15.11.2024

Clinker bricks vertical, horizontal, total! Façade and paving in harmony

Building design

rutsch+rutsch architects made it easy: the existing three levels of the 50-year-old brick building were extended by a full floor and an attic to a total floor space of almost 1,300 square meters.

Using a 50-year-old brick building as the basis, architects Christine and Torsten Rutsch realized their very personal ideas for a contemporary residential and commercial property in Schwerin.

The path to the front door leads over a refreshingly colorful, varied clinker brick pavement – and if you are not careful, you could easily walk up the wall: Using a 50-year-old brick building as a base, architects Christine and Torsten Rutsch in Schwerin realized their very personal ideas of a contemporary residential and commercial property. And because it is so beautiful, rutsch+rutsch also used the Vandersanden paving bricks from the outdoor area to design the first floor façade of their “BO71 multi-generation house” and even laid the paving in the elevator and as skirting boards.

The upper floors of the “BO71” façade are clad in larch wood, while the architects opted for brick for the first floor. Fully cladding the exterior walls with facing bricks was out of the question for design reasons. However, the façade had to be solid at least at ground level so that any graffiti could be removed more easily in the event of an incident, “which unfortunately happens from time to time in this area,” says Torsten Rutsch, both architect and client of the project. Either way, the use of brick products was a must right from the start of planning, especially as Rutsch had already come to know and appreciate the material in other projects. “We used handmade bricks from the oldest English brickworks for the new construction of exclusive detached houses near Hamburg,” enthuses the architect, “and we didn’t want to do without the beautiful feel and look of fired bricks for our own property either.”

Torsten Rutsch could initially only find “boring buildings” when he set out in 2014 in search of an architectural challenge in the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rutsch and his wife Christine run the planning office “rutsch+rutsch architektur+szenografie” in the small village of Drieberg, northwest of Schwerin, and now they wanted to relocate from the countryside to the city. “Our idea was to transform an existing building into a sustainably designed residential and commercial property,” reports Rutsch. The architect couple finally found what they were looking for in the Werdervorstadt district, right next to Lake Schwerin. The former municipal utility company administration building, which had been vacant for 20 years, seemed ideally suited to finding a new use as a barrier-free multi-generational house and architects’ office – after all, it was a solid brick building.

All photos: Vandersanden

With their utilization concept, Christine and Torsten Rutsch were finally able to prevail in the public tender for the sale of the former municipal building. In the end, only the solid brick walls of the former office building were to remain. The existing three levels plus a pitched roof were^extendedby a full floor and an attic to create a total floor space of almost 1,300^m2, while a new staircase and elevator make it easier to access the 14 newly created residential units. The first floor also offers space for the rutsch+rutsch office and a further commercial unit.

The decision in favor of fired bricks is not least due to the history of the location. The Ziegelsee lake is located right next to Schwerin’s Werdervorstadt district. According to tradition, its name recalls the harbor transshipment of earlier centuries, when large quantities of bricks were delivered by ship as building material. And south of the Ziegelsee, the 118-metre-high tower of Schwerin Cathedral dominates the skyline. The oldest building in the city was erected in the Middle Ages from around 1270 to 1420 and is one of the major works of brick Gothic architecture in northern Germany.

All photos: Vandersanden

However, Christine and Torsten Rutsch did not want the paving of the outdoor areas and the cladding of the first floor façade of their multi-generation house to follow the dark red brick color scheme of historic buildings in the neighborhood, but rather to convey a fresh and varied impression. Suitable products were found in the portfolio of the Vandersanden extrusion plant in Upper Lusatia.

Individual mix of different colors

rutsch+rutsch favored a mixture of several colors and ultimately opted for pavers in the KF52 format (200x100x52mm). The bricks were to have a scraped surface, making the structure and composition of the clay easy to see and feel. The Schwerin architects combined the red “Cortona” variety with the strong orange of “Radeberg”, the bright yellow “Plauen” and the red-blue-mottled “Zittau”. To make processing on the construction site as easy as possible, the clinker bricks were premixed at the factory in a ratio of 1:1:1:1.

All photos: Vandersanden

What followed after delivery to the construction site on Lake Schwerin, however, positively astonished Vandersanden consultant Torsten Klemke. “As always, I had assumed that the clinker bricks would be used to secure an outdoor area,” says Klemke, “until I received a call from a building contractor from Schwerin asking about processing instructions for attaching paving clinkers to the façade.” Even Klemke, a clinker brick specialist with many years of experience, was unable to help. Nevertheless, architect Rutsch quickly solved the puzzle: “Our idea was not to let the paving of the outdoor areas end at the building wall, but to continue seamlessly on the first floor façade with the same STEINs, thus creating a smooth transition.” What was missing, however, were suitable processing instructions – which do not even exist for attaching paving bricks to a wall.

Floor pavers bonded to the façade

Nevertheless, Torsten Klemke quickly came up with a solution. “As the bricks don’t have to bear any static loads in this case and rather serve a visual-aesthetic purpose, the necessary stability is perfectly provided by gluing them to the insulation layer underneath,” says the Vandersanden consultant. “You have to come up with that first,” adds Klemke, “but at the same time, this is also the best proof of the diverse design options that pavers have to offer.”

All photos: Vandersanden

Architect Torsten Rutsch can only confirm this four years after completion of the BO71 project: “The transition of the clinker paving from the floor to the façade has created a beautiful atmosphere that we are delighted with every day,” he says. Rutsch is also completely satisfied with how the once vacant office building on the shores of Lake Schwerin has become a prime example of sustainable construction: with an energy requirement of 14.6 ^kW/m2, the building’s efficiency is even below the values of the passive house standard. Thanks to a heat pump, triple glazing and a host of other technical features, the residents enjoy ancillary costs of less than 2 ^euros/m2. On top of this, Christine and Torsten Rutsch were able to contribute to significantly enhancing the Werdervorstadt location with the realization of their design idea. The multi-generation house at Bornhövedstrasse 71, known as BO71 for short, is now a sought-after residential address and a showcase project for sustainable construction far beyond Schwerin – including paving bricks, which not only adorn the floor but also at least part of the façade due to their beauty.

Sustainable production, expertise and innovation in brick production are at the forefront of the Vandersanden family business. Vandersanden offers brick products for the planning and realization of buildings, gardens, parks and road construction. The “Vandersanden family” consists of almost 800 employees in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

With a total of ten production sites for facing bricks, clay pavers, brick slips and insulated façade systems, Vandersanden is the largest family-run brick producer in Europe. Vandersanden produces around 575 million bricks per year for the European market and far beyond. The brick expert is not only the market leader for hand-molded facing bricks in Belgium and Germany, but also for the paving brick segment in the Netherlands. Vandersanden’s entire brick production operates in accordance with the ISO 14001 environmental management standard.

Vandersanden has two brickworks in Germany, in Oberlausitz and in Glückstadt. Jaak Vandersanden founded the traditional Vandersanden brickworks in 1925 in Spouwen (Bilzen), Belgium, not far from the German border. The brick manufacturer’s headquarters are still located there today.

09.11.2024

Restorers in the Himalayas

Building design

At an Austrian-Indian conference, the Institute of Conservation and Restoration at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, under the direction of Professor Gabriela Krist, presented the powerful illustrated book on the restoration of Buddhist temples in Nako. The Institute of Conservation and Restoration at the University of Applied Arts Vienna has been working with the Indian Monument Authority for decades. […]

At an Austrian-Indian conference, the Institute for Conservation and Restoration at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, under the direction of Professor Gabriela Krist, presented the powerful illustrated book on the restoration of Buddhist temples in Nako.

The Institute for Conservation and Restoration at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna has been working together with the Indian heritage authorities for decades. Together, conservators and researchers from Austria and India have carried out work on the Buddhist and Hindu cultural heritage in the north of the country: the Nagara temples in the Kulu Valley, the monastery and temple complexes in the village of Dangkhar, the cultural sites in the town of Chambra, the temples in Nako, all located in the state of Himachal Pradesh, as well as in the region of Ladakh. A comprehensive illustrated book on the research and restoration work on the temples in Nako was published last year. The Institute for Conservation and Restoration at the Vienna Angewandte presented the publication together with the Böhlau publishing house at the conference “Crossing Borders – Recent Developpements in Research and Conservation in India”.

“The conference not only showed the successes in the cooperation between Austria and India for the preservation of cultural heritage, but also the continuing enormous need for conservation measures,” says Professor Gabriela Krist, Head of Conservation at the Angewandte and editor of the illustrated book “NAKO – Research and Conservation in the Western Himalayas”. Volume 13 of the series Konservierungswissenschaft. Restoration. Technology series summarizes the Institute’s work between 2004 and 2009 on the Buddhist temple complexes of the Himalayan village of Nako. Following in the footsteps of the Tibetologist who explored the region in 1933, a group of Austrian scientists began exploring Nako in the 19380s. This subsequently led to the restoration campaigns and conservation work by restorers from the Angewandte and from India. Many of the 279 illustrations in the book, which is supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, were taken by the Austrian architectural photographer Stefan Olàh.

Gabriela Krist (ed.): NAKO. Research and Conservation in the Western Himalayas. Conservation Science. Restoration. Technology, Volume 13, Vienna 2016. 374 pages, 279 color illustrations, hardcover, 70 euros. ISBN 978-3-205-20267-7.

23.01.2025

Erding airbase: urban planning competition decided

Building design

The German Armed Forces will leave the Bavarian Erdinger airbase in 2024. A new district is to be built on the site. The winners of the 190-hectare “Erding Air Base” urban development and landscape planning competition have now been announced.

When the German Armed Forces leave the Erding airbase in Bavaria in 2024, a new city district is to be built here on 380 hectares. The winners of the 190-hectare “Erding Air Base” urban development and landscape planning competition have now been announced. Read all about the project here.

Just a stone’s throw away from today’s Munich Airport, the approximately two and a half kilometer long runway of the air base has shaped the Erdingen skyline since 1935. During the Second World War, the Wehrmacht used the quickly built airfield as a hub for military supplies all the way to North Africa. After the end of the war – the airbase and the city center of Erding were now in ruins – the area in the northeast of the ducal city found its new military purpose as “Airfield R.91” under the command of the US Air Force.

Soon after the handover of command, the Erding airbase was once again assigned an important supply task. This time, however, the cargo lists of the transport planes contained neither weapons nor ammunition, but powdered milk, flour and coal. From then on, the raisin bombers took off north from Erding as part of the Berlin Airlift to supply the starving and freezing citizens of the divided city with the essentials.

All drawings: Hähnig | Gemmeke Architects

Traces of this period can still be found in Erding today. An entire housing estate near the air base, built for members of the US military, bears the name of the airlift pilot Leland V. Williams, who crashed his plane in the Taunus Mountains on the way from Frankfurt to Berlin. And so here, in the middle of Erding in Upper Bavaria, there is a district called “Williamsville” that doesn’t sound at all Bavarian.

The military use of Erding Air Base has been history for a few years now. After the facility was handed over to the air force in 1957 and served as a base for supply regiments and various air squadrons in the meantime, the last Tornado took off into the airspace over Erding in 2014. Since then, the runway has only been used by the light aircraft of the Erding Flying Club, which has been based here as part of a civilian shared use since 1968.

The Bundeswehr will close the Erding site in 2024. The approximately 380 hectares of the site will then be converted to civilian use. It is currently the largest contiguous conversion area in Bavaria. Where barbed wire fences and warning signs still stand today, Erding wants to create a completely new district in the future.

The planning area, which is now to be developed according to the plans of architects Hähnig + Gemmeke, covers around 190 hectares, i.e. approximately half of the vacant property. In a planning competition, the submission by the Tübingen office prevailed over nine other proposals. The motto of the design: “firmly anchored – at the navel of the world”. The area is connected to the old town of Erding via its south-western end. Williamsville borders the area to the south. The runway marks the boundary to the north. The design includes a junction station close to the city center in the western area, where S-Bahn and regional train lines meet and from there can cover the long-planned ring route to nearby Munich Airport on a common route.

All drawings: Hähnig | Gemmeke Architekten

According to the plans, an area of small-scale, car-free neighborhoods will span between these boundaries in the future, in which places to shop and work can be reached within short distances from the home. The districts will include communal areas, central parcel stations and mobility centers where residents can park their cars and switch to bicycles. The historical origins of the new Erdinger district should not be forgotten. Character-defining buildings such as the officers’ quarters or the aircraft hangars are to be preserved as witnesses to the past and remind citizens of the former air base.

The property’s rich tree population is likely to have been a particular planning tidbit. Hundreds of them, now 60 or 70 years old, stand here and already form park-like landscapes in parts of the Erdinger Fliegerhorst. The design from Tübingen firstly picks up on this and secondly preserves a large proportion of the existing trees. “Green joints” run the length of the new Erding district, while a green “climate boulevard” stretches across its width. The green corridors are complemented by spacious meadows and park areas to the north of the core area.

When it is finished, the new Erding district will offer high-quality living space for up to 3,500 people. However, it will be decades before the last building is completed.

You can find more information on the conversion of the Erding airbase in the brochure on the Erding airbase planning competition and at Hähnig + Gemmeke.

Interested in other current competition results? Click here to find out which design the jury selected as the winner of the expert opinion process for the forecourt of the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery.