two harbour buildings_hafenweg 14 und 16_munster_photo

2 Harbour Buildings

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Office

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Münster

YEAR: 2006

GFA No. 14: 6.400 sqm

GFA No. 16: 5.000 sqm

CLIENT: LVM Versicherungen, Julia B. Bolles-Wilson, Peter Wilson

PHOTOS: © Rainer Mader, Christian Richters

Like its big brothers in Rotterdam, Hamburg, London or Genoa, Münsters canal harbour (released from servitude) is in the process of becoming – but what – a new urban quartier, bar and café mile, victim of city-event culture or melancholic post-industrial hangout for artists and architects.

No. 14 and No. 16 like their warehouse predecessors are ambivalent as to exactly what goods or activities they host. Deep (22 m) loft plans facilitate a multitude of layouts. Facades on the other hand are specific, material and character giving.

No. 14, a sharply sculptured orange end building turns out on close inspection to be a stack of bricks close-packed in North-South direction (heads to harbour and street, sides to the end walls), an overt tactility eclipsed by flush mounted sun blinds. Seen from afar the overall volume has photoshop-like graphic quality, a designed lack of depth.

A ballet of sun-louvers also animates the South harbour-facing and predominately glass facade of No. 16. A stepped curtain creating (on sunny days) an intermediate zone between inside and out. Without the obligation of transparency (harbour panorama) or sun protection (North) the street facade of No. 16 conjures a tapestry of muted anodised colour, generous glass squares and 3D projections.

Morse code: The attentive viewer will also discover a 3 cm high ‘dot-dash’ inscription on the lower verge of each balcony, the work of the Dutch artist Milou van Ham. Old Barge Captains and ‘persevering school classes’ will decipher the text:

good day! you are (now) reading a building (2005- ) by BOLLES+WILSON (1980- ). you are (now) reading an artwork (2005- ) by milou van ham (1964- ). you are (now) reading morse-code (1837-2000) by samuel morse (1791-1872). you are (now) in the harbour (1898-2005- ) of muenster (793- ). end

two harbour buildings_hafenweg 14 und 16_munster_no 14_christian richters
Street facing façade of No. 14
two harbour buildings_hafenweg 14 und 16_munster_rainer mader
Street facing façade of No. 16
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Entrance No. 16
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Central access area No. 16
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Inside the cantilever extension No. 16
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Exemplary office No. 16
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two harbour buildings_hafenweg 14 und 16_munster_no 16_christian richters
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Ground floor plan
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Standard floor plan
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Siteplan
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Harbour facing façade with closed sun shades
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Harbour facing façade with open sun shades
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Balcony façade detail
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Morse code
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South elevation
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North elevation
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Façade principle
Hamburg, Falkenried, Foto, Christian Richters

Falkenried

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Masterplan, Residential, Office

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Hamburg-Eppendorf

YEAR: 2004

COMPETITION: Masterplan Competition 1999, First Prize

GFA: 34.500 sqm

CLIENT: Bayerische Hausbau GmbH, Munich

AWARDS: German Urban Planning Award 2004

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

The anatomy of redundant bus and tram workshop/sheds was co-opted as the organising template for this 1999 premiated Quartier Masterplan. An east west piazza focusses the networked block interior.

The principles of the Masterplan were: The ‘loftising’ of one workshop shed, a brick administration building which grows into penthouses and bus garage doors which envelope row-houses.

Southward from the piazza a spatial choreography of Office Slab and Housing Tower leads over a raised terrace with a second (zigzag) office facade, past a café/bar, down an Eisenstein stair to street and canal. This perspectival sequence – an opening and closing of large scale urban rooms – is homogenised by its rich and tactile material, a ‘Hamburg-solid turf-fired brick’.

Hamburg, Falkenried, Foto, Christian Richters
Hamburg, Falkenried, sketch, drawing, Peter Wilson, handzeichnung, Skizze, Perspektive
Hamburg, Falkenried, Foto, Christian Richters
Hamburg, Falkenried, Foto, Christian Richters
Hamburg, Falkenried, Foto, Christian Richters
Hamburg, Falkenried, Foto, Christian Richters
Hamburg, Falkenried, Foto, Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters

City Library Helmond

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Cultural

COUNTRY: The Netherlands

CITY: Helmond

YEAR: 2010

COMPETITION: 2006, First Prize

GFA: 5.630 sqm

CKIENT: City of Helmond

COLLABORATOR: Vrencken Hoen Architecten

AWARD: Fritz Hoeger Preis 2014, Winner Special Mention

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

Like most Dutch cities Helmond is busy reinventing itself. The new City Library, which officially opens in October 2010, is the first component of a comprehensive new inner city shopping zone (masterplan: Prof. Joan Busquets). Directly adjacent to the new library are the 1970’s Tree Houses and Theatre by Piet Blom. Here the new library facade is moulded and sloped in dialogue with its dramatic neighbour. A between space, a block internal café terrace, a comfortable and dramatic extension of the existing enclosed Theatre Square is the result of this spatial symbiosis.
The outer, street-facing facade is the representative face and entrance of the new library. Upper level projections mark the extremities, brackets (ears) carrying large-format ‘Bibliotheek’ letters. A horizontal facade articulation differentiates ground level shops from glazed and setback first floor (Children’s Library) and the brick surface of the upper office level.

A careful detailing and material choice for external surfaces provides a ‘tactility’ fitting to the historic Helmond city centre. Rough dark brown and unusually horizontal bricks (Hilversum format 50 x 290 mm) on upper levels have open vertical joints and a beige horizontal mortar joint, stressing the layered grain of the brickwork. In contrast the base is in a flat beige brick (in 3 different heights – 50, 100, 140 mm). These are not laid in mortar, but glued together – resulting in a stone-like solidity and homogeneity.

The internal spaces of the library are developed as an unfolding spatial sequence. Much of the ground floor is given over to retail. Entry is from both sides – via a generous double height entrance hall to the street side and via the more intimate café and event corner facing the Theatre Court. The upward sequence is announced by a grand stair, which arrives at a first floor exhibition deck and the ‘piano nobile’ of the library. Here information stations, bookshelves and children / teenager zones are arranged around a central media Hot Spot: precisely circular, a Chinese-red sandwich. The Hot Spot offers the digital latest. The route continues upward concluding in the light-filled upper level with a long working bench integrated in the long ‘tree house-facing’ window.

BOLLES+WILSON’s commission also included furniture and lighting elements, the choreographing of atmosphere and character. Lanterns in the foyer, a newspaper reading table, a striped and upholstered café bench seat with Scandinavian lighting, information counters and a group study room with fragments of a 1950’s mural mounted on the wall, are among the long list of localised detail. The philosophy is one of multiplicity, a user-friendly comfort already much appreciated by librarians and reading Helmonders.

City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Sketch_Skizze
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Siteplan_Lageplan
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Section_Schnitt
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City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Plan_Lageplan
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Plan_Grundriss
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Lamps_Lampen
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Sketch_Skizze
house p, haus p, münster, christian richters

House P

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Residential

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Münster

YEAR: 2013

GFA: 140 sqm

CLIENT: (private)

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

Small is beautiful (+ energy efficient) – compact 140 sqm private house with outstanding ‘sustainability credentials’.

Plastered monolithic insulating ‘Poroton’ brick walls, triple glazing and a deep bore heat exchange pump lead to a non-fossil fuel energy classification (KFW 70) – 30 per cent below the current energy regulation.

house p, haus p, münster, christian richters
house p, haus p, münster, christian richters
house p, haus p, münster, christian richters
house p, haus p, münster, christian richters
house p, haus p, münster, christian richters
house p, haus p, münster, christian richters
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CITADEL + THRINON HENGELO NL. 2005

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Residential
COUNTRY: The Netherlands
CITY: Hengelo
YEAR: 2005
GFA: 25.000 m²
PARTNER: Bureau Boukunde, Rotterdam
PHOTOS: © BOLLES+WILSON

While paying our last respects to the soon to be demolished V&D department store in Hengelo we revisited our 2005 housing ensemble around the corner.

CITADEL + THRINON
(formally known as THIEMSLAND)
BOLLES+WILSON 1998–2005

The black + white volumes of the (now) Thrinon block soften into ‘De Stijl’ pixels as they turn the corner to the Citadel Park (block H)
Robust street facing black + white morphs into a soft green as the residential facades march into the Citadel Park (blocks I + G)
BOLLES+WILSON housing frames both sides of a pedestrian + bicycle boulevard on axis with the Neo-Renaissance City Hall (block G)
(block G)

Generous balconies in the three Citadel buildings overlook the expansive park.
Balcony planting signals happy occupants (blocks J + I)

(blocks I + G)
How to bring the not insubstantial Citadel block to an end? – with reeds and water (block J)
Plan elevation (block J)
Windows on the Citadel inner facade are either bedroom or bathroom scale (block J)
Saw-tooth balcony access on the inner facade of the Thrinon building (block H)
Apartment layout (block H)

Like all BOLLES+WILSON projects, the (then called) Thiemsland choreography
began with a hand sketch