Falkenried
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’.
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.
Teatri Andon Z Cajupi
TYPOLOGY: Cultural
COUNTRY: Albania
CITY: Korça
YEAR: 2017
CLIENT: Municipality of Korça
PHOTOS: © BOLLES+WILSON, Daniel Dervishi, Roman Mensing
Re-scripting Korca‘s theatre:
The theatre in Korca was initially a present from Moscow prior to Albanian Communism‘s falling out with Post-Stalinist Russia.
Its Soviet classicism was then stripped back to a sort of Balkan Art déco (Illus 1).
The large triangular Theatre Square, big enough for nationalistic parades, became a subject for re-formatting when in 2009 BOLLES+WILSON won the international planning competition for the historic centre of Korca. The main axis of the now almost fully implemented masterplan is the Bulevard Shën Gjergji (St. George), the new hub of the city, a pedestrian promenade (Illus 2) culminating in the Theater Square (now anchored by BOLLES+WILSON‘s 2014 Red Bar in the Sky – which focuses the Theatre Square, the concluding phase of the B+W 2009 masterplan. The campanile which functions as a lookout tower for Korcians to appreciate the delicate grain of their historic city is located at the end of the central pedestrian boulevard (landscaping by B+W).
The next intervention was the theatre itself – quite literally given a new face (or lots of new faces). Seating capacity was increased by converting a two-tier auditorium to a large raked plane (Illus 3 +4).
The design method as with all BOLLES+WILSON Albanian projects involved Peter Wilson‘s hand drawn concept (Illus 5) interpreted by a local facilitating office (in this case DEA Studio). A methodology that baits ‘lost in translation‘ misinterpretations (as was the case here when the contractors were found scratching their heads at a book of ‘Albanian Bling Renderings‘ but no details, a problem solved by Peter Wilson further sketching, this time 1:1 details direct on the wall).
The masks of comic and tragedy belong to theatre iconography, here they are joined by 140 smaller masks – the audience, hand crafted in terracotta by the local potter Vasillaq Kolevica (Illus 6+8). The 80 cm high individualized masks each occupy a grid square of the Art déco facade. The black tragic mask is convex, the white comic mask is concave – the construction principles for these were again hand sketched.
The comic mask is on a side annex (that now houses an internal grand stair), a cube clad in black basalt (Illus 10+13). The perimeter of the mask is defined by a stainless steel profile inside of which the white plaster indentation is recessed. The ominous black silhouette of the tragic mask is built up of polystyrene insulation blocks (Illus 11+12+14). Edge radii were sketched but ultimately a 1:1 demonstration with a bread knife was necessary to communicate the idea to he builders. The surface here is again plastered to resemble a giant Japanese ‘ No-theatre‘ mask (Illus 14+15).
Cologne-Muelheim Harbour District
TYPOLOGY Masterplan
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Cologne
YEAR: 2013 – (2015)
COMPETITION: 2013, dialogic planning process
‘Werkstattverfahren Mülheim Süd Inkl. Hafen’
CLIENT: Stadt Köln
After a dialogic planning process in 2013, the two competing planning teams around kister scheithauser gross (Cologne) and BOLLES+WILSON have teamed up for the next planning stage. The development of Mülheim’s harbour district is still an on-going process integrating various interests and disciplines. The masterplan for this 52 ha harbour area preserves various grand industrial spaces to create a new district with a unique character and atmosphere.
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.
