Mittelhafen
TYPOLOGY: Competition / Office
COUNTRY: German
CITY: Münster
YEAR: 2020
COMPETITION: Closed competition, 2nd Prize
GFA: 12.740 sqm
CLIENT: Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe
Both the property side facing the city port and the street side to “Am Mittelhafen” require representative façades. Therefor a building in the north-south axis is required, which fills the property over the entire length. The two narrow views speak a suitably dignified language – to the waterfront through an invigorating silhouette that adds a building with personality to the row of existing office buildings. The opposite side facing the street is emphasized by an expressive façade – in contrast to the buildings in the immediate vicinity, which do not have such a concise addresses. This gives the quarter a much needed “urban flair”.
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.
House of Democracy
TYPOLOGY: Competition / Educational, Public
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Frankfurt
YEAR: 2025
COMPETITION: Open ideas competition according to RPW
GFA: 6.200 sqm (new) + 14.000 sqm (existing)
CLIENT: Stadt Frankfurt
NO NEW CONSTRUCTION ON PAULSPLATZ
A cohesive ensemble that offers visitors the opportunity to explore the history and significance of democracy.
THE DEMOCRATIC LOBBY
Positioned between the Paulskirche and the New Building, the foyer serves as a central link between all functions: the Paulskirche with its historical exhibition, the New Building with its event spaces, workshops, and permanent and temporary exhibitions, and the Kämmerei with its library, laboratories, and offices.
LOCATION & URBAN DESIGN
The New Building accommodates a 368-seat event hall, temporary exhibition spaces on the lower floors, and a permanent exhibition on the upper levels. Its deliberate placement along Berliner Straße preserves the openness of Paulsplatz, fostering a compelling visual and spatial dialogue with the Paulskirche.
MATERIALITY
The solid portions of the façades of both the New Building and the Democratic Lobby are clad in red Main sandstone. Walls and roof are constructed from glued laminated timber trusses in a sandwich system, with glass layers on both interior and exterior faces. The south façade integrates approximately 600 m² of photovoltaic panels, ensuring a sustainable energy contribution.
CONSIDERED POSITIONING
The vertical circulation core (8.50 × 4.80 m) is strategically placed in front of the closed eastern façade of the former Federal Audit Office building, preventing unwanted overshadowing while maintaining clear visual connections.
Ligor Rembeci
TYPOLOGY: Residential
COUNTRY: Albania
CITY: Korça
YEAR: 2021
CLIENT: Bregu Group
PHOTOS: © Roman Mensing
The original BOLLES+WILSON 2016 Masterplan for the center of Korça identified the Ligor Rembeci Quarter as a zone for careful insertion of new buildings in symbiosis with existing stone villas – this strategy – activating a block interior accessed by a network of passages – is now emerging with the recently completed Serenity Villas.
Rationalist Apartments
TYPOLOGY: Residential
COUNTRY: Albania
CITY: Tirana
YEAR: 2009
An eight floor building axially adjacent to the University ensemble – the axial focus of Tirana’s 1930’s Italian Masterplan.
Mass is emphasized, balconies internalized as loggias. Materials are reduced to those fitting historical precedent and the current possibilities of construction in Tirana. The particular ‘haptic’ of the base is achieved with wide mortar joints and intentionally irregular layers of broken (reject) tile fragments.
