As if to honour its German roots, high-end fashion brand Jil Sander introduced it’s new retail design at the flagship store on the swanky Kurfürstendamm thoroughfare in Berlin. Occupying a ground floor unit of a landmark structure built in 1900 with an ornate art nouveau façade, the new aesthetic, created by Milan-based practice Andrea Tognan Architecture, is almost defiantly modern and understated, and clearly extrapolates Jil Sander‘s clean designs. Geometrical forms of the square and the rectangle largely define the premises, along with more fluent shapes that convey a zen-like sense of spatial harmony, and yet provide functionality at the same time.
Conceptually and spatially, the selected artworks by Albert Dürer and William Kentridge are articulated as seven curatorial themes in the upper gallery for temporary exhibitions at the Kulturforum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
The Cinnamon tower was conceived as freestanding campanile – a pin on a piazza was the concept behind the premiated competition design by BOLLES+WILSON for the existing 19th century Harbour Masters Building.
A tower was not anticipated in the competition programme, but the jury agreed that a tower anchors the public functions around the only remaining historical building to survive between the megablocks of the ‘Overseas Quarter’ master plan. The historic building would thus be more autonomous.
Folkwang University of the Arts is North Rhine Westphalia’s college of art and music. Its main campus is housed in the former Benedictine abbey of St. Ludgerus in Essen-Werden, situated in the southern Ruhr Valley. The small 8th century site was extended into a princely baroque residence in the 18th century, arranged around a magnificent courtyard (Cour d’honneur). The construction of the new library on the south side of the courtyard by the architect Max Dudler replaces a 19th century military hospital building demolished in 1969. In 2006 Max Dudler won the design competition organised by the Duisburg branch of the Building and Real Estate Management Authority, North Rhine Westphalia. The project was generously supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation.
Client: Duisburg branch of the Building and Real Estate Management Authority, North Rhine Westphalia Supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation
User: Folkwang University of the Arts
Project Manager: Alexander Bonte
General Contractor: Derichs u Konertz GmbH u Co KG, Krefeld
General Planners during the Construction Period: Nattler Architects
The new building is located on the southern shore of Lake Lerchenau. The conceptual orientation perpendicular to the contour lines and to the edge of the bank, as well as the reference to the differences in altitude of the terrain, provide a perfect overview across the lake.
Franken Architekten has been commissioned for the building and interior design planning of the renovation and expansion of a “Gründerzeit” building in Frankfurt Alt-Sachsenhausen. The late nineteenth old building was completely renovated and updated with a new elevator core in the courtyard. The lacking in parts in natural stone facade has been restored and the remedial measures of recent years dismantled and adapted to the Wilhelminian facade. The object associated 60s buildings have been replaced by a new building, as an archaic gabled house without roof overhangs.
Location: Frankensteiner Straße 20, 60594 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Photography: Dieter Schwer
Project–Team: Prof. Bernhard Franken, Frank Brammer, Sebastian Stehl, Robin Heather, Manuel Naranjo Alpresa, Natascha Baier, Verena Hornsteiner, Risa Kagami, Sahdia Kaster, Tina Strack, Isabel Strelow
The Primo Cafe Bar stands for high-quality coffee, an Italian lifestyle and a sustainable mind-set. In the spirit of this brand philosophy, an authentic interior design concept with natural materials and dedication to detail was created. The café was realized at the Zinser fashion store in Tübingen. Located in the pedestrian zone, it not only attracts people from the outside but also creates value for the store’s retail customers. The continuous glass façade reveals a warm atmosphere to passers-by which – in a symbiosis of light and material – makes them want to enjoy a coffee.
The task was to erect a pavillion as an extension to a single family-house in Berlin-Pankow. The client wished to have not only a larger livinging area but also sufficient space for his collection of asian sculptures.
I still have the copy of my letter, which I wrote in 2008 – and a copy of the woman’s magazine from back then. “Women changing the world” – I was so deeply impressed by it, I simply could not understand, that you wouldn’t respond in any way. Today we are strolling around the finished house, which we have developed together. Quite impressive, how this thing has taken speed.
The LANDSCAPE BUILDING concept was conceived as a subtle exchange; it is a terrain itself. The building uses every aspect of its construction for navigation and art exhibition. The roof slopes are pedestrian walkways and they form a sculpture park. (The gradients of sculpture park give many different observation angles for users to apprehend the sculptural work on display.) The views from these roof gradients onto the surrounding buildings and parkland also give the idea that this building is a piece of landscape itself.