U Boat Hall
TYPOLOGY: Retail
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Hannover
YEAR: 2012
CLIENT: RS Möbelhandelsgesellschaft mbH
PHOTOS: © Olaf Mahlstedt
LOCKED IN SERVITUDE THE DRAMA OF A BUILDING’S MAKING REMAINS HIDDEN: (Louis Kahn)
There is today an enormous potential in the re-scripting of grand industrial spaces, survivors from an epoch that had less trouble expressing itself and its mechanical or technical potency than our current mean and exploitative ‘global shopping-centre-culture’.
One thinks of São Paulo’s Fábrica da Pompéia by Lina Bo Bardi, London’s Tate Bankside, or the Zollverein Coal Mine in Essen, Germany.
This was our first reaction as our client drove his black Porsche into the rusting cathedral of Hannover’s ‘U-boat Hall’. Was it a panic reaction at the end of WW II to build a submarine production space so far from the North Sea? The structure of the hall had in fact been originally designed for a U-boat production site of a naval dockyard in Wilhelmshaven. As it turned out the enigmatically named ‘U-boat Hall’ was only finished in 1944 and was thus not used for armament production.
Now sliced like salami the ‘Industrial Heritage Structure’ is to house various commercial outlets – a mega Bicycle Emporium where racing bikes can be tested in the shop or this landscape of coloured furniture.
This is in fact two shops; RS (wholesome wood) and Yellow (sub-designer). BOLLES+WILSON have already realized their flagship store in Münster and the HQ Building, a rooftop lake above a ‘big box’ two-floor warehouse/distribution centre.
For the ‘U-boat Hall’ the rent was based on the square meters of the hall’s floor. The architectural question was how to maximize this floor area with a selling landscape and a back of house warehouse for customers to pick up their new sofa / table / lamp.
The magnificent scale of rusting columns, elevated crane track and skylight box, resist the invasion of domestic equipment, relegating it to the status of ‘a carpet of coloured pixels’ spread across the selling decks.
Albanian Football Association Headquarters Tirana
TYPOLOGY: Administration Offices
COUNTRY: Albania
CITY: Tirana
YEAR: 2020
PHOTOS: © Roman Mensing, BOLLES+WILSON
LOCAL ARCHITECTS: APE Shpk
The commission was first for the reuse of a derelict crescent shaped communist building, (Illus 2A), not a comfortable fit for open plan offices and upper level president and executive council rooms. `X´columns were here invented to support the top-heavy layout. These survived the decision to demolish and build a new headquarters. Both layouts framed a green field site embraced by a ring of trees. Existing pines were also retained.
Layout – Four levels of open plan offices lurk behind the ambulant `X´ Colonnade. These are for the various departments: event management, national team dept, marketing, referees, finance, legal, human resources, drivers etc. (Illus. 7 + 8).
The rear side entrance is themed green and blue with a canopy and raised entrance plaza above a press and conference
room for 180. (Illus. 9. 3.4.5.6.)
Albania is now embedded in the UEFA international football circuit and the success of their HQ has led to the 2925 commission for BOLLES+WILSON to design a partner building on the same site – A 5-star Hotel for the Albanian National Team (Illus. 14).
A SECOND BUILDING ON THE SAME SITE.
2025-2029
Wohn + 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.
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.
House P
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.
