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.
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.
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’.
Dieze Training Centre
TYPOLOGY: Educational
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Castrop-Rauxel
YEAR: 1996
COMPETITION: 1994, First Prize
GFA: 3.000 sqm
CLIENT: GEWO, Castrop-Rauxel
PHOTOS: © Christian Richters
A branch of the Open University Hagen and a Women’s Retraining Centre – shared conference and seminar facilities. Anchor box plus geometric extensions. The alien conference element cantilevers acrobatically. Strict plan geometries evolve a three dimensional language of interlocking materials.
Shkodra Football Stadium
TYPOLOGY: Sport
COUNTRY: Albania
CITY: Shkodra
YEAR: 2017
PHOTOS: © Roman Mensing, BOLLES+WILSON
The 2017 football stadium in the northern Albanian city of Shkodra was a fast-track project – Albania had to host the ritual skirmish with Serbia. To marshal Riotous Serbian fans corral-like platforms were built – each restrains 500 fans within the heavy steel perimeter rail. These raked platforms were as naked concrete an illustration of Louis Kahn’s statement (that a buildings sculptural essence is only visible while under construction or as a ruin). The colours of the Shkodra team are a manly pink and light blue. Finished the pink reverse side of the stadium corrals offer a dramatic backdrop for informal urban life. The new main stadium with V.I.P. deck + press box is lit from up lights reflecting on white circles (see sketch). Existing stadiums were upgraded with a wind animated screen.
