lattice gates point the way to the three portals into the church (bottom right)

cal wooden wall panels connects them to one another. A single hand motion allows the panels to rotate inward and outward in synchrony.

Christ Pavilion Layered materials behind glass and pressure bars (bottom left) • Apfelhof Nossentin Stacked firewood, framed in black steel (bottom center) • Christ Pavilion In Volkenroda a square basin shifted slightly off-axis; its area corresponds to the footprint of the church (top right) • Apfelhof Nossentin Larchwoodpanelled wall of the garden pavilion with the property’s namesake (bottom right)

The Filling The whole world is reflected in the cloister of the Christ Pavilion. The spaces within the nano-coated composite windows, which measure 1.7 ≈ 1.7 metres and are up to 10 centimetres thick, have been filled with objects from industry and nature: Flowers, bamboo, tree slices, coal, twigs, matches, gears, toothbrushes, tea strainers, light bulbs, rubber rings, thermometers, feathers, poppy seed pods, and medical syringes. “At first this idea was not really taken seriously, and many people even made fun of it,” explains architect Meinhard von Gerkan. “But now it’s apparent that these windows have become paintings, as it were. The incoming light creates pictures of aesthetic appeal and artistic quality.” All in all, sixty different materials were used as filling. The final selection was based on aesthetic as well as technical perspectives. And then, when standing in Nossentin looking at the wood storage next to the terrace, one sees… black steel frames, filled to the top with perfectly layered firewood. Coincidence?

The Spirit of the Place The black granite basin did not yet exist at the time of the Expo, and was built specially for Volkenroda. The reflecting surface is the visual centrepiece of the monastery grounds. Seen from the north of the inner courtyard – from the place where the nave of the old monastery church once stood – the Christ Pavilion and its reflection form a single large image. “In a certain sense, the contoured cloister with its varied fillings is a novel interpretation of the neighbouring halftimbered houses,” says architect Bernward Paulick, “as though the pavilion had been created exclusively so that it could take up a dialogue with the dark half-timbering and its filling of clay and white-washed brick.” It is the sensitivity to the place that makes this project look so beautiful. In Nossentin, the neighbour woman who takes care of the Apfelhof when the Königs are not there asks, “Did you notice the old barn doors that you can see everywhere here in and around Nossentin? And do you see this larch facade? It’s like they’re linked. Isn’t that amazing?“

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Taking Possession “When I finish a project, I put an end to it mentally as well”, says Joachim Zais. Part of this process means that one day there might suddenly be racks of antlers hanging on the walls which are at odds with the calm simplicity of the architecture. “The Apfelhof now belongs to the owners. Architecture should be sufficiently robust so that such things can happen without ruining the concept.” The Christ Brotherhood of Volkenroda asked the firm gmp to manage the entire historical complex beyond the construction of the Christ Pavilion. “We absolutely did not want to do it,” says the project architect. “A village like this needs life and diversity and therefore input from many different hands.” One contribution will be added now that, after fifteen years, the fillings in the windows have lost their appeal. “Now our task is to assert ownership of the pavilion once again and to change what is old and proven,” says monastery director Jens Wolf. Where light bulbs, tea strainers, and poppy seed pods once held sway, it is now up to young people and creative artists to make their move.

The Joint The specifications for the construction of the Christ Pavilion at the Hanover Expo called for simple and rapid building and dismantling, since, after all, its disassembly and transportation to Volkenroda were part of the concept from the outset. Since welding work and complex screw connections at great heights were unachievable within the economic constraints, Ewald Rüter’s Sigma Joint, patented in 1997, was employed for the first time. The plug connections consist of a base and a slip-on element that are simply plugged into one another. Slightly slanted, minutely milled side surfaces ensure that the solid steel elements form a customfit rigid unit under the effects of gravity and their own weight. The joint proves to be almost as inconspicuous in the roof structure of the two houses in Nossentin. Primary and secondary beams are connected with simple, commercially available slotted panels. And no, you can’t see the screws. They were painted white along with the entire wall and roof construction. The East One looks east, directly toward the lake. Waking up at the Apfelhof is very pleasant, as one can well imagine. “Yes, the East plays an important role in this project,” says building client Gina König. “After Germany’s reunification, we drove out to Mecklenburg-

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Apfelhof Nossentin The König’s royal living space decor (top left) • Christ Pavilion Decoration of the window panes with local materials of Volkenroda (top right) • Axonometry of the patented Sigma Joint as a rigid plug connection (bottom left) • Apfelhof Nossentin Slotted metal panel connection of the ceiling frame in the living room (bottom right)

Monastery Volkenroda Founded in 1131, it is today the oldest existing Cistercian monastery church in Germany (top left) • Apfelhof Nossentin Gnarled birches line the roads around Nossentin (top right) • Framed view over the seating group and out of the loungepavilion (bottom left) • Christ Pavilion Meditative stroll through the cloister kaleidoscope (bottom right)

Vorpommern over and over to go camping, swimming, paddling. It is beautiful, untouched nature. For us West Germans from Hamburg, it was an adventure. We fell in love with this countryside and with the life stories of the people who live here. It was clear that we wanted to settle down here.” During GDR times, the monastery property of Volkenroda was used as the estate and seat of the Agricultural Production Cooperative (LPG). Only after the fall of the Wall did the Holy Ghost move back into the place. “When the pavilion was built fifteen years ago, it was a blessing,” architect Bernward Paulick remembers. “Such a purist building in former East Germany, not to mention in such a rural area... it was quite a sensation!”

not be taken too literally here, since the house is so popular with friends and acquaintances that the Königs are rarely alone. The sons, too, frequently bring their friends. On one occasion, thirty-five people spent the night simultaneously. Rather than in noise volume, the Nossentin peace manifests itself in the celebration of being in the country, in its view out onto the Fleesensee, and in the meditative observation of the grazing Charolais cattle. “It was really astonishing to see how quickly visitors calmed down as soon as they entered our pavilion,” recalls Jens Wolf. “Like all world exhibitions, the Expo in Hanover was a vanity fair, but despite the endless crowds, when people took their first step into the cube, one could see these very specific, relaxed expressions on their faces.”

The Eye of the Storm “Every time we come to Nossentin, a kind of peace sneaks into us within a few minutes,” says Volker König. The word ‘peace’ should

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Christ Pavilion Nine steel columns support the roof of the church (far left) • Apfelhof Nossentin Between the full-height windows, steel supports complement the wooden framework (left) • All in white: white-laminated aircraft plywood (below) • Christ Pavilion Semi-transparent hybrid elements of glass and slabs of marble from Naxos (bottom)

The Steel Support Nine mighty cross-shaped steel supports soar eighteen metres upward, where they fan out like a whisk set on its end and hold the coffered ceiling suspended. They look as though they pierce the roof windows above, creating a fascinating, aesthetically memorable image. The cross pillar has not taken centre-stage like this since Mies van der Rohe used it in the Barcelona Pavilion in 1929 and in the Villa Tugendhat in 1939. The industrial steel support is seen again in the cloister: 7-metre-high elementary frames made from L-profiles lend the approximately 180-metre-long passage a spatial contour. “The pavilion was the showcase of the German steel industry,” architect Joachim Zais remembers. “When you engage in something new, you have to commit with full force.” In Nossentin, it appears like a quiet little footnote in the farthest corner of the living- and bedrooms, unexpected and almost hidden among window frame, draperies and aircraft plywood wall: the Apfelhof steel support. The White The Russian painter Kazimir Malevich described the colour white as the “true, real idea of eternity” and waxed poetic about the “lining of the coloured sky.” Is it a coincidence that the facade of the Christ Pavilion is clad in white stone? In

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actuality it is nano-coated laminated glass with a whisper-thin sheet of marble from the Greek island of Naxos glued to its inner side. When it was built in the year 2000, the technology was brand-new. In the grey, translucent striations of the stone, one recognises the concept of infinity. Striations are found in the holiday house in Nossentin as well: inside the walls were clad in aircraft plywood and then glazed white. The surface is far from perfect in the architectural sense. But it is perfect when seen through the eyes of the genius loci. “This is no slick city house,” says architect Joachim Zais. “It’s a holiday house, it’s alright if it looks a bit rough. You should be able to see hints of the countryside, the hand-crafted quality in its surfaces.” The Repetition One of the most characteristic design elements of both projects is redundancy. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the principle of repetition is readily recognizable in the arrangement of the three buildings, their volumes, the wood battens of the facade, the pent roof, the contrary orientation of the dormers, the ceiling beams, the ceiling cassettes, the stylistically celebrated interstitial butt joints, the recessed sleeping galleries, the leaning ladders, the racks of antlers on the walls, the narrow ventilation flaps, and the vertically sectioned windows that struc-

ture the house; it is seen in the beauty of the daily morning view and in the white cows that graze their way through the lakeside panorama. In Thuringia the number of repetitions is much greater. Both the pavilion and the cloister gain their character through the proliferation of the translucent, carefully detailed and staged square. Or, as a local priest puts it: “The square is an early Christian motif. But in truth, whether you’re a believer or an agnostic, you cannot escape the fascination of this archetypal elementary shape.” The Ravages of Time “It is quite apparent that the Christ Pavilion was designed as a temporary structure in its first phase. The roof lights are a bit leaky, sometimes the rain comes in, and moss is always growing in the corners and seams,” says Bernward Paulick, architect of the

Bauhütte Volkenroda. But he is unperturbed. “That is completely normal after fifteen years. This is a modular building that has a very moving history, in the truest sense of the word.” In Nossentin, too, the ravages of time have been gentle. Moss and algae have taken up residence on some parts of the larchwood battens, which have long been weathered grey and merge unobtrusively into the artwork of nature. They enfold the house and fence in a green veil. What was it that Brother Jens Wolf said? “Our monastery church was built 900 years ago. Parts of it are still standing today, and in another 900 years they will still be standing. But all that will remain of the pavilion will be the nine mighty steel columns reaching up into the evening sky. A 30th-Century Caspar David Friedrich will be pleased with such an imposing motif.”

Christ Pavilion Thistle flowers that settled within the window during drying (top left) • Apfelhof Nossentin Microorganisms conquer the larchwood which is exposed to the elements (top right) • Christ Pavilion Stone-and glass of the church and window fillings of the cloister, illuminated in Volkenroda at night (bottom left) • Apfelhof Nossentin projects its full radiance out toward the lake (bottom right)

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Feng Shui, Interrelationships and Parametric Design Wanxiang Plaza Shanghai • SOHO 2 Beijing • 3Cubes Shanghai

Few types of construction are considered less “sexy” than office buildings. After all, religious, cultural, and sporting buildings all offer more manifold possibilities for allowing artistic expression free rein. Administrative buildings on the other hand are widely regarded as mere collections of interchangeable offices in which only the foyers and the facades offer opportunities for creativity in design. Yet numerous iconic examples taken from the history of architecture contradict this commonly held dim view of office buildings, and illustrate the potential for consummate structural design solutions in such projects – the Chrysler Building in New York (1930), the Dreischeibenhaus in Düsseldorf (1960), the BMW “Four-Cylinder” in Munich (1972) or the Umweltbundesamt in Dessau (2005), to name but a few. The firm gmp boasts a great deal of experience in the planning of administrative buildings, as well as a broad spectrum of design solutions. In five decades the architecture firm has built about six dozen office buildings, including the Headquarters of Shell AG in Hamburg (1974), the European Patent Office in Munich (1980), the Oberpostdirektion (Post Office Building) in Brunswick (1990), the German-Japanese Centre in Hamburg (1995), as well as the Dresdner Bank (1997) and the Jakob-Kaiser House (2001) in Berlin.

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Sino-German Collaboration Since 2005, gmp has completed numerous office buildings in China. These are essentially the fruits of a Sino-German collaborative effort, since in that country foreign architecture firms are legally required to work together with a Chinese partner firm. These joint ventures relieve gmp of responsibility for certain aspects of the project (particularly the preparation of construction packages and the administration of the tender process) that the firm would normally handle itself in Germany, for example. In addition – as is the case for any architecture firm in China, including Chinese firms – gmp has only a very limited say in the interior

Wanxiang Plaza, Office building Shanghai-Pudong (CN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Volkmar Sievers • Construction period: 2007– 2010 • GFA: 42,000 m2 SOHO China Group, Beijing (CN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Stephan Rewolle • Construction period:

2009 – 2015 • GFA: 103,000 m2 3Cubes Office Building at the Caohejing Business Park in Shanghai, Shanghai (CN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Magdalene Weiss • Construction period: 2011– 2015 • GFA: 90,650 m2 (58,200 m2 above ground / 32,450 m2 below ground)

Wangxiang Plaza Shanghai View from the Bund, the riverside promenade of Shanghai, across the Huangpu River

design of individual floors in Chinese office buildings. In China, the buyer of an office building or the lessee of an individual floor traditionally assumes full responsibility for the interior design. As a consequence, the architects responsible for a building’s design must limit their specifications for interiors to the lobby, and to some structural preparations for any finishes to be installed by tenants. With its office buildings, as with buildings of other typologies, gmp has contributed to the breathtaking transformation of Chinese

cities, frequently in particularly prominent urban spaces. Three examples in Shanghai and Beijing provide insight into the complex demands and stylistic solutions of each very specific design task, and simultaneously shed light on the backgrounds of the individual building clients. An Eye-Catcher in the Skyline of Pudong After building the German School (2000) and the Xinzhao Residential Area (2002 – 2004) in Beijing, as well as the International Convention and Exhibition Centers

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tic depth of its pale stone facades, with their grid of double-storey recessed window openings.

in Nanning (2003 – 2005) and Shenzhen (2004), gmp completed its first two office buildings in China in 2005: the Guangzhou Development Central Building and the Lingang Service Center. In that same year, gmp won an architecture competition with their design for the regional headquarters of the Wanxiang Holding Company, on the east bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai-Pudong. The Wanxiang Plaza office building, built from 2007 to 2010, is part of the impressive skyline of the business and high-tech district of Pudong, which stretches out along the bank of the Huangpu River across from the Bund, Shanghai’s famous waterfront promenade. Though the Plaza occupies the second row of buildings behind the bank, it is situated where it can easily be seen, even from the opposite shore. With a height of only 85 metres, the relatively small building cannot hope to compete vertically with the many skyscrapers in its immediate vicinity (such as the Shanghai Tower, built in 2015, the second-highest building in the world at 632 metres). Nonetheless, the Wangxiang Plaza office building draws attention to itself by virtue of its well-proportioned dimensions and the plas-

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The Influence of Feng Shui The roots of the Wanxiang Group go back to the year 1969, when a small people’s commune in Ningwei, near Hangzhou, the capital of the Eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, built a small hall for the repair of agricultural machines. Today, Wangxiang is one of the top 120 Chinese companies, and the largest manufacturer of car parts in China. The group also produces agricultural machines and products and is actively involved in the market for renewable energies. It owns factories in seven Chinese provinces and branches in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Great Britain. As the client was also to be the tenant, the brief directly influenced various unique features of the building. Like many of his

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Wangxiang Plaza Shanghai Skyline of the business and hightech district of Pudong (left) • Site plan with buildings in the immediate surroundings, scale 1:5,000 (below) 1 Wangxiang Plaza 2 Shanghai Pudong Customs 3 Shanghai International Conference Center 4 Shanghai Natural Wild Insect Kingdom 5 Oriental Pearl TV Tower

countrymen, the company’s founder Lu Guanqiu, one of the ten richest Chinese citizens, lives according to the Taoist harmonising principles of Feng Shui, and wanted to have these reflected in the design of his new company headquarters. The unusual diagonal floor plan of the threestorey entry hall can be traced back to the demands of the Feng Shui Master commissioned by the client, who insisted resolutely on a south-facing entrance. Since this would have required people to enter the building at its corner (which likewise would have been incompatible with the principles of Feng Shui) the corner was cut at a slant and the actual entry facade was “folded” to resemble a decorative screen. Also unusual is the fact that the rectangular tower contains a cylindrical core flattened on its southern side, whose bank of lifts opens up onto the foyer and on the office floors onto generously proportioned communal areas.

... And A Penthouse to Top It All Off Another special feature of the Wanxiang Plaza is the fact that the chief executive of the holding – the son of the company’s founder – had a penthouse with a swimming pool built for himself on the two top floors. The plans for the penthouse, except for the interior design, also fell under the purview of gmp. To allow for separate access to the flat a private elevator had to be integrated into the core of the tower along with the four lifts for regular office service and the two legally mandated firefighters’ lifts. The entire structure is based on a strictly orthogonal grid pattern with a spacing of 7.2 metres, which places constraints on the location of the partition walls between offices. Its outer form is characterised by the contrast between the cladding panels of white quartzite, whose rough, mottled surfaces give the facade an especially

Wangxiang Plaza Shanghai Pudong river bend with a view of the office complex toward the north-west. The building in the foreground is the Shanghai International Conference Center

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bright appearance and the deeply recessed windows with frames and soffits of grey aluminium alloy. Sun screening elements of stainless-steel mesh on the exterior walls can be moved vertically as needed; due to pollution these have darkened somewhat since the building was completed in 2010. The arcade in the entry hall is also clad in white quartzite but its glass panes mark the limit of gmp’s influence on the internal styling: the foyer itself, with its floors and walls of different types of marble, as well as all the offices above, fell within the jurisdiction of a separate interior designer. This partitioning of building design into two separate tasks is the norm in China: the “big picture” architecture – the building itself and its outward appearance – is carried out by one firm, and the interior work is done by an interior designer commissioned by the buyer or lessee of the property at a later date. This was also the case in the Wanxiang Plaza office building, even though the client built the Plaza exclusively for its own use and is to this day the sole occupant. Start-up “Playground” for Young Freelance Professionals In contrast to the Wanxiang Group, SOHO China does not build for itself. Instead it acts as the largest (and presumably

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also one of the most profitable) project developer for administrative properties in China. The company was founded in 1995 by the former Goldman Sachs employee Zhang Xin, along with Pan Shiyi, who was employed in a governmental department of Heibei Province before shifting into the real estate sector. It invests almost exclusively in the Central Business Districts of Beijing and Shanghai – and in contemporary iconic architecture, which it commissions from famous architects. Along with Zaha Hadid and Kengo Kuma, gmp has also done work on several occasions for SOHO China: twice in Shanghai and with Guanghalu SOHO 2 also once in Beijing. The SOHO buildings (SOHO stands for “small office – home office”) are characterised chiefly by a mix of offices, shops and dining establishments, with a great flexibility and variety among the different elements, which can be adapted at short notice to fit changing needs. At present, besides the standard office units, there is great demand for shared working environments, composed of individual workstations rented on a weekly basis in large open-plan offices. With their communal infrastructure (conference rooms, tea kitchens and informal meeting areas), these shared environments serve as start-up “playgrounds” for young freelance professionals. A significant fraction of the floor space of the two SOHO

Wangxiang Plaza Shanghai Renderings of several different design variations (above) • West view with the diagonally accessed three-storey entrance hall (below)

Wangxiang Plaza Shanghai Floor plan and section, scale 1:1,000 (left) • View of the southeast facade with the entry hall in the foreground, with the Bund visible in the distance (below)

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SOHO 2 Beijing Southwest view from Dongdaqiao Road (left) • Site plan, scale 1: 5,000 (below) • Studies of functional areas and traffic patterns (top right) • Central main entrance on the north side with staircase leading into the basement levels (bottom right)

buildings in Shanghai designed by gmp (SOHO Fuxing Lu, 2015, and SOHO Bund, 2016) is dedicated to these shared office units. In fact, after the completion in 2015 of Beijing’s Guanghualu SOHO 2, large sections of a finished shopping arcade had to be retro-fitted to make room for additional short-term offices. In 2007, the SOHO China Group sponsored a competition for the design of Guanghalu SOHO 2, which gmp won with a clever scheme that spread more than 100,000 square metres of floor space – 84,000 square metres for offices and 19,000 for retail – over five towers and a two-storey base structure. The five towers, three on the southern edge of the lot along the Guangha Lu (“lu” is the Chinese word for “street”) and two on the northern section of the site, are united via their common base, and by multi-level bridging structures, into a single block with five access points.

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Public open spaces

Sight lines – transparency and continuity

Multiple public access ways

Access to parking decks (B2 to B4)

Shopping levels (B1 to F4)

Access routes to offices

Densely clustered blocks are not usually the norm in China but the architecture along the relatively narrow Guanghua Lu, in one of the most prominent districts in eastern central Beijing, is characterised by them. The entire building complex, with its 214 ≈ 77 metre footprint reflects and reinforces the urban character of the Central Business District in a unique way by establishing connections with its surroundings – in urban, spatial, and also functional terms – via its network of pathways among the buildings. Overshadowing Guidelines as a Defining Parameter in Design There is a dynamic quality to the building’s facades that face outward to the surrounding streets, as their curving undulations constantly deviate from the primary building line. This trend toward free-form expression intensifies toward the common inner core of the five buildings. Seen from above, the

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SOHO 2 Beijing Diagonal view from the east (left) • Section showing neighbouring building to the north and shadow lines (bottom left) • Maximum building volume with shadow cross section (below right) • Thermal impacts on the buildings to the north (at the bottom right) • Facade section with fins, scale 1:10 (facing page above) • View of the facade with fins (facing page below)

structures resemble eroded boulders in a river current. Gentle changes in the orientation of the facades at the rounded “corners” of the buildings provide continuously varied views and perspectives; they create the picture of a dynamic urban landscape without making a distinction between the front and back sides of each individual structure. Full height window panes with attached vertical aluminium fins, designed to control light influx, characterise the overall design uniformity of the tower facades. By sloping the roof planes from south to north, additional facade surfaces are created that are likewise outfitted with aluminium fins – in this case horizontally. The uniform angle of the rooftops stems from the municipal overshadowing guidelines

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as well as from the specific demands of the occupants of the apartment buildings to the immediate north for unimpeded light during certain times of the day and the year. The softly undulating appearance of the aluminium fins is reminiscent of a curtain stirring in the wind. This motif is concretely visualised in the two-storey lobbies of the five towers, where a drape-like cladding over green, backlit glass walls is effectively stage-lit by illumination from above. A dynamically curved white reception counter opposite the lift access constitutes the only piece of furniture in this special reception area. Its dark stone floor is a continuation – albeit smoothly polished – of the walkway surface outside. The two lower storeys and the first basement level were originally earmarked as a shopping arcade, and designs by gmp to that effect had been carried out in some detail. These were organised around two large voids dispensing light from above and providing spatial orientation. The white-clad galleries and the pale stone floors distribute the natural daylight, along with the subtly added artificial illumination, into the whole expanse. While numerous shops with full glass fronts were originally meant to form a

1 Raised flooring system with 70 mm steel timbering, 150 mm reinforced concrete slab 2 Insulated glazing with low-E coating ESG 10 + SZR 12 + VSG 8 mm 3 Aluminium fin 350 / 60 mm 4 35 mm diameter steel-toothed shaft 5 Steel square tube bracket 600 / 60 / 30 mm 6 Steel post-and-beam construction, post 165 / 70 mm, beam 165 / 170 mm

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sort of transparent cityscape in the “canyon” of the building complex, the area was instead retro-fitted to accommodate shortterm-lease office spaces and a library. The architects had no direct influence on the interior design of the offices in the upper floors, since the lessees commissioned these separately. In any case, a key decision to keep the ceilings free of suspended cladding and to specify linear ceiling lighting guarantees that the 3.6-metre-high office storeys present a uniform outward appearance. A Suspenseful Interplay Between Adaptation and Individuality Since the 1990s the Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech Park Development Corporation, a large public development company, has been developing large areas of Shanghai predominantly for industrial construction. Because of the very rapid growth of the city some of their once peripheral industrial zones have now become integrated with urban areas. They are increasingly being freed up for new uses and redeveloped with a view to a denser development of the land with higher-yield buildings. An example of this is the Caohejing Business Park,

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which encompasses an entire district in the west of Shanghai and was formerly covered with production sheds and workers’ flats. The industrial plants have been moved out to the periphery of the city and in their place the Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech Park Development Corporation has for some time been developing high-end corporate parks alongside individual buildings with various international architecture firms. Gmp have designed several office parks and office buildings for the Caohejing Business Park; among them the building group 3Cubes, which was completed in 2015. The development corporation does not merely ensure that the construction of office buildings in the Caohejing Business Park

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will conform to a time-tested standard. It also provides office park management and takes care of the often extensive landscaping, cleaning services and security, as well as the management of small service units such as restaurants and shops. The office buildings are either sold or leased floor-byfloor (or in even smaller subdivisions). Two of the 3Cubes buildings were sold in their entirety to American clients MSD and Emerson, while the largest of the three is being leased by-the-floor. The 3Cubes building complex – for which gmp received a direct commission in 2010

SOHO 2 Beijing Foyer with concierge counter, across from the access to the lifts (top left) • Corridor leading from the foyer (top right) • Atrium with stairs as social meeting place (bottom right) • Meeting spots and shared work spaces on the ground floor (bottom left) • View from the atrium upward toward the access galleries and the slanted glazing of the roof (facing page)

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– was under construction from 2012 to 2015. While the vertically oriented facades of the three cubic buildings reflect a typical design motif in the Caohejing Business Park, their overall composition clearly sets them apart from their more heterogeneous surroundings. Set on a shared podium, they vary in height between 35 and 60 metres (68 metres if one includes the rooftop technical structures). The podium, with an architectural grid of 8.4 metres, is embedded within the softly undulating, artificial grass landscape and houses some service units in its two partly daylit basement floors. A broad, bow-shaped indentation formed by the glass front of a restaurant opens the podium up to the adjoining buildings of the Caohejing Business Park. With their sweeping forms the green islands of the hilly landscape provide a gentle contrast to the austere elegance of the cubic structures.

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Though the three offset buildings clearly express their common identity in shared facade elements and materials, they nevertheless engage in a suspenseful interplay between conformity and individuality. The smallest cube features large double-storey openings, while the largest is characterised by openings of only a single storey. A Textbook Example of Parametric Design The organisation of the three cubes is based around a 9-metre architectural grid, and the spacing underlying the facade elements has varying dimensions of 2.25, 3 and 4.5 metres. The width and angles of the obliquely positioned white perforated panels and aluminium profiles on the facade, which are also visible in the casements, were determined parametrically. Factors such as seasonal variations

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3Cubes Shanghai View from the northeast (top left) • Height analysis for the harmonious integration of the skyline (left centre) • Studies of building arrangement with reference to the built surroundings, accesses and open spaces (bottom left) • Floor plans ground floor, scale 1:1,000 (above) • Central passage to the underground connecting building (below right)

in the position of the sun, overshadowing from neighbouring buildings, the privacy requirements for the offices and the quality of the view were individually evaluated for each building face using a 3D model, and then input to produce a specific opening angle for each facade section. In this way, viewing, lighting and shading options for every single room could be optimised while the solar insolation energy was minimised. Moreover, the resulting appearance of the facade, which consists of a maximum of nine different elements, changes constantly depending on the viewing angle. This effect is further accentuated in the evenings through the lighting integrated into the closed facade elements, which transforms the facade surfaces into programmable light-installation walls.

tors”. In collaboration with selected planning specialists, they can define the parameters required by the specific design concept, and can successively optimise the design and visualise variations in the digital model throughout the ongoing creative process. The generating parameters are stored in the model as variables. Within a predetermined framework of requirements and interrelationships one can specify and adjust the exact measurements of, for example, building elements at any time, while the associated measurements of

The increasing use of parametric tools in even the earliest design phases is based on a new design methodology. As was the case in the “analogue age”, before computers came to be used as a supporting tool in design, the foundation of the methodology lies in the formulation of a clear design concept, to which all subsequent design phases refer. At every point in the process the architects are the “orchestra conduc-

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3Cubes Shanghai Section centre tower, scale 1:1,000 (top left) • View of the central open space with the glazed facade of the underground connecting building (bottom left) • Studies of shadowing and intensity of incident light (above) • Values generated in the shading and light studies are parametrically encoded and applied to the appropriate facade sections. In this way it is possible to structurally adapt each window to its individual light situation (below).

other elements are automatically computed. This method guarantees quick adaptation to a variety of demands, and optimisation of the design in line with the initially determined design goals. Strong Contrasts Between Light and Dark In the appearance of 3Cubes, the architects opted for strong contrasts between light and dark. To achieve an intensely graphic effect created by the three cubes with their white facade elements, the frames of the fixed windows were manufactured from dark grey aluminium profiles. The walls and floors of the entrance lobbies are covered in dark grey stone, accented by white reception counters formed of acrylic-based mineral composite, and by the white frames

of the openings into the building interior. Slightly slanted white aluminium ceiling panels with acoustic perforations and indirect lighting, overlapped in a scale pattern, reflect the facade motif. As before, the clients left the interior design of the 3Cubes building complex up to the owners of the buildings or the lessees of the office floors to complete as they saw fit. However, in addition to the interior design of the entrance lobbies of the three buildings gmp again developed guidelines for the design of the ceilings in the office areas, complete with ventilation outlets, lighting, and flexible partition wall connectors, in order to guarantee a uniformity of appearance in the buildings when seen from the outside.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

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The Stadium as a Stage for the Choreography of the Masses Olympic Stadium Kiev • National Stadium Warsaw • Arena da Amazônia Manaus • Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha Brasília • Estádio Santiago Bernabéu Madrid

Building for the Pride of the Nation and for the Soul of the Club Sports buildings, particularly stadiums for team sports, are primarily functional facilities that serve large numbers of people – much like train stations, where thousands arrive and depart on a daily basis. But where the train station usually individualises people (you jump out of a taxi, hasten to the ticket machine, look up your train compartment), the stadium is the site for manifold interactions: some individual, but most collective. This topic has engaged Volkwin Marg again and again over the course of his work on two dozen stadium designs. “Choreography of the Masses” is the title of an exhibition he initiated, which illuminated the historico-cultural phenomenon of the sports audience. A person will act differently in a crowd than in an individual situation. How and with what consequences this occurs is naturally relevant when building places in which tens of thousands of spectators will congregate. After reading Elias Canetti’s “Crowds and Power”, Volkwin Marg became conscious of the ambivalence of his actions in designing large sports facilities. He came to understand that, “as in music, some architectural compositions will encourage one, in the figurative sense, to march, while to others

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one dances the waltz.” This is definitively demonstrated in the contrast between the “power-conscious” Olympic Stadium of Berlin in 1936 and the “cheerful” Olympic Stadium of Munich in 1972 – two projects shown in the exhibition. Reflections on the phenomenon of crowds in stadiums leads to the realisation that there are ways for organisers and law enforcement agencies to influence and guide these crowds, but they also yield insights into the way in which the architectural framework should be conceptualised. In Warsaw, for example, the design succeeded in expressing the powerful national feelings associated with the stadium in a

Olympic Stadium Kiev, Kiev (UA). Design: Volkwin Marg with Christian Hoffmann and Marek Nowak • Construction period: 2008 – 2011 • Seats: 68,000 National Stadium, Warsaw (PL). Design: Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Markus Pfisterer • Construction period:

2008 – 2011 • Seats: 55,000 Arena da Amazônia, Manaus (BR). Design: Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Martin Glass • Construction period: 2010 – 2014 • Seats: approx. 44,400 National Stadium Mané Garrincha, Brasília (BR). Design: Volkwin Marg

and Hubert Nienhoff with Knut Göppert • Construction period: 2010 – 2013 • Seats: approx. 72,800 Modernisation of the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid (ES). Design: Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Markus Pfisterer • Under construction • Seats: approx. 90,000

Olympic Stadium Munich Behnisch & Partner with Frei Otto, 1972 (above) • Olympic Stadium Berlin original building by Werner March, 1936 and modernisation by gmp, 2004 (left)

sympathetic way, as will be illustrated below. Many architects would have used a similar opportunity to fall back on pomp and pathos. In all their stadium designs the architects of gmp seek to influence the choreography of the masses through a great variety of other means. This involves preventing frustration by providing simple, unhindered orientation and intuitive navigation for the visitor. It involves conveniently designed spaces that communicate care for the individual; uncluttered, clearly arranged layouts; sanitary facilities and kiosks that can handle

large numbers. It involves the size of the spectator blocks, smooth departures and speedy evacuations. It involves countering the chaos in some visitors’ heads with the serenity and order of the surroundings. When a crowd becomes a mob, the transition is often triggered by some trifling thing. Then, the frustration stemming from a lost game can bubble over into aggression directed at the “adversary” wearing the wrong-coloured scarf, or at the world at large. Preventing frustration is therefore an important strategy for organisers as well as for the architects who set the stage.

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FIFA and UEFA Call the Shots The World Cup and the European Championship provide the incentives in host countries to bring their stadiums up to the newest international standards. For the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine in 2012, five of the eight stadiums were built from scratch, and the remaining three were extensively upgraded. Two years later, the World Cup in Brazil gave rise to seven new buildings and five renovations. The standards for these and the requirements for the buildings’ conditions and facilities are determined by FIFA or UEFA. As with the

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Olympic Games, the host nations hope that these efforts will result in a boost in development, not only for the sports facilities but also for the supporting city infrastructures. Honouring the Genius Loci For the European Championship in 2012, gmp contributed to the construction of two national stadiums; one in the Polish capital of Warsaw, where the opening game took place, and one in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, the site of the final game. When building a new large-scale sports complex, it might seem to make sense to choose

a site in the outskirts, with connections to city highways and the railway – like the Stade de France in Paris, or the Allianz-Arena in Munich. Yet both the responsible authorities in Warsaw and the Ukrainian sports ministry opted instead to honour the genius loci, and to build the replacement buildings on the same sites as the old. In both cases the challenge lay in integrating parts of the existing buildings into the new structures.

Olympic Stadium Kiev Urban environment of the stadium (top left) • Pictogram, scale 1:10,000 (left) • Historically listed upper tier with glass facade (right)

Difficult Undertaking Since 1923 a stadium has stood on the slopes of Cherepanov Hill in Kiev. It was enlarged several times and finally reached a spectator capacity of 100,000 in 1968. Even today, the structure of the upper tier with its 80 well proportioned, outward-leaning prestressed concrete supports appears elegant and contemporary – reason enough to consider its preservation when it came to rebuilding. “Olympic National Sports Complex” was the name the stadium was given (the sixth in its history) when it became one of four Olympic football venues in 1980. Building in Ukraine means bidding farewell to many planning standards, specifically political, organisational, and legal protections. Straightforward procedures along well-organised channels do not exist, especially wherever there is a great deal of money in question. gmp had developed their first design for a new building for the specifically commissioned general contractor Hochtief. When Hochtief withdrew from the project due to political instability, a design competition was held. The winner

was a Taiwanese firm partnered with a Chinese general contractor, but a building contract between them and the client was never signed. In the ensuing jockeying for position, the second-place winner gmp finally gained the upper hand over the thirdplace winner, Foster and Partners, and was invited back for renegotiations. The architects of gmp were able to submit convincing plans, since they had had a head start in the first design phase, and had furthermore gained a reliable local partner in the planning office Serjogin.

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gmp were unable to push through a German general contractor; the commission went to a Ukrainian firm. This did nothing to make the work easier, given the tight schedule that allotted 60 days for a preliminary design, 90 days for the design and 420 days for the implementation planning. The designs had to take into account the preservation of the historically listed upper tier from 1968. The roof was to be erected around the stadium bowl without touching it, as demonstrated in Warsaw and at some other stadiums. And the facade was to be of glass, so that one would actually be able to see the elegant upper tier structure. The construction site lies on a slope. Terraces on the front of the building bridge the height difference and serve as shop and restaurant fronts within the plinth. The promenades at half height were to become accessible to the public, in the hope that this would enliven the centrally located stadium and encourage its integration into the urban life around it. In the design of the shell and the roof structure, the architects of gmp and the engineers of schlaich bergermann partner were also confronted with several tight specifications. The number and spacing of the 80 supports were to conform to the structure of the existing building. The most economical design to be considered – though the most demanding in terms of manufacturing – was a cable truss system with stretched membranes: the material-saving and light-weight spoked-wheel principle. In this system, support cables run from an inner tension ring to two stacked outer compression rings like the spokes on a bicycle. Of course, the layout of a trackand-field stadium, which must house an oval track with straight long sides and semicircular short sides, does not conform to the ideal shape of a compression- and tension ring system. For this reason, in the finished building the flexed supports on the long sides are canted only slightly inward, whereas

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1 Roof structure with 80 slanted supports 2 Upper and lower compression ring 3 Cable truss with inner tension ring 4 640 air supports between cable trusses form peaks in the membrane 5 Membrane roof with 640 light domes 6 Glazed outer facade between slanted steel supports 7 Roof structure based on the spoked-wheel principle

Olympic Stadium Kiev Roof structure sequence (facing page) • View of the roof from above. The membrane is stretched over transparent light domes that are held up by small air supports (above) • View of the underside of the membrane roof. Owing to the double membrane layer where the material sections overlap, dark radial patterns are created around the light domes that are reminiscent of a starry sky (right)

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they are heavily slanted on the ends. This results in a more elliptical shape for the roof and especially for the compression rings, which in turn creates greater curvature. The movement benefits the whole building, lending it more suspense and charisma. Even though the precision required for the production and assembly of the building elements of such a sophisticated structure had, until that point, been unfamiliar in Ukraine, it was possible to complete the building – apart from the tension structure and the translucent PTFE glass-fibre fabric covering – using local firms. A special characteristic of the Kiev roof is that the high points of the covering feature transparent light domes held up by small air supports. Seen from below, the membrane roof resembles a sky full of stars, since the light domes are surrounded by the star-shaped reinforcements in the fabric. The effect is thus not a result of architectural design, but essentially a “constructivist ornament” that lends the stadium an unmistakeable signature appearance. Since the NSK Olimpiyski was completed, the long-established club Dynamo Kiev no longer plays its home games in its own nearby stadium, but instead uses the new 70,000-capacity national arena. The championship club profits from the

stadium’s image, which corresponds nicely with its own self-perception as the nation’s flagship team. Founded on History The European Championship stadium in Warsaw is even more heavily burdened with national sentiment. Once, the view from the old city toward the east bank of the Vistula River was nothing special. Now the gleaming building, in the national colours of white and red, draws everyone’s gaze. Like a shining crown it salutes the newly rebuilt royal palace, the pride of the Polish nation. Greater symbolism is hard to imagine. The modern structure itself has quickly become a place of national identity. President Donald Tusk sensed this and celebrated his 2011 re-election in the Narodowy Stadium. The architects do not deny this association, even though they do not speak of a crown. Volkwin Marg thinks of it differently: “Like a typical wicker basket woven of red and white expanded metal bands, [the stadium building] presents itself as an illuminated focal point across from the newly reconstructed Warsaw old town, which has been declared a World Heritage Site.” National consciousness and pride can be a heavy cross for a building to bear, a fact that is usually expressed through stately dignity

Olympic Stadium Kiev The seats reflect the national colours of Ukraine, the roof evokes a starry sky (left) • National Stadium Warsaw Urban surroundings (top right) • Pictogram, scale 1:10,000 (bottom right)

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and a certain monumental quality. It was important to Volkwin Marg that the Warsaw stadium, in contrast, appear “light and open” – burdened though it may be with frequently traumatic memories and national symbolism. The national stadium stands on ground that is soaked in history. Since 1954, a low earthen stadium had crouched in the Vistula floodplains. Some events, rallies, and festivities there were known to drawn more than 100,000 spectators. In 1986, the dilapidated national stadium was leased to dealers and evolved into one of the largest bazaars in

the world. When the construction of a new stadium was proposed in its place, history demanded its due, because the walls that had been raised in 1953 consisted of the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto, destroyed by the German Wehrmacht. And that rubble was off-limits. In addition, archaeological finds would have prevented the completion of the stadium in time for the European Championship. The earthen walls were therefore meticulously spared, and the new stadium was built “on tiptoes” above them. Visiting VIPs can still experience elements of the old stadium: a stone portico and the his-

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National Stadium Warsaw Conceptual sketch (top left) • Stadium with a movable, stowable membrane roof (bottom left) • View of the fixed part of the membrane roof (above)

toric passage through a domed rotunda. A lift delivers the VIPs up into the present day, into their modern foyers and lounges. From there they enjoy the view of a concentrated, steep, clean football stadium with a compact atmosphere and a serene, untroubled geometry that is rarely encountered in stadiums. Fifty-five thousand red and light grey seats are combined into a pixellated pattern which becomes lighter as it progresses upward, suggesting a full capacity crowd even when the stands are empty. The sky is formed by a delicate, high-end roof structure consisting of suspension cables and a membrane covering – a construct that replaces materials and mass with engineering artistry and design quality. Again, schlaich bergermann partner employed their spoked-wheel principle, in which radial steel cables stretch between an inner tension ring and an outer compression ring like the spokes of a wheel and support a translucent membrane. In this case the football pitch can be completely covered. It takes fifteen minutes for the flexi-

ble roof membrane to be fully deployed over the field. The fabric is stored inside a tin-shaped housing suspended above the centre of the stadium. It is pierced and supported by a vertical 70-metre-tall spear anchored right above the kick-off spot. The spear point, striped red and white for aviation safety, is an architectural emphasis; it has no function but to serve as a highly visible marker of the national stadium. The folded outer skin of expanded metal, a composition of red and silver-grey surfaces, offers protection from wind and weather. Depending on light conditions and the time of day the metal panels may appear solid one moment and transparent the next. Between the light and air-permeable outer facade and the solid building, generously laid out, sculpturally impressive cascading stairways connect the three levels and facilitate access to all user areas independently of game operations. Since league games are not played at the national stadium and it is used for only a dozen international matches a year the building is equipped for

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Section, scale 1:100 1 Central column 70 m long, Ø 1,060 –1,600 mm 2 Upper radial cable Ø 70 mm 3 Sliding carriage operated by electric cable winch with membrane straps fixed to 4 4 Movable textile roof: PVC-coated polyester fabric 5 Hydraulically lowerable membrane garage 6 Lower radial cable Ø 145 mm 7 Hydraulic tensioning unit

8 Fixed textile roof: PTFE-coated glass-fibre fabric 9 Lower radial cable Ø 70 mm 10 Anchor cable Ø 70 mm 11 Maintenance walkway 12 “Flying mast”, angle according to axis 13 18 mm laminated safety glass on steel supporting structure 14 Drainage for glass roof

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National Stadium Warsaw Movable membrane roof (facing page)

an unusual array of secondary uses, including a football museum, offices (the most exclusive of which offer a direct view of the games), and space for events of all kinds. It was no small challenge for the architects to organise the complex infrastructure so that all users and providers had full use of the multiple, often parallel access and escape routes. The national stadium has become a great success story – perhaps because Varsovians were already familiar with the bazaar previously housed at that location; perhaps because it is used frequently for state functions; or perhaps because the architects

were able to accommodate such a varied mixture of uses under one roof, from the two-storey parking garage under the pitch to the football museum, offices, restaurants and convention facilities. Arenas used purely for football are no longer economical to operate. The Narodowy Stadium is a prototype for many future stadiums throughout the world. White Elephant on the Amazon Armed with their experiences in Warsaw, gmp and schlaich bergermann partner reported to Brazil for the construction of three stadiums for the World Cup tourna-

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ment of 2014: the renovation and strengthening of the Maneirão in Belo Horizonte, a completely new building in Manaus, and the outer structure of the national stadium in Brasília. The circumstances and working conditions with which the architects had to contend on these projects had more in common with those in South Africa four years prior than with those in Poland. The credo espoused by gmp, namely to invest not only in function, construction, and design but in urban development and sustainable potential secondary uses as well, found no takers.

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For the World Cup itself, the arenas were naturally in excellent condition – FIFA made sure of that. In countries that compete to host the tournament, governments and responsible agencies are obliged to cede broad authorities to the federation in order to avoid risking their chances of being chosen. The fact that FIFA vigorously exercises this power is often a source of criticism. Particularly in the construction of stadiums, stipulations are made for the few matches of the World Cup that are out of all proportion to the requirements for future use and to the needs of the respective country.

Arena da Amazônia Manaus in its urban surroundings (top left) • Pictogram, scale 1:10,000 (bottom left) • Roof structure of mutually bracing cantilevers, whose box girders simultaneously serve as large rain gutters (below)

The term coined for ambitious large-scale structures that lie fallow after such initial large events is ‘White Elephant’. A typical example is the Arena da Amazônia in Manaus. The decision to place a 44,000seat stadium in the tropical Amazonian metropolis (which, like Brasília or Cuiabá, is perhaps a third-league city) for four World Cup matches was political, not athletic. Once in a while concerts are held in the arena, and on average one football game per month is played there – always well attended whenever the traditional club CR-Flamengo from Rio is visiting. The current lack of interest on the part of the operators is a reminder of when construction began, as the governor had had to take over the project from the preceding administration. There was no real client or project management, which made things difficult for the architects, who were them-

selves contracted to the main contractor. In the course of the design the span of the roof was reduced for financial reasons, so that not all seats are covered. The architects’ design called for additional parking spaces and shops in the stadium plinth for the continued use of the building, but these were also deleted. Despite all these difficulties the stadium that finally came to be realised in Manaus is one of the most beautiful of all those used for the World Cup in Brazil. Temple of Football While the Manaus stadium lies on the main traffic route toward the airport, the national stadium in Brasília sits proudly autonomous in open surroundings, reachable only by car or bus. It seems futile to try to establish activities there beyond football. In fact, no plans were made to provide for facilities

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other than those needed for purely footballrelated use. And since Brasília does not have a first division Série A team, this use is limited to occasional guest appearances of the traditional clubs from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and the odd international match. At the very least, the 72,000 seats are often sold out for major events or concerts. Brasília, Lúcio Costa’s test-tube city, already had a national stadium. Named the Estádio Mané Garrincha, after the two-time world champion and Brazil’s second-most famous national football player, it was built by Icaro de Castro Mello from 1972 to 1974. In 2010,

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work on the new building began with the demolition of the old. Only the main stands were to be preserved and integrated into the new construction. However, as is so often the case with architecturally, structurally, and politically complex building projects, this one developed its own momentum and in the end nothing was left of the pre-existing structure. Instead, a new stadium bowl was created with an altered geometry and program designed to reflect current needs. It thus turned out to be fortunate that the architects of gmp and the engineers of schlaich bergermann

partner had, from the start, approached their part of the project with a view to spatial separation, so that they could plan their design independently of the inner stadium. They were tasked with covering the stands with a roof and providing access to the tiers, that is, of organising the entries all around the stadium bowl. There were essentially two construction sites: one on the inside of the stadium core, under the sole responsibility of Castro Mello Arquitectos, and another outside on the esplanade, with its stairways, ramps, and a roof to cover everything. Resembling a round Greek temple, the national stadium can be seen in its entirety from all sides and from a great distance. Because it would have to hold its own in the company of Oscar Niemeyer’s exemplary monuments, it was even more important here to find a coherent and appropriate form that would make a powerful impression and would not be dominated by Niemeyer’s buildings. The enormous modern-day tholos, supported by 288 columns arrayed in three concentric circles, measures an impressive 309 metres in diameter. The flat concrete ring of the roof structure circles the stadium like one of Saturn’s rings. From up close it looks as though a forest of columns sup-

ports it, because the eye perceives the supports as loosely grouped trees, and not in their actual, and geometrically flawless, concentric and radial alignments. However, the farther the observer moves away the more apparent this alignment becomes, the more clearly the building as a whole emerges and the more stately and monumental it appears. The stadium bowl butts right up against the playing field on all sides and forms an oval that approximates a rounded-off rectangle. The oculus above the green grass, in contrast, is as perfectly circular as the entire roof structure, which gives it the appearance of floating above the stadium, owing to its distance from the upper edge of the stands. A flat concrete compression ring holds up the suspended roof, which looks exceptionally light. The ring, in turn, is playfully supported by the concrete pillars, which appear very slender with their height of 36 metres (measured from the esplanade) and their diameter of 1.2 metres. They are anchored top and bottom in the compression ring and in the ramps, respectively. In this way they can transmit horizontal loads as well. On the portico, the engineers and architects were determined at all costs to avoid using diagonal struts and shear walls

Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha Brasília in its urban context (top left) • Pictogram, scale 1:10,000 (bottom left) • The former stadium, Estádio Mané Garrincha (built in 1974), was originally slated for preservation (right)

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Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha Brasília The tops of the 36 m high supports are fixed to the compression ring, the bottoms to the ramps (facing page) • 288 columns support the concrete ring (right)

for bracing. Attached to the front of the compression ring, additional trusses jut out 17.5 metres and support the innermost ring of the roof membrane, which consists of crystal clear massive polycarbonate panels and provides for sufficient sun exposure for the lawn. Combining the spokedring principle and a suspension cable roof made it possible to master the 81-metre projection and the 47,000-square-metre area of the roof using a resource-saving lightweight construction technique and only 2,200 metric tonnes of steel. The roof surface and underside are covered with a translucent membrane to admit daylight into the interior. This lends the roof a threedimensional appearance. Its delicate frame is just visible through the membrane. All the installations for roof drainage, lighting and acoustics, as well as a catwalk for maintenance, are hidden within the roof space. By virtue of its regular, perceptible struc-

tural organisation and its almost ostentatious lightness, the interior of the stadium projects serenity and grandeur without seeming monumental. Its overall appearance, characterised by its three-fold wreath of columns and its flat “Saturn’s ring” top, lends the prestigious building the forcefulness and grandeur it needs to coexist within the fascinating ensemble of Brasília’s monumental structures. It owes its enormous presence not only to its dimensions and its conspicuous location within the urban context, but also to its simple yet significantly unmistakable shape and typology, which has no precedent anywhere in the world. The national stadium, which still bears the famous name of the football hero Mané Garrincha, will now join the ranks of the presidential palace and parliament buildings, the cathedral and the museum, as a monument and symbol of the capital of Brazil.

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Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha Brasília Roof structure with the 25-m-wide concrete compression ring (green), the inner tension ring (red) and the rope construction between with uprights (green) atop the radial ropes (red) (top left) • Roof structure with upper membrane and inner polycarbonate cover (top right) • The radial support structure is faintly visible between the lower and upper membranes (left) • View of the roof top surface (above)

Investment in the Future The many new stadiums in Brazil are manifestations of an enormous national effort made in preparation for the World Cup. But in the fatal decline in which Brazil’s football world finds itself, they cannot currently be fully sustained and utilised. The power of the television stations with their round-the-clock football broadcasts, the expensive ticket prices, the loss of football stars to foreign teams and the security risks surrounding the games all conspire to dissuade people from attending live matches, which is why even local games in Rio de Janeiro take place in front of half-filled stands. It will require a great deal of effort on the part of the state to operate and preserve these chronically insolvent buildings in hopes that they represent an investment in a better future. In the Heart of the City Real Madrid does not share these kinds of worries. Football is booming, and business along with it. The legendary Estadio

Santiago Bernabéu belongs to the club, and according to the president it will be modernised to become the “best stadium in the world.” This represents a situation and a challenge that is far from business as usual, even for the experienced stadium architects of gmp. It is a task that is perfectly suited to the strengths of the architects, who have advanced the development of the multifunctional building as a new stadium type. Volkwin Marg characterises the challenge by stating that nowadays a stadium, especially when it lies in the heart of the city, must represent “part of civic life... a versatile part of the urban fabric, truly bound up with the life of the city.” But at the same time, it should also represent a “symbol for the city” that is able to broadcast the legend of the club Real Madrid. The famous building, which has done nothing to mitigate its current disadvantageous form by undergoing several renovations and adding height to achieve five spectator

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tiers, will be modernised and given a new look. Following the second stage of the design competition, which gmp won together with Spanish partners L35 and Ribas & Ribas, the assignment included the accommodation of a great deal of retail space. The current plans for the roof call for raising it, employing a suspension cable system to increase its projection so that it covers all the seat-

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ing, and installing a retractable cover so that the oculus of the stadium can be fully closed within fifteen minutes. The club museum, whose current attendance figures rank it the second-most popular museum in Spain (right behind the Prado), will be re-accommodated here. Of almost greater importance to the clients than the available facilities is the outer shell of the building, which will shape the image of the club. Its asymmetrical, rounded volume was an almost self-evident result of the boundary conditions and spacing requirements. A shiny silver, backlit high-tech skin of stainless steel, parts of which appear transparent, covers the entire building including the roof surface. The side facing the Paseo de la Castellana can be used as a video wall. Highend media installations will be present inside as well; a 360-degree video wall will replace the conventional display panels. In order to keep the stadium from remaining

Estádio Santiago Bernabéu Madrid Design rendering of the stadium in its urban surroundings (top) • Pictogram, scale 1:10,000 (centre) • Night-time rendering of the high-tech stainless-steel facade, parts of which are programmable as a video wall (bottom left) • Three different building phases (top right) • Design concept for the western side, originally intended for commercial use (bottom right)

a reclusive enclave within the district on non-football days, and to encourage its continual participation in an active urban atmosphere, the architects are proposing the establishment of new open and green spaces around the stadium and in the public Plaza de los Sagrados Corazones, as well as an improvement in the connectivity of the walkways, and a covered promenade with exhibition capabilities. A public terrace is planned for the roof. In the meantime, the need for retail space seems to have lost its urgency. A 500 million euro deal with Emirates regarding naming rights would finance the project – that is, assuming the building permits are issued. But there are still legal obstacles to be cleared. At issue is the question of whether it is lawful to make an ecological substitution by creating an equivalent green space on a more removed plot of land. Also controversial is an exchange of land and an expropriation on the west side of the site, which would be necessary to accommodate the originally planned commercial uses. While all of the parties involved wait for the green light, the planning continues; the complex structural connections between the new construction and several generations of the old are being clarified, and fire protection and evacuation plans are being settled. Since extremely flexible planning is of the essence, the designs have been parameterised and the entire process can now be run through a Building Information Modelling (BIM) program. Designing a stadium for a self-confident private client whose football club is among the best in the world is a novel and interesting assignment, even for the architects of gmp. And it is a sporting challenge as well, since the implementation of the formal, technical, and ethical standards of gmp’s architecture is not always easy in such a context.

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From Here to There Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport BER • Tianjin West Railway Station

Comparing the Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (in German: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg “Willy Brandt”, IATA airport code BER) with the Tianjin West Railway Station raises questions about the validity of such a comparison. What connects an airport in Germany with a train station in China? After all, at first glance, the differences between them certainly appear to outweigh any similarities. While the new airport in Schönefeld near Berlin will be handling the future national and international air traffic in and out of the German capital, the train station in question connects the Chinese port city with the regional and national railway network. The two large infrastructural buildings differ in their geographical situations as well. The airport lies on the periphery of Berlin in the federal state of Brandenburg, while the train station forms a link between the urban development of the centre of Tianjin in the south and the emerging business district in the north. But beyond these obvious differences, there exist structural, functional and design elements that clearly link these two buildings by gmp with one another. The comparison of these two transportation hubs reveals insights into the design approach taken by gmp as well as into the practical demands that emerge out of working in the context of such divergent building cultures.

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The design of important transportation buildings forms a common thread through the extensive oeuvre that gmp has realised over the past 50 years. In their first largescale commission for the construction of the Berlin Tegel airport, the two founding partners Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg proved that they were neither daunted by the size nor the complexity of such infrastructure projects. In the design and realisation of this hexagonal airport (which, though not historically listed, has now nonetheless achieved historical significance), they had several advantages. Meinhard von Gerkan’s thesis work under Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer at the Technical University of Brunswick – the design of an airport for Hanover – had given him his first exposure to the challenges of a task of this type. In

Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport, Berlin (D). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Hubert Nienhoff with Hajo Paap • Construction period: since 2008 • GFA: 600,000 m2 • estimated volume of passengers per year: 27 Mio • Gates: 25

Tianjin West Railway Station, Tianjin (CN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Stephan Rewolle • Construction period: 2009 – 2011 • GFA: 229,239 m2 • estimated volume of passengers per year: 15.61 Mio (2020) / 24.96 Mio (2030) • Platforms: 24

BER Airport View onto the landscape (right) • Tianjin West Railway Station View toward the city (below)

the process he had sought an information exchange with a leading representative of the German airline company Lufthansa and had thus become familiar with prevailing technical requirements and specifications. Another advantage von Gerkan and Marg had, apart from their systematic appropriation of technical knowledge, was their ability, right from the outset of the design process, to

differentiate between what was important and what was not. They were able to do this by grasping the functional demands of the project and converting these into a clear, stereometric structural representation. Of course, it took a generous helping of chutzpah and self-confidence for the young and professionally inexperienced architects to assert themselves vis-à-vis the building cli-

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Berlin Tegel Airport (above) • BER Airport Sketch (right)

ent. Competencies that were not yet represented in the new firm, such as construction management, were acquired from outside in the form of new colleagues, so as to ensure the successful completion of the large assignment. The realisation of this first XXL-sized project on time and within the budget laid the foundation for numerous other infrastructure buildings that gmp completed over the course of the ensuing decades. These included airports (or airport terminals) in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Frankfurt, as well as airport designs for Moscow and Algiers, and now also the major airport in Berlin, “Willy Brandt”. Starting in the 1990s, railway station projects became a parallel central theme in the work of gmp. With the construction of a train station in Berlin-Spandau, and especially with the Berlin Central Station, the firm conclusively demonstrated its successful understanding of this typology.

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Functional Clarity The long and by no means unproblematic design and construction history of the Berlin Brandenburg International Airport was marred by its repeatedly delayed programme, and a subsequent period of public mudslinging, culminating in the dismissal of gmp by the building client. These conflicts should in no way obscure the fact that in this project, gmp had fully grasped the challenges of building an airport that could be held up as a role model for the 21st century. BER, like all major international airports, represented a complex system of varying uses and functions that had to be coordinated in terms of both architecture and urban development. The megastructure had to conform not only to the demands of the client (which in this case were rather changeable), but above all to the applicable technical and safety standards of international aviation.

Passenger area Operational facilities

BER Airport Functional spaces, scale 1:20,000

Office and Hotel Cargo hangar

Office and administration Parking Operational facilities and maintenance area

Over the years, airports all over the world have evolved beyond their core function of conveying air travellers from land into the skies, and have proved to play an important economic role as significant job providers, a responsibility which brings with it a plethora of adjunct requirements. Of course it is critical to provide air travellers with a comfortable means to arrive and depart from the airport by providing good rail and highway connections. This involves building a train station – subterranean in the case of BER – and providing a sufficient number of parking spaces in parking garages. In addition, a modern airport now encompasses, as a matter of course, hotels and conference centres along with the necessary offices, workshops, maintenance bays and warehouses, as well as large plane hangars, apron control services, and fire stations from which every part of the airfield must be reachable within three minutes. Because of this multitude of requirements,

gmp defined the new international airport as a system of individual building units which would additively combine to create a whole precinct. The result of this concept is a facility whose total usable area of 14.7 square kilometres, equivalent to approximately 2,000 football pitches, gives it the dimensions of a self-contained city. The core element is the 220-metre-long main hall of the passenger terminal. This so-called ‘midfield terminal’ lies between a northern and a southern runway that can be operated in parallel for take-off and landing. At its current expansion stage the airport is designed to accommodate about 27 million passengers per year. Since the construction of an airport, just like that of a railway station, constitutes a multilayered challenge, it requires a set of strict guidelines to govern both functional operations and architectural design in order to forestall the rapid and uncontrolled prolifer-

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ation of future developments. For this reason, gmp collected all the design guidelines for the Berlin Brandenburg International Airport into its own design handbook, which serves as a kind of manual for the construction of an airport. All the principles of the design from top to bottom are authoritatively explained in its pages, encompassing the urban design concept of the entire site, the material concept, the individual buildings, the landscaping and the traffic circulation area, as well as the information and control systems. In the case of the Tianjin West Railway Station no design handbook by gmp exists, but there is a binding state-issued handbook for the “Detailed Design of Passenger Railway Stations”. Underlying the concept of a design handbook is the goal of organising the layout of a project in as clear, simple and structured a way as possible, so that it becomes self-explanatory to participants and users alike. This is an approach that has become the defining leitmotif for gmp’s architecture. Beyond function however, the choice of materials, the colour scheme and the composition of the surrounding landscape infuse a place with its own quality, and an identity that references its local surround-

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ings. In the new airport BER, such references are seen, for example, in the motif of the colonnades that spatially unify the individual structures. This theme, frequently employed by gmp, is in this instance supposed to be evocative of the buildings of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, such as the Casino in Glienicke: a pavilion flanked by trellises. The lofty glass hall of the terminal, on the other hand, hints at associations with Mies van der Rohe’s New National Gallery in Berlin. Its roof, which projects beyond the building footprint by about 50 metres, provides weather protection to travellers. It is supported by six dynamically designed steel columns, each nearly 30 metres high. The most notable functional difference between the earlier airport in Tegel, which opened in 1974, and the new airport in Schönefeld lies in the way the building is accessed by the passengers. In the 1960s, during which the now ubiquitous fears of aviation terrorism had hardly yet reared their head, ensuring the shortest possible routes for passengers took centre stage in the design. “Drive to your gate” was the mantra: the closed ring of the hexagonal Tegel Airport enabled travellers to park their cars under the appropriate passenger

BER Airport Cantilevered roof (facing page) • West Railway Station Tianjin Southern square (right)

Neue Nationalgalerie Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Berlin (D) 1968 (centre) • Casino Glienicke Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Berlin (D) 1824 (bottom)

gate, reach the check-in counter by stair in just a few minutes and continue on from there to their plane. The introduction of personnel-intensive and therefore costly security measures put an end to this user-friendly concept and led to a paradigm shift in airport construction. Modern airports are based on the concept of the bottle-neck: adjacent to a large terminal hall with its check-in counters is a security control zone that all passengers must pass through before they can fan out to their respective gates. Contracting the passenger flow in this way makes it possible to turn travellers into potential customers by channelling them through the shopping arcades and dining areas that are located right behind the security checkpoint. In this concept, BER exhibits parallels to Berlin Central Station, which was designed by Meinhard von Gerkan and Jürgen Hilmer and opened in 2006. The station represents a prime example of a 20-year trend toward infrastructure design that exceeds its primary travel function to ultimately serve as a shopping centre as well. In Berlin Central Station, three storeys are devoted to shopping, while the railway platforms are located on the highest and lowest levels of the building.

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Tianjin West Railway Station Section, scale 1:2,000 (top left) • Floor plan, scale 1:2,000 (bottom left) • View from the tracks (above) • Railway Station Berlin-Spandau (below right)

With Pillars and Arches About 130 kilometres southwest of Beijing, the Tianjin West Railway Station serves as a stop on the high-speed railway line that runs between the Chinese capital and the port metropolis of Shanghai. At the same time it plays an important role in the regional rail network, connecting it to the underground train system of the city. The West Railway Station and the Berlin Brandenburg Airport differ from one another on the basis of the specific use requirements of the two different modes of transportation alone. But what links them, aside from their structural clarity, is the formulation of a fundamental design concept that expresses itself in their essential structure. Like the new airport for the German capital, the West Railway Station also greets its passengers with the inviting gesture of an open colonnade. In Tianjin, as in Berlin Brandenburg, the careful placement of the colonnade columns demarcates an intermediate zone that lies protectively between inside and out and expresses an architectural transition.

The repeated motif of the colonnades, constructed from prefabricated concrete elements, clarifies the basic concept of the modular design principle. While the structure of the BER Airport is based on an architectural grid spacing of 6.25 metres (and multiples thereof), the Tianjin railway station’s dimensions are built on a 5.5 metre measure. The choice of grid contributes to the simplification of design and ease of execution just as much as the modularisation of the building elements does. Even if one does not necessarily recognise the grid

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spacing on site at first glance, one nevertheless intuits its regulating function from the clarity of the structures. The use of such grids can be traced all the way to the very beginnings of urban planning, as executed by Hippodamus of Miletus in the 5th century BC. The architectural design principle reflected in the grid has an eternal quality precisely because every generation is tasked with interpreting it anew, and imbuing it with fresh life. While the platforms of the Berlin-Spandau Station, built between 1996 and 1998 by gmp, are covered by four parallel glass barrel roofs, the Tianjin West Railway Station represents an impressive escalation of this motif: here, a single 57-metre-high, almost 400-metre-long barrel roof arches over the entire station concourse, giving it the calibre of an architectural landmark. Despite its enormous dimensions however, the West Railway Station exhibits a surprisingly human scale. The monumental impression that is conveyed in some photographs of the interior quickly disappears during an actual visit. As is the case in other large transportation facilities, gmp opted here for architecture that was as transparent and glassy as possible. This not only allows for natural light-

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ing of the concourse by day, but also aids passengers in orienting themselves. The elegant diamond-patterned frame of the steel-and-glass structure of the barrel roof is equipped in the upper sections with solar protection, lending the West Railway Station a distinctive quality. Functionally, the bright concourse, which is oriented at right angles to the 24 platforms, plays a central role in controlling the passenger flow. Unlike in Germany, for security reasons access to the train platforms in Tianjin is permitted only shortly before the trains depart. The processing of passengers is thus more readily comparable to the procedure employed at

Railway Station BerlinSpandau View along the tracks (top) • Central Station Berlin Central hub (bottom) • West Railway Station Tianjin Ticketing hall and waiting area (facing page)

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Passenger routes Tegel Airport (above) Pedestrian zones Departing passengers Arriving passengers Vehicular traffic

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Passenger routes West Railway Station Tianjin (right) 1 Plaza 2 Entrance hall 3 Level above entrance atrium 4 Waiting hall 5 Interior colonnade

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6 Passenger drop off 7 Entrance to platforms 8 Platform 9 Arrival hall 10 Transfer hall 11 Ticket hall 12 VIP platform

BER Airport 3D Section (left) • Passenger routes from Non-EU / Non-Schengen countries (right) Departing passengers Arriving passengers Transfer passangers Vehicular traffic

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2

1 1 Roof system covering insulated aluminium sheet 2 Skylight 3 Open-mesh PTFE membrane, pre-bleached 4 Cables: 2 open spiral cables stainless steel Ø 30 mm with forkend fittings, horizontal pressure rods with bracket construction and cable clamp 5 Suspended glass facade, vertical fi 100/100 with integrated heating pipes, horizontal clamping profile 6 Hinged support with capital, supported on bearings, conically shaped, cruciform-welded steel plate with vertical shadow gaps

BER Airport External facade (top left) • Detail facade, scale 1:125 (top right) • View of the ticketing hall (right)

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3

3

4 5 6

the Tegel Airport, where the security controls are done at the gate. The gates in Tianjin are arranged along both sides of the broad central passageway. From these, escalators and elevators lead down to the platforms. Passengers wait in the concourse until their train is announced, which is why generous waiting areas equipped with seating are arrayed around the individual gates. Even though the processing of travellers in the West Railway Station approximates a concept that is more reminiscent of airports, what is quite noticeable is the absence of any extravagant use of commercial retail space. In contrast to contemporary airport buildings, this train station, commissioned by the Tianjin Ministry of Railways, does not – yet – have to finance itself with rental incomes. In order to prevent the intermingling of the arriving and departing passenger streams, arriving travellers are not directed up toward the waiting area in the concourse. Instead, they leave the station at the level of the platforms via a passageway that leads directly out to the generous plaza in front of the building. The separation of passenger streams plays a central role at the BER Airport as well. In this case, however, the structural complexity is significantly greater. The challenge is not only to guide the departing and arriving air travellers through two levels of the building by the shortest and most comfortable routes possible. They must also be sorted by origin, destination, possible connecting flights and, where necessary, channelled through immigration and transit zones. As a consequence, the layout of the various gates and terminals that connect to the check-in terminal and the arrivals hall had to be designed so as to enable passengers to reach their destinations in as self-explanatory a way as possible. Under the enormous flat roof of the terminal,

with its 220-metre-long departure hall, the various airport functions are spread out over six levels: arrivals and departures for cars and buses, the train station, the check-in counters and security checkpoints, baggage sorting and reclaim. In order to assist users in orienting themselves, the facade of the Berlin Brandenburg airport terminal facing the passenger unloading zones and access road is broken up into generous glass panes. This establishes clear sightlines and, as in Tianjin, admits a great deal of natural light into the large open space. At the same time, travellers are treated to an attractive view of the adjoining Airport City. Delicate arch structures of silvery stainless steel spanning the glass facade from floor to ceiling underscore the technical character of the building. The terminals of the airport are the functional equivalents of the platforms in a train station. But once again, the design is more complex here: overall, the Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport boasts three terminals, a 715-metre-long central main terminal with sixteen gates and two lateral piers, each 350 metres long. The southern terminal has nine gates, while boarding from the northern terminal takes place on foot or by bus. Each gate has an associated waiting area, in which passengers can while away the time before boarding. Planning Cultures In contrast to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which will likely already be too small for the passenger volume expected when it opens date, the railway station in Tianjin was purposefully designed to accommodate future increases in traveller numbers. Thus far not all the planned railway lines are operational and therefore not all of the train platforms are currently needed. But in a country like China, characterised by an ongoing rural exodus and its associated rapid urban growth, it is only a matter of

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time before they are. The situation in Germany differs markedly from that in China. In Germany, building clients either lack the necessary long view or the willingness to accommodate the dimensions of largescale projects in accordance with real demand, since this would result in initial cost estimates that would be considerably higher – and these in turn would have to be politically communicated and justified to the German voting public. Hardly less striking is the difference in the time frames in which large-scale projects are completed in China and in Germany. After gmp won the design competition in Tianjin in 2007, the construction of the railway station proceeded rapidly from 2009 to its completion in 2011. The history of the design and construction of the Berlin Brandenburg airport, on the other hand, goes all the way back to 1998, the year gmp won the competition. It would be highly questionable to try to justify this discrepancy in implementation periods by referring to the supposedly more democratic planning and investment procedures in Germany. The generally much faster construction programs in China, coupled with the sheer size of the projects, is a factor that greatly contributes to German architects’ enthusiasm for the opportunity to build in the country. According to statements made by gmp partner Stephan Schütz, who helped establish the Beijing office of gmp, the differences in planning culture between Germany and China extend to other levels as well. In Germany, all the specialist building services consultants are included in early intensive discussions with architects, while possible design solutions are being scrutinised and evaluated. The common goal is to reach the best and most innovative design outcome in accordance with the applicable state-of-the-art in technology. The planning specialists in China, in con-

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trast, generally remain on the sidelines while the architect and building client discuss the plans with one another. This illustrates the powerful role played by a project’s clients in China. The final decision lies with them – and is thus their responsibility. Only after an agreement is reached between architect and client do the specialists generally begin to implement the drafted solutions. As desirable as the return of a strong and creatively minded client would be in Germany, the Chinese example also illustrates the drawbacks of the subservient role of the technical and planning experts. Since the experts are usually not involved in the efforts to find the optimal solution, the implementations there are rarely optimised or particularly innovative, since the critical decisions have long been made by the time the specialists enter the design process. For this reason, Schütz makes an emphatic plea for a symbiosis between the German and Chinese processes and for the continuous implementation of interdisciplinary collaboration on every project. There is no doubt, however, that Schütz would prefer the Chinese communication culture: once a contract there is signed, it finds its way into a drawer and, as a rule, stays there undisturbed, no matter how difficult the negotiations beforehand may have been. The situation is very different in litigation-happy Germany, where the

Tianjin West Railway Station Construction workers (facing page) • Construction site (above)

intensity of the correspondence between lawyers and architects has by now reached absurd levels. In this respect, too, a cultural transplant from China to Germany would be a desirable thing for the construction and business sectors. The transfer of construction and business culture between Germany/ Europe and China /Asia is by no means a one-way street. Chinese cities profit to a great degree from the expertise of their German architects, and not least in questions of urban development. An awareness of these types of ‘soft skills’, that is, of the need for a liveable city and for the development of the public spaces that make it liveable, plays a central role in the practice of German architects, and is intuitively woven into the work they do in China. Similar trends can be seen in reverse, in the dissemination in Europe of the feng shui principles that are so ubiquitous in Asia – even if, based on Schütz’s experiences, this very intimate theme in Asian cultures is rarely explicitly addressed or demanded by the client. It is also important to observe regional differences in feng shui rules, as they play a more important role in the south of China than in the north. Thanks to their many years of experience building in China, gmp have developed an inherent awareness of specific feng

shui rules. Individual criteria, such as the desired north-south orientation of residential buildings – important for exposure to sunlight and heat – or the treatment of watercourses, which are always channelled around an object, possess an almost self-evident innate logic, even if they run counter to European conventions (for example, the traditional east-west orientation of houses there). The comparison between these two large infrastructure projects, the Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport and the Tianjin West Railway Station, demonstrates that design processes are translatable between Germany and China, though differences in building culture must be taken into account. An exact replication of European procedures in Asia would be just as doomed to fail as a simple transplant of China’s methods to Germany. If, on the other hand, the idiosyncratic national characteristics of each are respected, the building practices of gmp in both locations benefits from a mutual fertilisation that can yield a synergy. The result is a reflection of the international expertise of gmp. The firm is equipped with the necessary sensitivity to formulate a synthesis that reacts to varied national demands, and simultaneously paves the way for the transfer of basic technological and structural knowledge.

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New Public Dialogues Hanoi Museum • Kunsthalle Mannheim

With the rise of cultural engagement, museums worldwide have seen an increase in attendance, beginning with the days of blockbuster exhibitions such as Picasso: A Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1980, where art lovers circled around the block to gain entrance. The term “Bilbao effect” was coined to describe the surge in visitors that occurred after Frank Gehry was hired to design a Guggenheim branch museum in 1997 as a tourist attraction in Bilbao, a city off the beaten track. Museums are magnets that decentralise culture from urban cores; examples include the Louvre Lens by SANAA that opened in 2012; the cultural district developed from scratch in Abu Dhabi; or the move of the Barnes Foundation in 2014 from the suburbs to downtown Philadelphia, into a new building designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to attract a larger audience. In many ways, museums have become an emblem of a city’s success and an industry unto themselves. Museums are international, thanks to broadening funding and curators in global demand, exporting and importing ideas. Many corporations provide financial backing, such as VW for the MoMA or BMW for the Guggenheim, alongside the private

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individuals who, throughout history, have had their names grace an entrance, a gallery, or a pavilion in return for their sponsorship. Art is a commodity.1 The space in which it is displayed is its shrine, and often that shrine is as much a sculptural art object as the works inside. But museums have also been shifting their engagement with their community, with their public and with the definition of art, which demands continuous expansion and re-evaluation. Thus, attention has been given to the essential redesign of existing museums with additions and/or renovations, or the building of new museums to adapt to these changing circumstances. During the twentieth century, museum design evolved from private salons like that of Mrs Whitney in New York (The Whitney Museum of Amer-

Hanoi Museum, Hanoi (VN). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Klaus Lenz • Construction period: 2007–2010 • GFA: 30,000 m2 • Exhibition area: 1,130 m2 • Event area: 818 m2

Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim (D). Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Volkmar Sievers • Construction period: 2013 – 2017 (Opening May 2018) • GFA: 15,600 m2 • Exhibition area: 3,600 m2 • Event area: 190 m2

Kunsthalle Mannheim Competition entry perspective, view from Friedrichsplatz toward the main entrance

1 This discussion of corporations and museum is a point of debate amongst many cultural theorists including Stephen Zacks, Architects Newspaper, November 8, 2011. http://archpaper. com/2011/11/culturaloutlets

ican Art), to large introverted and daunting spaces like the Louvre in Paris or the Alte Museum in Berlin, to modernist reciprocal spaces for the public to gather, exchange and engage with art, as in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which was founded by the Rockefellers. Perhaps one of the foremost examples of these more public museums is the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, completed in 1977, with its grand entry plaza, vast public lobby and movable gallery walls. This novel concept for a semi-public art space embracing a new kind of public creates more extroverted museums that provide education and programming for all, not just for the elite, the salon-goers, and the people visiting extravagant palaces (although much of the art displayed was and still is commissioned by clients who own those palaces). The older museums, which now seem oldfashioned both in their grandiose physical presence and in their lack of engagement, have recently undergone or are currently undergoing renovations, as has, for example, David Chipperfield’s Neues Museum in Berlin. In some cases, former industrial buildings have been converted into contemporary art spaces, such as the Tate

Modern in London by Herzog & De Meuron. One major physical transformation common to these projects is the entrance, which rather than comprising a series of foreboding stairs has become a more welcoming multi-functional gathering space. As Nikolaus Goetze of gmp emphasises, “museums need to be more extroverted so that they attract more people, because people truly are interested in art.” Another issue is that museums have now become hybrid buildings, because they cannot rely solely on ticket sales, but have to offer more diverse education programmes, events, parties, and rental spaces in order to increase their revenue. Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner recognise these cultural and spatial relationships and reflect them in their two recent museum projects: one in a city in the developing country of Vietnam, where the state controls new building development, and the other in Germany, where a publicprivate venture is propelling a well-established art museum into the twenty-first century. While these museums inhabit vastly different contexts, and have completely different collections and operations, they not only share an architecture firm, but they are also representative of the transformations

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Hanoi Museum The museum in its urban context (above; top right) • Set in a park landscape, the Convention Center occupies the middle; on its left is the Hanoi Museum and on the right the National Exhibition Construction Center (bottom right)

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discussed above that are occurring in museums in general – the shifting from the private to the public sphere. This essay discusses the designs of the Hanoi Museum [Bảo tàng Hà Nội] and the Kunsthalle Mannheim, with a common thread in the architects’ approach to design woven through the narrative. It will address the dialogue between the broader urban context and the specific museum site; the architects’ design inspirations; the buildings’ engagement with art; the layers that reveal the deeper content; an integration of structure and form; and cultural exchange and transformation. Context and Project Development For both the Hanoi Museum and the Kunsthalle Mannheim, the urban site relates to the projects’ development in terms of both the competition briefs and the interaction with their public. While one is located in a peripheral sector of Hanoi in an open park complex, the other is set within a dense historical context. Both engage with their surroundings to create a direct experience with the building, as well as with the artworks.

buildings in the typical monumental setting so desired by many governmental agencies in Vietnam. Off Pham Hung Street, a large landscaped plaza leads to gmp’s Hanoi Museum, which opened in 2010, just in time for the major festivities in celebration of the 1,000-year Anniversary of Hanoi. The museum’s rectilinear form sets up a dialogue with the adjacent curvilinear Convention Centre. The 30,000-square-metre museum contains ancient artefacts of stone, textiles, ceramics, paintings and sculptures from the city’s one-thousand-year-old history. One collection on display includes objects as diverse as historic storage vessels, 1950s typewriters and bicycles belonging to political party members, as well as letters written by prisoners of the American-Vietnamese War. Sometimes the museum organises temporary exhibits that feature objects such as the

Outside the heart of Hanoi, new residential and business towers rise out of former rice paddies, creating a new skyline that forms a sharp contrast to the vibrancy of the lowerrise, textured, historical urban fabric. There, where the new peripheral CT2D highway crosses the main Nguyen Chi Thanh Boulevard, four large buildings spread out over a new 64-hectare landscaped park: the Convention Center, designed by gmp in 2010; the National Exhibition Construction Center, designed by local partners VNCC / CDC, with a hall boasting a giant model of Vietnam and its future development; the JW Marriott Hotel cantilevering over a pond, after a design concept by Carlos Zapata Architects; and, of course, the Hanoi Museum. These buildings create an ensemble of large-scale public and semi-public

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artefacts recently excavated from the Xã Tắc Esplanade during the construction of gmp’s Congress Hall, which included terracotta roof ornaments. But the first building constructed in this new park development was gmp’s Convention Center. The 65,000-square-metre space, designed with consideration for Feng Shui harmony as well as security concerns, accommodates 6,000 people for international meetings and weddings. gmp, well aware of the Vietnamese interest in symbols relating to nature, designed the roof with an undulating profile culminating in a huge wave at the apex of the convention hall, reminiscent of a rising dragon, one of the emblems of the city, and of the East Asian seas. The references suggest nature in an abstract sense, rather than in a direct one-to-one representation, as is now the case in so many of the new pagoda-topped towers. gmp won this commission in a competition, and

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the building was completed in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in 2008. At that time, diplomats gathered for meetings in the Convention Center, whose imposing red-seated auditorium can accommodate 4,000 people. From a ceremonial plaza, a portico leads visitors to the entrance, and from there into the hall, with its 22-metre-high ceiling and monumental stone staircase, the balustrades of which feature channels for cascading water which were in use when the building first opened. The lone woman observed descending with her bucket, laboriously mopping each step, might be wishing that water would flow down the staircases now as it once did down the balustrades. In Mannheim, gmp designed their first museum in Germany. This project had a different competition structure and contextual environment to the one in Hanoi, since it had to relate to the existing adja-

Kunsthalle Mannheim The building is designed as a “city within in the city”, the plan illustrates the urban references of the building • Continued development as a spatial concept: freely arranged cubes for the different functions have varying relationships to one another

cent historic museum building in an appropriate way and it is situated on a denser site in the urban core. Its situation is also distinct in that the museum has a wellestablished legacy. In the sixteenth century, streets in Mannheim were laid out in a grid pattern and were enclosed within fortress walls. Over the ensuing centuries the city expanded well beyond the walls and the original grid. The city was both a centre for the arts, with its university and music schools, and a centre of innovation and entrepreneurship. Karl Benz developed the first automobile there in the late nineteenth century. These two activities gave the city the moniker of the “City of Work and Art.” The Kunsthalle Mannheim contributes to this identity with its renowned comprehensive late-nineteenth and twentieth-century painting and sculpture collection, which includes Edouard Manet’s The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1868 – 69), and the works of Francis Bacon and Umberto Boccioni, among many others. The museum was founded by Fritz Wichert, a young art historian, on the premise that “art is for everyone.” He was able to convince nine residents of the city to buy the Manet painting for the museum. The museum conducted many significant forays into art history as Wichert acquired the earliest collection of modern art in Germany, with which he helped bolster the recognition of the Modernist art movement. In 1925 the second director, Gustav F. Hartlaub, held a groundbreaking exhibition which established the concept of Neue Sachlichkeit, the art of New Realism, and in 1962 the museum hosted the first exhibition of Francis Bacon on the European continent. The collection continued to expand (it now encompasses 2,000 paintings and almost 1,000 sculptures), which presented a challenge with respect to housing the works and commissioning and acquiring new ones, and likewise necessitated a fresh curatorial approach.

Within the entire cubic volume, individual buildings for exhibition and functional spaces are arranged to form a composite

The different-sized cubes are arranged so as to form open spaces

There are sightlines outward and inward among the cubes

A translucent building shell, the colour of which reflects the surrounding buildings, covers the entire volume

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Karlsruhe-based architect Hermann Billing designed the red sandstone Jugendstil museum in 1907. Though it was originally planned for an International Art Exhibition, it became the city’s permanent art gallery and home of the Kunstverein. The building is situated in a park to the west of Friedrichsplatz, whose curved street, with its arcade of shops, breaks up the city grid. The site lies on an axis with the Wasserturm (water tower) and the Rosengarten Congress Centre, which are also built of sandstone. Over the years, the landmarked building’s condition declined and the city spearheaded a comprehensive restoration project which was completed in November 2013. This extensive overhaul improved the climate controls, security, compliance with fire and safety codes, and also restored the exterior stonework, including the sculptural lions and other details that had suffered water damage. Inside, the galleries were restored to their 1909 sequence; walls were removed to open up additional gallery spaces, and the skylights that had been covered were revealed to allow for natural diffused light. In 1983, prior to this restoration and the new

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building phase, the Jugendstil building had become too cramped to house the collection, and the museum had built an annex across from the Friedrichsplatz designed by Mannheim architect Hans Mitzlaff. But this building was declared non-functional because of water damage and mould in the basement. To replace this annex, museum director Ulrike Lorenz envisioned an expansion programme that exemplified “a museum in motion,” that not only moved forward but also projected emotion as it redefined itself for twenty-first century art. Together with the city of Mannheim HansWerner Hector (one of the founders of the technology company SAP, who was already supporting the museum) launched the Stiftung Kunsthalle, which contributed 50 million euros toward the construction of a new museum building. The city has provided another 10 million euros. The museum had to engage the community in the design process, since it was a publicprivate project, and so the design was presented at numerous public hearings with sometimes up to 500 people in attendance,

Kunsthalle Mannheim in its urban context (facing page) • Site plan, scale 1:5,000 (left)

many of whom were vocal about change in the city. Some of the design issues they took issue with included the colour of the facade, the building’s massing, and the replacement of the annex building, which was, after all, only thirty years old. Before the annex was demolished, the curators used the space to experiment with the orientation of the sculptures to assess how they could best be experienced and how they would change under different lighting conditions. The museum then sponsored an open competition for the design of a new museum building on the annex site, which, once completed in 2017, will be given back to the city to administer. Inverted Pyramid and Staggered Cubes gmp has designed two exploratory rectilinear structures that reflect and adapt to the art, the artists, and the public. Each project was awarded via a competition in which gmp presented their design. In Hanoi an inverted pyramid with a spiral ramp became the overall design concept, and in Mannheim staggered cubes created volumes for viewing art.

The Hanoi Museum was awarded to gmp through an open, worldwide competition, in which its design was selected from among approximately forty entries by a committee of appointed government officials and expert outside architects. But because Western architects have less experience with manoeuvring through Vietnamese government agencies, few architecture firms enter competitions in Vietnam as compared to China. One might therefore ask why Hanoi’s cultural office would even choose a Western architect for their government buildings. The attraction lay in the Western design, the show of capital, and the expertise in large-scale buildings, as well as the use of the most state-of-the-art climate control systems. But on the other hand, how can a Western architect approach the design of a project with significance to Vietnam and interpret a foreign culture without resorting to cliché, or too-obvious symbolism? To negotiate these sensitive issues, gmp partner Nikolaus Goetze explained that he and Vietnamese-German architect Tran Con Duc researched the Vietnamese relation-

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ship to nature and symbolism, as well as the history of Hanoi, to develop a subtle design concept for the museum. In the centre of Hanoi stands the One Pillar Pagoda, an eleventh-century temple built on a single stone pillar rising from a pond. It was built by Emperor Ly Thai Tong, whose reign lasted from 1028 to 1054, in honour of Quan The Am Bo Tat, the Goddess of Mercy, who granted the emperor a son. The pagoda itself represents a flowering lotus blossom floating in a pond. The French colonialists destroyed it in 1953 and the column was rebuilt in concrete rather than stone. Unlike in the majority of Hanoi temples, which are rooted in the ground and enclosed by walls, just the act of walking up the steep stairs to pray at the crowning wooden temple is a spiritual experience.

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The architects chose to evoke this shape and experience in the Hanoi Museum’s profile, referencing links to both the city’s past and its future. The six-storey stepped building, wrapped in a perforated pattern screen, is oriented on a central axis to the main street. Its overly extenuated, horizontally stepped form expands as it rises in an inverted pyramid. As though suspended from the roof, each floor decreases in size from the top, giving the building the overall appearance both of being upside down and of rising from its small footprint to hover over the public plaza. Mannheim also held a competition for their new museum project, both as a way to attract the best possible ideas and to engage the public in the process. The museum director Ulrike Lorenz reached out to museum consultant Dieter Bogner of Vienna, who, together with the director and the curators, analysed the museum’s programme, helping to shape the budget and the requirements for the first stage of a worldwide competition. A jury was selected with architect Jörg Friedrich at its head, and after they reviewed twenty-nine anonymous proposals from around the world, from which three teams were asked to provide a more detailed design, gmp, Peter Pütz Architekten and Volker Staab Architekten were awarded first prize in December 2012. The jury eventually selected the gmp project because of its focus on the dialogue with the context as well as for functional and economic considerations. Special mentions were also given to the firms Karl Hufnagel Architekten, Schneider + Schumacher, Ortner & Ortner Baukunst, Gigon and Guyer Architekten, and Rafael Moneo Arquitecto.

One Pillar Pagoda in the centre of Hanoi (facing page) • Hanoi Museum View of the southwest entrance (above)

The gmp partners Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze conceived of the competition entry by envisioning the museum as a “city within the city.” Responding to Mannheim’s historic city grid and introverted urban blocks built primarily on the perimeter, the architects transposed and projected the formal urban organisation of the city onto the scale of the new museum as a dense block. The 15,600square-metre space is comprised of nine cubic volumes, not unlike the nine-square organisation of a Palladian Villa – but here they are shifted rather than regular. They contain the gallery spaces and are all wrapped together in a filigree metal mesh. These spaces are considered floating exhibition cubes, offset from a central

atrium in a kind of pinwheel, in differing sizes according to the curatorial and collection requirements. Step by Step To reach the Hanoi Museum, visitors walk across the landscaped plaza and climb up a series of three broad flights of stairs that alternate with greenery and that surround the building on all sides. The visitors pass through a tall, three-bay portico with a glass-enclosed entrance into the main interior lobby – all symmetrical. The main interior volume is encircled by a spiral ramp, recalling the Guggenheim Museum in New York, but here, the ramp is embedded within a rectangular building. With its high walls and wooden handrails, it rises from

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the earth toward the sky. The three-story spiral brings people up to the fourth and uppermost floor, and allows for views down into the central space, where performances are sometimes held. The curatorial organisational concept was to travel from century to century around the ramp as one rises from floor to floor. The museum has a total of 12,000 to 14,000 square metres of exhibition space. At each landing, the ramp opens up into the galleries. Vistas into and through the building allow visitors to orient themselves in the spaces and enable the different galleries to communicate with each other. As a virtual time spiral, the circulating ramp could thus connect the many eras of Hanoi’s extensive and rich history. The building features four cores at the corners of the nearly 2,690-square-metre ground floor, which contain the structural framework and stairs. Two of the corner cores house the lifts and toilets. The ground floor, with its expansive windows and a café, opens out onto a terrace from which a waterfall flows over a series of steps into the lake below. The café offers views of the Convention Center. With each successive level, the floor area increases in size as the building’s column grid expands, increasing each floor plate by approximately one grid unit in

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Hanoi Museum Section through exhibition spaces, central rotunda and conference rooms, scale 1:750 (top) • Solomon Guggenheim Museum Frank Lloyd Wright, New York (USA) 1959, Section, scale 1:750 (above)

Hanoi Museum Visitors reach the upper levels by way of a spiral ramp: views into the third (right) and fourth (above) floors

every direction. On the fourth floor, the additional area created is used to accommodate the museum offices and administrative spaces for the staff. Below ground, the museum has two large conference rooms with wood panelling. One has a raked floor with standard theatre seating, and the other, located below the base of the spiral ramp, maintains a round footprint for its multi-functional space. Rooms on the perimeter provide additional conference spaces. Lighting and light intensity, whether direct or indirect, natural or artificial, is a specialisation in itself – especially in museums,

where the challenge is to protect the art while making the artworks visible. In Hanoi, an array of rectangular skylights forms a staggered pattern in the ceiling, created by shifting the openings in the square aluminium ceiling modules from one edge to another. The light scoop is oriented so as to capture light from the north side and to allow rainwater to run off the roof. Artificial lights are hidden in these 100 modules, custom-made in Germany, so that the ceiling seems to glow at night. In addition, light bounces from one surface to another to become more diffused. The perforated patterned metal panels fixed to the glazed

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facade shield the gallery floors from natural light. The artworks are also protected from direct sunlight by the roof’s cantilever beyond the building facade.

Hanoi Museum Spiral ramp (facing page) • The first basement floor of the building houses two different conference halls (above)

Extending Public Space One overarching shift in the articulation of museums as institutions is their transformation into new urban places to engage people with art, and to entice the general public. This aim is achieved both programmatically and physically in the Kunsthalle Mannheim by making access to the entrance lobby free to the public; visitors can enter through the main entrance at street-level, where the facade is set back from Friedrichsplatz as though the street were being drawn into the building. They can meander through the three-storey-high atrium as though it were a kind of marketplace, attend events in the ground floor spaces, eat in the restaurant, check their coats, and visit the gift shop. The ticketing starts after visitors enter the atrium, which is illuminated by light entering from the skylight above. The spatial organisation of the three-storey, 15,600-square-metre building, containing a variety of open and enclosed spaces, offers

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moments of activity and moments of respite. These come both from other museum goers and the viewing of artworks. From the entrance, the visitor can choose one of two circulation routes: one via the elevator which lies on an axis with the entrance, and the other, more experiential, via the main staircase along the west side of the atrium. This stair resembles the ramp in the Hanoi Museum in the way it provides an open flow to the galleries on the upper floors. The pathway visually connects the visitor back through and across the other spaces for ease of orientation. At each of the three floors, open corridors designed as bridges overlooking the atrium link the cubic volumes, interiorising the building blocks of the cityscape. The atrium is offset from the connecting space to the historic building, which allows for an interplay between new and old. Continuing on to the second floor, the visitor discovers a special viewing gallery where a Manet painting is displayed alone, a series of three galleries housing the permanent collection of the early twentieth century, as well as a young artists’ lab. The third floor features contemporary art as well as a long-term loan of Anselm Kiefer’s works, multimedia rooms, and a serene sculpture garden open to the sky. There are also conservation rooms and administrative offices. The materials cladding the interior are reduced to their essences, with concrete floors in the corridors, wood floors in the galleries, and white walls in the public spaces. The rectilinear gallery volumes are expressed on their exterior through varying grades and densities of metal mesh cladding.

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Exhibition Reception Museum shop / Restaurant Roof garden / Events Administration Restoration / Workshop Deliveries

Visitors exhibitions Visitors reception

Visitors events Staff

Kunsthalle Mannheim Layout of the different sections of the museum (top left) • Example of circulation routes in the museum taken from the first floor, scale 1:1,000 (bottom left) • Central atrium with bridges, which provide visitors with a general overview and connect the different cubes with one another, in the shell construction (right) and in the design rendering (below).

Dialogue Between Structure and Form When structure is well integrated with a building’s design and the architects and engineers work together from the outset of a project, design concepts can develop in a cohesive way, in synergy with form and structure. In museum design, curators emphasise the importance of column-free spaces so that they can display large contemporary works of art, and so they can have the flexibility to move walls to adapt to the works on display. Two diverse solutions in Hanoi and Mannheim provide for structural systems that support the collections as well as the buildings.

with foundations on deep, 1.2-metre-diameter piles that are sunk 45 metres into the soft and wet ground of the former rice paddies. In the cores are the staircases constructed as concrete tubes, with 150-millimetre-deep, 6-metre-long concrete beams that create a frame structure in two directions. This, together with the horizontal bracing of each floor, creates the best conditions for withstanding earthquakes. Inside the core, a simple framework of steel supports the roof structure, from which the lower floors are suspended. The roof is then cantilevered from the same cores. The structure works in tension rather than compression, and all of the columns guide the forces upward.

In an innovative structural system for Vietnam, German-based engineers Inros Lackner accomplished a complex engineering feat for the museum. Because of the museum’s need for open floors, the idea was to reduce the numbers of columns and their spacing – not a simple task, because standard columns in Vietnam are 800 ≈ 800 millimetres thick, a great deal thicker than in Europe. Beginning with the core structure, the engineers, working with the architects to maximise the floor area, designed four cores at each corner

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There is a primary support structure that provides stability and transfers loads down to the foundations. The axes of the girder grid in the roof between the staircase cores are of reinforced concrete 5 metres high and 60 centimetres wide, while all the cantilevered outer girders are of steel. Every floor consists of a concrete slab on composite beams, suspended from the girder grid in the roof by tension rods. The mounting of the tension rods to the roof depends on the composition of the roof at the particular sections. Because of the complexity of the engineering, and because the building is one of the first of its kind in Vietnam, the project required careful supervision. The Kunsthalle’s structure was designed by engineers schlaich bergermann partner, and is a more standardised project than that of the Hanoi Museum. The cubic galleries are constructed of reinforced concrete flat wall slabs, with reinforced-concrete ceilings that vary according to span. The

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cubes are linked by pedestrian bridges that act as walkways between the galleries. The bridges are likewise of reinforced steel and are connected to the ceiling system by their parapets. The vertical load is transferred via the walls of the cubes down to the bottom plate. One of the most inventive tectonic details is seen in the design of the horizontal structural slits cut into the cubes; in these slits the structure is dissolved and reformed by thin reinforced concrete columns. The horizontal load transfer occurs through the ceiling panels and the roof plane, which directs the forces into the cube walls. A glass roof above the atrium spans the open space between the cubes. A Second Look – Dialogue from Far to Near Both museum projects play with the idea of varying perceptions of the buildings when viewed from a distance and from nearby – zoomed-out and zoomed-in perspectives. Not only does this allow a deeper reading of each building, but it also fosters a sense

of discovery on the part of the visitor, who perceives this interplay between surface and volume, or between open and closed spaces. Although they are used in very different ways, both buildings employ metal screens to alternately conceal and reveal the main building structures and the activities within, as they change according to the light conditions over the course of the day or night from inside and outside. This layering provides what the architects call a chance for a “second look.”

Kunsthalle Mannheim Main entrance of the museum (facing page) • When visitors leave the exhibition area, they can see, for example, the Water Tower on the Friedrichsplatz through the translucent louvred facade (below left) • View onto the entry courtyard and the Friedrichsplatz (below right)

The Hanoi Museum’s strong singular building form seems easy to appraise in a single glance, which takes in the horizontality of the stacked floors. But as one approaches the building and explores it more closely, specific details are revealed, such as the exterior wrapping of metal facade panels perforated in an abstract pattern, which architect Nikolaus Goetze likens to calligraphy: it looks beautiful but requires a closer reading to be fully understood. The building’s design is enhanced by the dynamic shadows cast by these decorative perfora-

tions. The screens also protect the gallery spaces from direct light, and allow for semi-open views to the outside, connecting building and visitor to their surrounding environment, not unlike the depth and layers of a historic Hanoi street: from facade, to long passageways, and eventually to the home. In Mannheim the building is wrapped in a metal mesh and has a handcrafted sensibility. Its filigree of bronze-coloured aluminium tubes in horizontal layers varies in density according to the desired transparency, providing for more porosity where increased light or attention is desired; for example at the corridor windows and in front of the semi-public spaces, or for the painting galleries. Thus on second viewing there is an inherent depth to the facade as the internal spaces are more exposed; art is both concealed and revealed behind a veil of mystery. The rich tone of the reddish bronze colour establishes a direct correspondence to the historic sandstone building and changes with the movement of the sun.

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Both permeable and protective, the overall effect is sculptural: a work of art in itself. Not only does the screen provide various views into the spaces, but the porosity allows for a more extroverted museum, connecting it to the city. Unlike so many of the aforementioned introverted historic museums, this space embraces the city – not unlike the Whitney Museum in New York, designed by Renzo Piano, where galleries lead to terraces and stairs wind up the building’s exterior. Views out, in, and through will form visual connections for the passerby outside and the visitor inside. As Lorenz emphasises, “the screen is also a social projection area that mirrors the inner movement to the outside of the building and reflects the life outside into the museum, forming an essential narrow interaction.” The museum, the team believes, can be interpreted as the extension of the urban surroundings, the dynamic cubes echoing the city form.

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Dialogue with the Context gmp’s design focus for both projects was the idea of forging a connection between building and site, whether it be the landscaped park of Hanoi or the urban density of Mannheim, thereby reinforcing a dialogue between inside and outside and forming a sense of place. In Hanoi the museum really creates its own context, as this is formed by its connection to its immediate surroundings: a new 64-hectare park. The openness and visibility of the freestanding building contrast sharply with Mannheim’s denser urban site. At first glance, the soaring museum seems disconnected, but as the landscaping matures around it the building becomes more integrated into its environment. Like the organisation of historic temple sites in Hanoi – with their horizontally layered courtyards inside an enclosed walled site, and a processional sequence of entrances that

Hanoi Museum View of one of the four main entrances of the museum (above) • Glazed facade sections offer visitors a view of the surrounding area through the ornamental shell (facing page)

unfold incrementally – both the Hanoi Museum and the Convention Center embrace their sites in a similarly fluid way, from outside to inside and back out again. The park was designed by Breimann & Bruun from Hamburg to accommodate not only the museum, but existing pagodas as well, including one on an island that is accessed via pathways carving through the landscape. The park extends from the street through to the building complexes. In front of the museum, six podiums display ethnic village house typologies made of different materials. In addition, bonsai trees (gifts from towns in different provinces of Vietnam) fill up the entrance space and the plaza. Sculptures and decorative urns also line pathways around each building. An artificial hill was even constructed following feng shui principles, with numerous trees planted on it to mimic a tropical forest. The open space is monumental in its emptiness, but takes on a different aura when it is filled with school groups, conferences attendees, weddings guests, and tourists.

you relief and will fill you with energy so that you can dive into a new exhibit.” The issue of how to build additions to historic buildings that are both sympathetically and physically connected to the existing becomes a question of suitability, especially where the relationship to the original building is concerned. Some of these concerns are voiced by historic building committees, while others are solved in practice through the architects’ own design sensitivity and focus. Thus the new Mannheim museum physically engages in a dialogue with its own past, not only through the works on display but also directly with the original Jugendstil building. Between the new and the original buildings, an enclosed walkway, the Athene-Wing, was redesigned to house James Turrell’s installation (described below), and to form a sensitive connection to between both buildings. This creates a

In the Kunsthalle Mannheim, the public zones existing in the spaces between the cubes form a contrast to the white cubic gallery space so that the architecture does not compete with the art. When visitors leave the cubes to see another gallery, they can reengage with the city through the views out the windows. This reciprocal relationship between the physical volumes and the idea of creative experience in the city drives the project. As Goetze noted, “When you are overloaded and unable to concentrate, the gaps between the cubes will give

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dynamic tension between the solid, opaque old museum and the light and porous new one, fostering an urban dialogue. Engagement with Art Most museum collections are amassed by a collector or an institution, or have rotating artworks. Some buildings become museums in an ad hoc manner, others are designed to accommodate a specific collection. Still others are built for a certain art piece, so that the building and the art are integrated. This can be compared to a building that is designed for a specific function as opposed to one that has more flexible uses. Some of the galleries in the Kunsthalle Mannheim can be thought of as a glove for the works of art the museum is commissioning for its new building. For example Dan Graham, William Kentridge, and James Turrell were all given input into the design of their spaces during the planning phase. Graham’s outdoor glass pavilion, called A Machine for Perception, will be installed on the terrace near the entrance to the museum. An installation by South African artist William Kentridge, The Refusal of Time, purchased through the new Stiftung Kunsthalle Mannheim, is a five-channel video projection with sound emanating from megaphones and giant metronomes. Goetze worked with Kentridge during the early design phase to adapt the gallery space to the installation, as Kentridge wanted to play

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down the presence of the floor and ceiling and to have rougher walls. For American artist James Turrell’s site-specific light tunnel in the transitional Athene-Wing, the architects sketched ideas with the artist in his studio in New York to create a clear connection between the spaces in which the work is housed. In an integration of art and architecture, a bridge at the first floor level will extend across the double-height space, replete with curved colour walls creating a sensory experience for visitors as they walk toward the historic building. In contrast, Hanoi’s museum has almost the opposite engagement with its art. Unfortunately, the city never really finished the museum, since the exhibit designs and casings were not completed. The exhibits consist of a few collections related to the history of the city, as well as some temporary exhibits. As with so many projects in developing countries, the ambition to partic-

ipate in a new cultural industry has not been fully realised. However, with new economic opportunities opening up in Vietnam, there is greater potential for an exhibition programme and a collection that will do justice to this civic space. Through gmp’s design process, which transfers sound architectural concepts to new places, these projects engage in a cultural exchange that is relevant professionally, socially, and within the context of urban development and transformation. Their buildings expand the status quo of Western traditions to the East and then back to the West again, enriching global cultural dialogues beyond standardisation, as these museums attempt to reveal a deeper local character.

Kunsthalle Mannheim William Kentridge, The Refusal of Time (Drawing), 2016 (top left) • Dan Graham, Mannheim Pavilions. A Machine for Perception (Drawing 1 and 2), 2016 (bottom left) • James Turrell, Light Tunnel Athene-Wing, 2015 – 2017, Sketch by Nikolaus Goetze and James Turrell (above) • View into the Athene-Wing during construction of the building shell (below)

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Project Credits Cultural Buildings Tianjin Grand Theatre • Tianjin (CN) Competition 2009 (1st prize) Construction period 2010 – 2012 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Nicolas Pomränke Project manager, competition Tobias Keyl Project management David Schenke, Xu Shan Team members, design Jan Demel, Verena Fischbach, Martin Gänsicke, Matthias Grünewald, Duc Nguyen, Susan Schwarz, Wu Di, Xie Fang, Thilo Zehme, Zhou Bin Team members, detailed design Sebastian Brecht, Jan Deml, Johannes Erdmann, Martin Gänsicke, Annette Löber, Han Lu, Carina Slowak, Plamen Stamatov, Michael Tümmers, Wang Zheng, Wu Di, Xie Fang, Thilo Zehme, Zhang Ting, Zhou Bin, Zhu Huan • Site Management: Thomas Kraemer, Xing Jiuzhou Chinese partner office ECADI East China Architectural Design & Research Institute Structural engineers schlaich bergermann partner Lighting design Conceptlicht Helmut Angerer Stage technology Kunkel Consulting Client Tianjin Culture Centre Project and Construction Head Office GFA 85,000 m2 Seats 1,600 (Opera hall) / 1,200 (Concert hall) / 400 (Small Multi-fuctional hall) Modernisation and Refurbishment Culture Palace • Dresden (D) Competition 2009 (1st prize) Construction period 2013 – 2017 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Nicolas Pomränke Project manager, competition Clemens Kampermann Team member, design Verena Coburger Project manager Christian Hellmund Team members, detailed design Clemens Ahlgrimm, Roman Bender, Stephanie Brendel, Verena Coburger, Julius Hüpeden, Annette Löber, Anna Lieseke, Patrick Machnacki, Giuseppina Orto, Michael Scholz, René Wiegand, Dörte Groß, Ivanka Perkovic, Jessika Kreps, Florian Illenberger, Laura Warskulat, Laia Caparo (student), Ralitsa Bikova (student), Robin Lauritzen (student), Jessika Krebs (student) •

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Site Manager: Bernd Adolf Structural engineers Prof. Pfeifer & Partner Lighting design Conceptlicht Helmut Angerer Spatial acoustics Peutz Consult; Acoustics Consulting: Acoustic Design Ahnert Client KID Kommunales Immobilienmanagement Dresden GmbH & Co KG GFA 37,062 m2 Seats 1,818 seats, incl. 18 wheelchair spaces (Concert hall, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra) and 260 seats, incl. 4 wheelchair spaces (“Herkuleskeule” Cabaret hall) Central library 5,463 m2

Sport Complexes Universiade Sports Center • Shenzhen (CN) Competition 2006 (1st prize) Construction period 2007– 2011 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Nicolas Pomränke Project manager Ralf Sieber Team members Stephanie Brendel, Chen Zhicong, Kralyu Chobanov, Christian Dorndorf, Martin Gänsicke, Kuno von Haefen, Huang Cheng, Tobias Keyl, Thomas Krämer, Helge Lezius, Li Ling, Lian Kian, Lin Wei, Meng Xin, Andrea Moritz, Alexander Niederhaus, Martin Schulte-Frohlinden, Plamen Stamatov, Marlene Törper, Niklas Veelken, Xu Ji, Zheng Xin, Zhou Bin Chinese partner offices SADI (Stadium), CNADRI (Multi-functional hall), CCDI (Swimming hall), BLY (Landscape design) Structural concept and design roof schlaich bergermann partner (Sven Plieninger with Wei Chen) Technical equipment IG Tech Lighting design Conceptlicht Helmut Angerer Acoustics Acoustic Design Ahnert Facade planning Shen und Partner Client Bureau of Public Works of Shenzhen Municipality Planning area 870,000 m2 Seats 60,000 (Stadium) / 18,000 (Multifunction hall) / 3,000 (Swimming hall) Bao’an Stadium, Universiade 2011 • Shenzhen-Bao’an (CN) Competition 2007 (1st prize) Construction period 2009 – 2011

Design Meinhard von Gerkan with Stephan Schütz and David Schenke Project management Li Ran, David Schenke Team members, design Anna BulandaJansen, Cai Qing, Daniela Franz, Jennifer Heckenlaible, Xu Ji, Yin Chao Jie, Zhang Xi, Zhou Bin Team members, detailed design Cai Yu, Lucas Gallardo, Matthias Grünewald, Li Zheng, Sebastian Linack, Pan Xin, Martin Schulte-Frohlinde, Wang Le, Wang Li, Zhang Xi, Zhang Xiao Guang Chinese partner office SCUT South China University of Technology Structural engineering schlaich bergermann partner (Sven Plieninger with Wei Chen) Lighting design Schlotfeld Licht, Berlin Client The Sports Bureau of Bao’an District GFA 88,500 m² Seats 40,050 and 360 business seats, 70 wheelchair spaces, 216 press seats VIP-Boxes 20 Underground parking spaces for cars 750 Length of the stadium 245.80 m Width of the stadium 245.80 m Height of the stadium 39.65 m Shanghai Oriental Sports Center • Shanghai (CN) Competition 2008 (1st prize) Construction period 2009– 2011 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Magdalene Weiss Project manager Chen Ying Team members Jan Blasko, Fang Hua, Martin Friedrich, Fu Chen, Ilse Gull, Jin Zhan, Kong Rui, Lin Yi, Katrin Löser, Lü Cha, Lü Miao, Jörn Ortmann, Ren Yunping, Alexander Schober, Sun Gaoyang, Nina Svensson, Tian Jinghai, Yan Lüji, Zhang Yan, Zhou Yunkai, Zhu Honghao Structural engineers schlaich bergermann partner (Sven Plieninger) International installations ARUP Landscaping WES & Partner Chinese partner office SIADR, Tongji Design Institute Client Shanghai Administration of Sports Seats 18,000 (Hall stadium) / 5,000 (Natatorium) / 5,000 (Outdoor swimming pool)

Small Buildings Christ Pavilion, Expo 2000 / Hanover (D) , Kloster Volkenroda / Volkenroda (D) Competition 1997 (1st prize) Construction period 1999 – 2000 (Expo 2000) / August 2001 (Re-erection in the monastery of Volkenroda) Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Joachim Zais Project manager Jörn Ortmann Team members Thomas Dreusicke, Ulf Düsterhöft, Andreas Hahn, Matias Otto, Peter Radomski, Helge Reimer, Olaf Schlüter, Monika van Vught, Magdalene Weiss Gabriele Wysocki Structural engineers Ingenieurbüro Dr. Binnewies Building Technology NEK Lighting design Conceptlicht Helmut Angerer Landscape design WES & Partner Building physics consulting Prof. Tepper Expert consulting on irregular glass elements RWTH Aachen, Lehrstuhl für Stahlbau, Prof. Sedlacek, W. Laufs Steel and facade structure Rüter Reinforced steel structure, Technical development and Outdoor areas Strabag Hanover Fire safety Hosser, Hass + Partner Project management Assmann Beraten + Planen General contractor Arge Rüter, Strabag Client Evangelical Office for the Expo 2000 World Exhibition Volume (total) 18,548 m3 Client Reconstruction of Volkenroda Monastery Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover • German Conference of Bishops • EXPO 2000 • The construction of the Christ Pavilion in Volkenroda was commissioned by the Brotherhood of Jesus e. V. Gnadenthal and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Thuringia in cooperation with the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) • Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover with support from the General Monastery Fund Hanover • German Conference of Bishops (Catholic Church) • Free State of Thuringia • Friedhelm Loh Group • Steel Trade Association • and additional sponsors Client representatives and building management Kloster Volkenroda Bauhütte Volkenroda, Bernward Paulick GFA 2004 m2 Two Holiday Houses “Apfelhof”, Nossentin on the Fleesensee • Nossentin (D) Construction period 2010 – 2012 Design Volkwin Marg and Joachim Zais (2009) Project manager Joachim Zais

Team member Peter Radomski Structural engineers Ingenieurbüro Dr. Binnewies GFA House 1: 221 m2 / House 2: 159 m2 / semi-enclosed patio: 65 m2

Office Buildings Wanxiang Plaza, Office Building • Shanghai-Pudong (CN) Competition 2005 (1st prize) Construction period 2007– 2010 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Volkmar Sievers Team members, design Barbara Henke Alexandra Kühne, Evelyn Pasdzierny Team members, detailed design Cai Lei (Project manager China), Nils Dethlefs, Christian Krüger, Julian Lahme, Knut Maass, Andrea Moritz, Diana Spanier, Marlene Törper, Zhu Huan Chinese partner office HAS Huasen Architecture & Engineering Design Consultants Ltd. Shenzhen, Hangzhou Lighting design a·g Licht Client Wanxiang Holding Corp. GFA 42,000 m² Height 79 m Floors 19 SOHO China Group • Beijing (CN) Competition 2007 (1st prize) Construction period 2009 – 2015 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Stephan Rewolle Project management Eileen Dong, Daniela Franz, Su Jun (Project manager China), Wang Nian Team members, competition Sören Grünert, Matthias Grünewald, Li Shanke, Sun Ziqiang, Zhao Xu, Zhou Bin Team members, detailed design Anna Bulanda-Jansen, Eileen Dong, Margret Domko, Gerardo Garcia, Matthias Grünewald, Li Shanke, Li Zheng, Xiao Liu, Xing Jiuzhou, Zhou Bin Chinese partner office China Institute of Building Standard Design & Research Structural engineers schlaich bergermann partner Client SOHO China GFA 103,000 m2 3Cubes Office Building at the Caohejing Business Park in Shanghai • Shanghai (CN) Construction period 2011– 2015 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Magdalene Weiss (2010) Project manager Sun Yajin Team Cai Lei (Project manager China), Chen Jingcheng, Saeed Granfar, Lin Yi, Katharina Schneider, Sun Yajin,

Zhang Yan, Zhang Yang, Zhong Ming Chinese partner office SNPTC Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute Client Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech Park Development Corporation Total GFA 90,650 m2 (above ground 58,200 m2 / below ground 32,450 m2)

Stadiums Olympic Stadium • Kiev (UA) Consultancy 2008 Construction period 2008 – 2011 Design Volkwin Marg with Christian Hoffmann and Marek Nowak Project management Martin Bleckmann, Roman Hepp Team members, design Faber, Michael König, Sebastian Möller, Olaf Peters, Christoph Salentin Team members, detailed design Anke Appel, Irina Bohlender, Clemens Dost, Natalia Gerasimenko, JonathanDemian Gerlach, Jörg Greuel, Dominik Heizmann, Sebastian Hilke, Stephanie Krämer-Hilke, Franz Lensing, Irina Stoyanova, Philipp Weber, Christiane Wermers, Andreas Wietheger In co-operation with Personal Creative Architectural Bureau Y. Serjogin LLC, Kiev Structural concept and design roof schlaich bergermann partner (Knut Göppert with Markus Balz and Thomas Moschner) Structural engineering Kempen Krause Ingenieurgesellschaft Technical equipment b.i.g. Bechtold Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH Lighting design Conceptlicht Helmut Angerer Landscape design St raum a. Gesellschaft von Landschaftsarchitekten mbH Client National Sport Complex „Olympiysky“ Roof area 43,000 m2 Seats 68,000 and 2,300 VIP seats VIP Boxes 40 National Stadium • Warsaw (PL) Competition 2007 (1st prize) Construction period 2008 – 2011 Design Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Markus Pfisterer Project management Markus Pfisterer, Martin Hakiel Project manager roof Martin Glass Project coordination Birgit Ricke In co-operation with J.S.K Architekci Sp. z o.o. Team members, design Stephanie Eichelmann, Claudia Aceituno Husch, Lars Laubenthal, Fariborz Rahimi-Nedjat, Christian Wentzel

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Team members, detailed design, gmp Carsten Borucki, Lena Brögger, Katarzyna Ciruk, Stefanie Eichelmann, Silke Flaßnöcker, Alberto Franco Flores, Ruthie Gould, Claudio Aceituno Husch, Patrick Klügel, Monika Kwiatkowski, Lars Laubenthal, Ausias José Lobatón Ortega, Fariborz Rahimi-Nedjat, Nikolai Reich, Stefan Saß, Florian Schwarthoff, Sonia Taborda, Semra Ugur, Katya Vangelova, Christian Wentzel • Team members, roof: Lena Brögger, Alberto Franco Flores, Patrick Klügel, Ausias Lobatón Ortega, Semra Ugur, Christian Wentzel, Lisa Pfisterer (student) Support structure design, roof and facade schlaich bergermann partner (Knut Göppert with Knut Stockhusen and Lorenz Haspel) General contractor Konsorcjum Alpine Bau Deutschland AG, Alpine Bau GmbH, Alpine Construction Polska Sp. z o.o., Hydrobudowa Polska S.A. i PBG S.A. Technical equipment HTW, Hetzel, Tor-Westen + Partner, Biuro Projektów “DOMAR” Lighting design Lichtvision Berlin, Dr. Karsten Ehling, Dr. Thomas Müller Orientation system Wangler & Abele, München Client Narodowe Centrum Sportu Sp. z o.o. Roof area 69,000 m2 total (including 10,000 m2 convertible) Seats 55,000 and 2,600 VIP seats Arena da Amazônia • Manaus (BR) Construction period 2010 – 2014 Conceptual and design planning gmp and schlaich bergermann partner with stadia, São Paulo Services engineering gmp and schlaich bergermann partner Design Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Martin Glass, 2008 Project management Martin Glass, Maike Carlsen Project management Brazil Burkhard Pick, Sander-Christiaan Troost Director gmp do Brasil Ralf Amann Team members Sophie-Charlotte Baumann, Felipe Bellani, Lena Brögger, Claudia Chiappini, Lieselotte Decker, Barbara Düring, Rodrigo Mathias Duro Teixeira, Stefanie Eichelmann, Konstanze Erbe, Silke Flaßnöcker, Elke Glass, Ruthie Gould, Jacqueline Gregorius, Claudio Aceituno Husch, Fabian Kirchner, Juliana Kleba Rizental, Jochen Köhn, Martin Krebes, Angélica Larocca Troost, Helge Lezius, Veit Lieneweg, Priscila Lima da Silva Giersdorf, Ausias Lobatón Ortega, Guilherme Maia, Lucía Martínez Rodríguez, Adel Motamedi, Dirk Müller,

156

Project Credits

Dirk Peissl, Ivanka Perkovic, Camila Prevé, Fariborz Rahimi, Nicolai Reich, Stefan Saß, Florian Schwarthoff, Sara Taberner Bonastre, Sónia Taborda, Katerine Witte In co-operation with schlaich bergermann partner, Stuttgart; stadia, São Paulo Structural design schlaich bergermann partner (Knut Göppert with Knut Stockhusen and Miriam Sayeg) Team members, structural design Tiago Carvalho, Uli Dillmann, Andreas Eisele, Florian Geiger, Alberto Goosen, Sebastian Grotz, Jochen Gugeler, Achim Holl, Roman Kemmler, Hubert Kunz, Sandra Küstner, Walter Paganucci, Jana Pavlovic, Bernd Ruhnke, Guilherme Sayeg, Tilman Schober, Alexander Stäblein, Alfred Strasdeit, Kai Zweigart Structural design, solid structure in cooperation with EGT, São Paulo; Larenge, São Paulo; Ruy Bentes, São Paulo Technical equipment b.i.g. Bechtold Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH and MHA, São Paulo (Design phase); Teknika Projetos e Consultoria Ltda, São Paulo; Soeng Construção hidroelétrica Ltda, São Paulo; Bosco & Associados Ltda, São Paulo; Loudness Sonorização Ltda, São Paulo Landscape design ST raum a. (Design phase), Interact, São Paulo Client Companhia de Desenvolvimento do Estado do Amazonas Seats approx. 44,400 Length of stadium approx. 240 m Width of stadium approx. 200 m Certification LEED Certified National Stadium Mané Garrincha • Brasília (BR) Construction period 2010 – 2013 Concept and schematic design of roof and esplanade, detailed design of esplanade Castro Mello arquitetos with Consulting by gmp and schlaich bergermann partner Detailed design, roof gmp and schlaich bergermann partner Design stadium bowl Castro Mello arquitetos, São Paulo Design Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Knut Göppert (2008) Project manager Martin Glass Project management Brazil Robert Hormes Director gmp do Brasil Ralf Amann Team members Ante Bagaric, Holger Betz, Rebecca Bornhauser, Carsten Borucki, Lena Brögger, Kacarzyna Ciruk, Laura Cruz Lima da Silva, Stefanie Eichelmann, Ruth Gould, Florian Illenberger, Jochen Köhn, Martin Krebes,

Helge Lezius, Lucia Martinez Rodriguez, Tobias Mäscher, Martina Maurer-Brusius, Adel Motamedi, Burkhard Pick, Jutta Rentsch Serpa, Maryna Samolyuk, Florian Schwarthoff, Sara Taberner Bonastre In co-operation with schlaich bergermann partner, Castro Mello arquitetos, São Paulo Support structure design and planning, roof and esplanade schlaich bergermann partner (Knut Göppert with Knut Stockhusen and Miriam Sayeg) Team members, structural design Andreas Bader, Tiago Carvalho, Arnaud Deillon, Uli Dillmann, Stefan Dziewas, Hansmartin Fritz, Alberto Goosen, Hartmut Grauer, Jochen Gugeler, Andreas Hahn, Achim Holl, Hubert Kunz, Christoph Paech, Jana Pavlovic, Bernd Ruhnke, Tilman Schober, Klaus Straub, Cornelia Striegan, Peter Szerzo, Hiroki Tamai, Augusto Tiezzi, Feridun Tomalak, Chih-Bin Tseng, Gerhard Weinrebe, Rüdiger Weitzmann, Andrzej Winkler, Markus Wöhrbach, Kai Zweigart Support structure design, stadium bowl Etalp, São Paulo Building services roof (conceptual and design planning) b.i.g. Bechtold Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH; mha, São Paulo Lighting concept roof (conceptual and design planning) Conceptlicht, Peter Gaspar, São Paulo; mha, São Paulo, Seats approx. 72,800 Modernisation of the Estádio Santiago Bernabéu • Madrid (E) Competition 2014 (1st prize) Under construction Architects gmp • von Gerkan, Marg und Partner with L35 Arquitectos and RIBAS & RIBAS Arquitectos gmp project management Martin Glass, Markus Pfisterer gmp design team Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Markus Pfisterer L35 design team Alejandro Barca, Ernesto Klingenberg, Tristán LópezChicheri, Alejandro Lorca RIBAS & RIBAS design team Adriana Ribas, Inma Ribas, José Ribas gmp team, competition Peter Axelsen, Holger Betz, Ruthie Gould, Martin Hakiel, Monika Kwiatkowski, Christian Möchl, Benjamin Moore, Nikolai Reich, Katya Vangelova, Ignacio Zarrabeitia gmp team, detailed design Florian Alles, Robert Essen, Alessio Fossati, Tommaso Miti, Victor Pageo, Nikolai Reich, Sebastian Seyfarth, Sara Taberner Bonastre, Ana Tendeiro, Benedikt Wannenmacher, Marius Wiese, Ignacio Zarrabeitia

Structural engineers RFR Group, schlaich bergermann partner Lighting design Lichtvision Client Real Madrid C.F. Seats approx. 90,000

Transportation Buildings Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport BER • Berlin (D) Competition 1998 (1st prize), Commission placement cancelled in 2003, the commission process was re-opened for worldwide open negotiation, commission placed in 2005 Construction period since 2008 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Hubert Nienhoff with Hajo Paap Overall project manager Hajo Paap Project manager terminal hall Martin Glass Project manager fitting out Petra Charlotte Kauschus Project manager associated operational buildings Rüdiger von Helmolt Project manager Premium parking garages / landscape design/railway entrance and reception halls Bettina Kreutzheck Overall project management Baumanagement Peter Autzen, Knut Nell Contract manager Jochen Köhn Construction manager Birgit Ricke Team members, design Tomomi Arai, Ante Bagaric, Sophie Baumann, Carsten Borucki, Constanze Elges, Robert Essen, Alberto Franco-Flores, Ilja Gendelmann, Elke Glass, Kristian Hansen, Patrick Hoffmann, Martin Krebes, Petra Charlotte Kauschuss, Bettina Kreuzheck, Helge Lezius, Birgit Ricke, Melany Schaer, Susan Türke, Wido Weise, Christian Wentzel • Design manual for Willy Brandt Airport, project management: Hajo Paap, Birgit Ricke / Team members: Sophie Baumann, Constanze Elges, Bettina Kreuzheck, Ausias Lobaton Ortega, Anna Nibell Team members, detailed design Execution coordination tenders /design Ivan Ivanov (till June 2008), Petra Charlotte Kauschus • Team Members, Terminal: Ante Bagaric, Lena Brögger, Elke Glass, Ivan Ivanov, Ausias Lobaton, Lucia Martinez, Sara Taberner, Susan Türke Team Members, development Tomomi Arai, Constanze Elges, Chris Hättasch, Julian Hippert, Patrick Hoffmann, Anna Jordan, Uschi Köper, Christiane Putschke-Tomm, Susan Türke, René Wiegand • Team Members, wall coverings / interior facades and signage: Chris Hättasch, Patrick Hoffmann, Johanna Kuntze, Doris Meyer, Susan Türke, René Wiegand • Team Members,

Shop facades / leasing development: Kejwan Gross, Irena Ludwig,Thomas Neumann, Bettina Kreuzheck, Michael Scholz • Team Members, Operations buildings: Claudio Aceituno Husch, Christian Blank, Carsten Borucki, Elena Flegler, Caroline Görcke, Dörte Groß, Julia Hilgenberg, Anna Jordan, Kerstin Krüger, Helge Lezius, Markus Pfisterer, Ferhat Yildirim • Team Members, Premium parking garages / landscape design / railway entrance and reception halls Anna Nibell • Tender: Frank Bartos, Andreas Ebner, Tobias Göttert, Frank Härtel, Uwe Otte, Christoph Rohner, Matthias Schenker • Cost management: Stephan Both, Klaus Liebscher, Claudia Schmidt, Maria Siewert, Johannes Waldschmidt • Scheduling: Frank Bartos, Tim Obermann • Property surveillance: Karl Baumgarten, Peter Biermann, Sabine Bild, Ines Breuste, Peer Dahlhorst, Peter Gerigk, Kathrin Gleiß, Christian Herzig, Julius Hüpeden, Philipp Kapteina, Manfred Krüger, Marcus Liermann, Anna Meditsch, Jürgen Missfeldt, Susanne Timmler, Daniela Waljeur Planning consortium Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt, gmp Generalplanungsgesellschaft mbh (Building planning lead), JSK International Architekten und Ingenieure mbH (general planning lead) Project control WSP-CBP Beratende Ingenieure GmbH Structural calculations schlaich bergermann partner, Schüssler-Plan Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH Lighting design Conceptlicht Helmut Angerer Visual communication Moniteurs Landscape design WES Berlin GFA Terminal 326,000 m2 GFA railway station 25,000 m2 GFA associated operational buildings 35,000 m2 GFA multi-storey car park near terminal / rental car centre 130,000 m2 Tianjin West Railway Station • Tianjin (CN) Competition 2004 (1st prize) Construction period 2009 – 2011 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Stephan Rewolle Project management Stephan Rewolle, Jiang Lin Lin Team members, design (phase 1) Iris Belle, Chunsong Dong, Du Peng, Shi Liang Team members, design (phase 2) Clemens Ahlgrimm, Cai Wei, Christian Dorndorf, Bernd Gotthardt, Clemens Kampermann, Kian Lian, Nicolas Pomränke, Sabine Stage, Jochen Sültrup

Team members, design (phase 3) Sebastian Linack, Thomas Schubert, Zheng Shan Shan Team members, detailed design (phase 4) Dong Shu Ying, Sebastian Linack, Thomas Schubert, Zheng Shan Shan Structural design schlaich bergermann partner Chinese partner office TSDI Client Tianjin Ministry of Railway GFA 179,000 m2 Number of platforms 24

Museums Hanoi Museum • Hanoi (VN) Competition 2005 (1st prize) Construction period 2007– 2010 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Klaus Lenz Project manager Marcus Tanzen Project manager Hanoi Tuyen Tran Viet Team members Nicole Flores, Martin Friedrich, Jessica Last, Tran Cong Duc, Johann von Bothmer, Ulf Hahn, Udo Meyer, Alexis von Dönhoff In co-operation with Inros Lackner AG Vietnamese partner offcice Vietnam National Construction Consultants Corporation Client Hanoi Culture and Information Department GFA 30,000 m2 Kunsthalle Mannheim • Mannheim (D) International competition 2012 (1st prize) Construction period 2015 – 2017 Design Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Volkmar Sievers Project manager, competition Di Miao Team members, design Frederik Heisel, Liselotte Knall, Steffen Lepiorz, Ulrich Rösler, Kai Siebke, Mira Schmidt Project management detailed design Liselotte Knall, Kerstin Steinfatt Team members, detailed design Hanna Diers, Anna Falkenbach, Raimund Kinski, Ulrich Rösler, Amra Sternberg, Viktoria Wagner, Michèle Watenphul 3D and visualisation team Markus Carlsen, Christoph Pyka, Tom Schülke, Jens Schuster, Kenneth Wong Structural engineers schlaich bergermann partner Building services Giesen – Gillhoff – Loomans GbR Facade consulting DS-Plan GmbH Lighting design a.g Licht GbR Landscape design Rainer Schmidt Landschaftsarchitekten Client Stiftung Kunsthalle Mannheim GFA 15,835 m2

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About the Office Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg describe their practice’s design work as “the making of architecture” – based on long years of experience and knowledge, reacting to the changing demands of society, and never losing sight of the quality of craftsmanship in the finished building. Together the two university friends founded the architectural practice gmp in 1965, and over the years four partners in Germany, one in China, and eleven associate partners joined the firm. The firm has employees in four locations in Germany, and since the early 2000s, it has opened nine additional offices in Spain, Russia, Qatar, India, Vietnam, China and Brazil, and has become active in the international sphere. gmp now employs over 500 people. From its beginnings, gmp has participated in national and international competitions and has garnered over 700 prizes – among them more than 350 first-place finishes as well as numerous awards for exemplary architecture. More than 400 projects have been realised to date. The spectrum of buildings ranges from residences, hotels, museums, theatres and concert halls, office buildings, trade centres, and hospitals, to research, sports and educational facilities, transportation buildings, commercial buildings and master plans.

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About the Office

gmp sees itself as responsible for a project in its entirety, from the initial design concept to its realisation and on through to the interior design. Their ideal is to design things as simply as possible so that they maintain their intrinsic value over time. Through technical restraint and material consistency, they seek to create buildings that encompass diverse demands, but that always – independently of assignment and location – maintain a connection to use, structure and functionality. The guidelines of this architectural approach lie in the principles of dialogical design: simplicity, diversity and unity, distinctiveness and structural order. These criteria are also the hallmark of the educational instruction at the Academy for Architectural Culture (aac) in Hamburg, which is funded by the nonprofit gmp Foundation, founded in 2007. The academy is dedicated to the support and training of students and graduates and to the promotion of research in architecture, landscape design and land conservation, both domestically and abroad. In addition, the acc organises a diverse public events programme in order to further the interconnectedness of architecture with other branches of culture and the humanities in an immediate and vibrant way.

Authors Wojciech Czaja Dipl.-Ing. Architect. Freelance architecture journalist, author and moderator. He completed his studies at the TU Wien and has been self-employed since 2001. In 2011 he became an Honorary Professor for Strategy of Communication at the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and in 2015 a lecturer at the University of Art and Design Linz. He is a member of the municipal planning advisory board of Waidhofen on the Ybbs and the author of numerous architecture books as well as a contributor to daily newspapers and trade journals. Oliver G. Hamm Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Architect. Freelance author, publisher, editor and curator. After completing his architecture degree at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt, he was editor of the db – deutsche bauzeitung from 1989 to 1992, editor of Bauwelt from 1992 to 1998) and editor-in-chief of greenbuilding in 2008 / 09. From 2003 – 2010, he served as a member of the advisory board of the Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) FürstPückler-Land, and was a member of the editorial board of the IBA Hamburg from 2007 to 2013. He is the author and editor of architectural publications. Falk Jaeger Prof. Dr.-Ing. Architect. Freelance critic, publicist, building historian and curator. Falk Jaeger studied architecture and art history in Brunswick, Stuttgart and Tübingen. From 1983 –1988 he was a research associate at the Institute of Building History and Surveying, TU Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1993 at the TU Hannover, after which he taught architectural theory at the TU Dresden until 2000. From 2001– 2002 he was editor-in-chief of

Bauzeitung. He has held lectureships at various universities. An architecture critic for the daily newspapers and trade journals as well as television since 1976, he is the author of numerous publications. Katharina Matzig Dipl.-Ing. Architect. Katharina Matzig completed her architecture degree at the TU Braunschweig. In 1996 –1997 she was online-editor at Baunetz, and since then has been a public relations expert at the Bayerische Architektenkammer in Munich, specialising in architecture mediation. She is a lecturer and author for daily and trade journals. Nina Rappaport Architecture critic, curator and educator. Nina Rappaport studied architecture and architectural history at Columbia University in New York and at Smith College in Massachusetts. Since 1999 she has been publications director at the Yale School of Architecture. In addition to heading the think tank Vertical Urban Factory and lecturing at several universities, she is a member of various advisory boards. She is a published book author and has written contributions for numerous trade journals. Jürgen Tietz Dr. phil. Freelance architecture critic and publicist. Jürgen Tietz studied art history, archaeology and pre- and early history in Berlin. He is a member of the municipal planning advisory boards of the cities of Fulda and Darmstadt as well as the historic preservation council of Hamburg. In addition to regular contributions to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as well as trade journals, he has published numerous books on the subjects of architecture and historic building preservation.

Authors

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Picture Credits The publisher would like to express his sincere gratitude to all those who have assisted in the production of this book, be it through providing photos or artwork or granting permission to reproduce their documents or providing other information. All the drawings were specially produced for this publication or taken from the archives of the architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partner. Despite intensive endeavours, we were unable to establish copyright ownership in just a few cases; however, copyright is assured. Please notify us accordingly in such instances.

Cover p. 7

Marcus Bredt, Berlin (D)

Marcus Bredt, Berlin (D)

Cultural Buildings p. 9 top, p. 10, p. 12 top, p. 14, p. 22, p. 23, p. 25 top, p. 26, p. 28 top Christian Gahl, Berlin (D) p. 9 bottom, p. 13, p. 16, p. 17 top, p. 29, p. 30 left, p. 32 gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D) p. 12 bottom Africa Studio / fotolia p. 17 bottom Deutsche Architektur (DA) 11 / 1960, p. 670 – 673 p. 19 top Heinrich Heidersberger / ARTUR IMAGES p. 19 bottom SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek / Matthias Adam p. 21 top fl0ri0604 / fotolia p. 21 bottom Landeshauptstadt Dresden p. 27 bottom bpk / Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Jörg P. Anders p. 33 Fyona A. Hallé / Wikipedia

Sport Complexes p. 35 top Christian Schittich, Munich (D) p. 35 bottom Atelier Frei Otto Warmbronn p. 36, p. 37, p. 40 top, p. 42 top, p. 43, p. 44, p. 45, p. 46 Christian Gahl, Berlin (D) p. 38 top, p. 49, p. 55 Marcus Bredt, Berlin (D) p. 42 bottom, p. 48 gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D) p. 38 bottom, p. 51, p. 53 top Magdalene Weiss /gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D)

160

Picture Credits

p. 50, p. 52 Jan Siefke, Berlin (D) p. 53 bottom, p. 54 Julia Ackermann, Hamburg (D)

Small Buildings p. 57 top, p. 58, p. 59, p. 64 centre and bottom, p. 65 top, p. 66, p. 67, p. 72 bottom left, p. 73 bottom right, p. 74 bottom right, p. 75 bottom left, p. 76 top right, p. 76 centre, p. 77 bottom right Heiner Leiska, Seestermühe (D) p. 57 bottom Klaus Frahm, Berlin (D) / Jürgen Schmidt, Cologne (D) / Gerhard Aumer, Hamburg (D) p. 60 bottom Meinhard von Gerkan / gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D); Foto: Heiner Leiska, Seestermühe (D) p. 61 Christian Richters, Münster (D) p. 62 bottom Frîa Hagen, Hanover (D) p. 63 bottom, p. 68, p. 75 bottom right Dieter Ameling, Dusseldorf (D) p. 65 bottom, p. 72 top left, p. 73 centre, p. 74 top left, p. 75 top right, p. 77 top right Cornelia Hellstern, Munich (D) p. 69, p. 70 top right Christian Schittich, Munich (D) p. 70 top left and top centre Frank Kaltenbach, Munich (D) p. 70 bottom Shinkenchiku-sha, Tokyo (J) p. 71, p. 72 bottom right, p. 74 top right, p. 75 top left HG Esch, Hennef (D) p. 72 top right, p. 73 left, p. 73 top right, p. 76 top left, p. 76 bottom, p. 77 bottom left Jürgen Schmidt, Cologne (D) p. 77 top left Horst Kottke, Kassel (D)

Office Buildings p. 79, p. 80 Marcus Bredt, Berlin (D) p. 81, p. 82 bottom, p. 83 HG Esch, Hennef (D) p. 82 top, p. 93 gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D) p. 84, p. 85, p. 86, p. 87, p. 88 top left, p. 88 top right, p. 89, p. 90, p. 91, p. 92 Christian Gahl, Berlin (D) p. 88 bottom Jerry Yin, Beijing (CN)

Stadiums p. 95 top Cornelia Hellstern, Munich (D) p. 95 bottom, p. 96, p. 99 top, p. 100, p. 102 bottom, p. 103, p. 106, p. 107, p. 108, p. 110, p. 111, p. 113 Marcus Bredt, Berlin (D) p. 97, p. 99 bottom Christian Schittich, Munich (D)

p. 98, p. 112 top schlaich bergermann partner, Stuttgart (D) p. 101 Krystian Trela, Strzelin (PL) p. 102 top Volkwin Marg /gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D) p. 104 Heide Wessely, Munich (D) p. 109 Jaeger, Falk: 3+1 Stadia for Brazil. Berlin 2014, p. 170 p. 112 bottom Knut Göppert, Stuttgart (D) p. 114, p. 115 bottom gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D) / L35 Arquitectos, Madrid (E) / RIBAS & RIBAS Arquitectos, Barcelona (E) 9. 115 Centre and top gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D)

Transportation Buildings p. 117 top, p. 120, p. 124 bottom, p. 128 Marcus Bredt, Berlin (D) p. 117 bottom, p. 121 top, p. 123 top, p. 125 Christian Gahl, Berlin (D) p. 118 left Landesbildstelle Berlin p. 118 right Meinhard von Gerkan / gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D); Foto: Heiner Leiska, Seestermühe (D) p. 121 centre Roman März, Berlin (D) p. 121 bottom Heike Vogt, Potsdam (D) p. 123 bottom, p. 124 top Hans Christian Schink / Punctum, Leipzig (D) p. 126, p. 130, p. 131 gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D)

Museums p. 133, p. 138, p. 139, p. 147 bottom, p. 148, p. 149 gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D) p. 134, p. 135 top, p. 141, p. 143, p. 144, p. 145, p. 150, p. 151 Marcus Bredt, Berlin (D) p. 135 bottom Tuan Tran Vu, Hanoi (VN) p. 140 Banana Republic / fotolia p. 142 bottom Weston, Richard: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century: Plans, Sections and Elevations. London 2004, p. 89 p. 147 top, p. 153 bottom Daniel Lukac, Rainer Diehl; Mannheim (D) p. 152 top William Kentridge, Johannesburg (GP) / Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (USA) p. 152 bottom Dan Graham, New York (USA) / Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris (F); Foto: Kathrin Schwab p. 153 top James Turrell, Los Angeles (USA) / Nikolaus Goetze /gmp Architekten, Hamburg (D)

Over the past 50 years, the architectural office von Gerkan, Marg und Partner has realised more than 400 projects worldwide – from single-family homes to cultural edifices and office buildings, from transportation facilities to master plans. Many of the projects are located throughout Asia: But how, for example, does one build in these differing cultural environments, and in scales appropriate to China and Vietnam? What sort of knowledge of construction in Europe can be transferred to Asia, and to what degree do construction projects in sociologically and culturally familiar contexts benefit from the experiences gained there? Differing principles, conditions and times determine the context in which gmp creates architecture. The subset of the gmp portfolio included here therefore draws parallels between current domestic and international projects, while supplementary references to earlier buildings offer a look back at the office’s development. Here, the primary focus is on the way in which knowledge and experience are engaged in a dialogue with design practice based on a rational approach.

ISBN 978-3-95553-319-9

9 783955 533199

DETAIL Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co. KG, Munich www.detail.de