Kaldewei Entrance
TYPOLOGY: Office
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Ahlen
YEAR: 2007
GFA: 550 sqm
CLIENT: Franz Kaldewei GmbH & Co. KG
PHOTOS: © Rainer Mader, Christian Richters
The small ‘signalising’ pavilion re-focuses and re-orients the visitors entrance to the main Kaldewei production plant. The pavilion stands like a bookend in relation to the original 1930s Works Facade of the leading manufacturer of enamel steel bathtubs. It connects to new reception spaces within the existing structure and to a planned administration wing.
The mass of the stone-clad volume projects acrobatically. Structural dexterity is not the issue, mass is here co-opted as a silent, announcing presence. The lobby behind is carved out of the existing volume. Meeting rooms hover above the entrance, the white stone of the new facade extends inwards as lobby floor and wall material. A steel spiral stair stands centre-stage and backlit by a dematerialised ‘Light Wall’. After the spatial expansion of the lobby, lower ceilings and an emphasized materiality of wood panels introduce a contrasting intimacy. The ‘Actor Stair’ leads the visitor through a short but complex spatial sequence. The spatial and material language here is closely related to that of BOLLES+WILSONs first Kaldewei building. – the nearby KKC (Competence Centre) 2003-2005.
Prison Library
TYPOLOGY: Library
COUNTRY: German
CITY: Münster
YEAR: 2005
GFA: 80 sqm
CLIENT: Justizvollzugsanstalt Münster
AWARDS: Library of the Year Prize (German Library Association + the ZEIT Foundation)
PHOTOS: © BOLLES+WILSON
In 2007 the German Library Association together with the ZEIT Foundation awarded the ‚Library of the Year Prize‘ to the small but significant Prison Library in Münster (concept BOLLES+WILSON, implementation prisoners). The jury praised the exemplary, user-friendly and new interpretation of library functions and the atmosphere, an estranged relative of the nearby City Library (BOLLES+WILSON 1987–93). The single library room, jammed in the ‚armpit‘ between two Panopticon wings is simply furnished with shelves and counters in ‚optimistic‘ wood and friendly colours. Facing mirrors above and adjacent to the shelves multiply the original triangular room into a kaleidoscopic virtual hexagon. The prison in its entirety is optically reduced to a small central pavilion. Reading as transcendence or Borges‘ infinite ‚Library of Babel‘ are the unavoidable message. A leaf motive on ceiling and walls, like the new furniture, is the handwork of the prisoners themselves.
Wohn und Stadtbau Housing Association Headquarters
TYPOLOGY: Office
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Münster
YEAR: 2004
COMPETITION: 2001, First prize
CLIENT: Wohn und Stadtbau GmbH
PHOTOS: © Christian Richters
Entering the city from the north, a straight road, at the apex of its perspectival triangle a silhouette of cathedral and other church towers. Progressing into this picture, slightly downhill the view is gradually obscured, the outer traffic ring crossed.
The next 500 m rise, not a dramatic topography but enough to awaken expectation – ‘up there I will be in the city’. Buildings on the right enclose and to some extent counteract the latent drama of this ascent, this arrival. The left is undergoing a transformation, a re-configuring, a chance for a modulated roofline to enhance topographic character.
This is the intention of the sculpted silhouette of the new offices of the ‘Wohn+Stadtbau’ Housing Association. Its crest location is critical. The structured plaster façades of both volumes do not just echo but enhance site topography and the drama of entrance.
Entering the building involves a counter and smaller scale spatial sequence. The building front steps back from the heavily trafficked street to a transparent foyer. The ground floor facilitates intensive visitor traffic, waiting spaces extend into the internal court and playground.
Change Factory
TYPOLOGY: Competition / Office
COUNTRY: German
CITY: Eschweiler
YEAR: 2023
COMPETITION: Closed competition, 2nd Prize
COLLABORATOR: wbp Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, Bochum
GFA: 11.880 sqm
CLIENT: Stadt Eschweiler
The Change Factory is Eschweiler’s new green, flexible, and flood-resilient innovation hub.
Instead of one large block, it’s a cluster of pavilions, halls, and workspaces connected by a leafy promenade linking the city center to Drieschplatz. Reclaimed bricks, repurposed windows, and lush façades show a commitment to circular construction, while active roofs host orchards, gardens, sports areas, and solar panels. A contoured green ring and rain-retention meadows provide natural flood protection, turning resilience into a design feature. Inside, adaptable modular buildings offer space for events, co-working, research, and community life. Combining low-tech solutions with smart energy systems, the Change Factory sets a new standard for sustainable urban development.
WLV Office Building
TYPOLOGY: Office
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Münster
YEAR: 1995
COMPETITION: 1992, First prize
GFA: 7.200 sqm
CLIENT: WLV
AWARDS: German Architecture Award 1996, commendation
PHOTOS: © Christian Richters
The reflective surface of the ‘dark green glazed’ brick animates a monolithic self-focusing form. An ambiguous surface alternating between the brilliance of the sky or the depths of black shadow. Mass is also the subject, a single building block in the urban fabric. A block further animated by the vectorial trajectory of the adjacent railway which instigates a façade curve and lean. A relatively simple slippage whose justification lies not in its formal but its tectonic resolution. Each brick course slips out one cm from the one supporting it. For the train traveller the WLV building is an event of a few seconds, its deflection perhaps only the effect of speed, its roof perhaps only temporarily hovering.
The three floors and 7.000 sqm of offices house a branch of local government that deals with the administration of psychiatric services. Shops on the ground and rooftop canteen-restaurant complete the sandwich. A specified planning module of 1.625 m results in a deep precast concrete fin on each axis, visible structure in unpainted concrete defining a window zone for heating, cable canals and glare blinds. From inside window frames disappear behind fins, to the south sun screens extend the internal ceiling line beyond the window. Systematised cellular offices are animated by contextual deflexions in the overall plan form, resulting in serpentine office strips, floating service islands, the ‘elastic plan’. Not high but low-tech is here and in the entire building thematizing, the simple, the well made, the long lasting.
