Facades: The Baumeister in April 2024

Building design
Cover photo: Stijn Bollaert

Cover photo: Stijn Bollaert

As every year, we highlight the latest, architecturally most exciting façade solutions and show, among other things, variants using recycled materials, exposed concrete and ceramics. We also focus on the preservation of existing buildings and present the resource-saving renovation of 1960s and 1970s façades.

Anyone who knows Baumeister knows our passion for the building envelope. Once a year, we focus on a particular aspect of the façade. Nowadays, however, the façade can no longer be viewed in isolation from its context. The interplay of our modern building envelopes with insulation, technology and the rapidly changing demands for circular and sustainable implementation often presents architects with very special challenges. For this reason, façade planners are increasingly being employed to take care of the sometimes very complex detailed planning of the design drafts.

Design is the keyword. The façade has to make a statement. A surprising and bold façade not only shapes the image of the building, but also that of an entire district. Added to this are the demands of clients and not least the architects themselves when it comes to the design of the outer shell.

In this Baumeister, we try to reconcile many of these aspects. It’s not just about the one or other new building, but very much about existing buildings and really exciting projects with beautiful and occasionally somewhat spooky façades. But they all have one thing in common: they are really courageous. We need this courage more than ever in today’s world. All the crises currently affecting us in the architecture and construction industry can otherwise quickly take your breath away.

With Baumeister, we want to focus on the positive every month and surprise you, dear readers, with exciting, new and, above all, innovative projects and implementations.

In this issue, we hope to succeed in doing just that. We present projects from Berlin, Munich, Basel and Nuremberg, among others, and show how façade elements were cleaned in a complex but completely circular manner within the building itself so that they did not have to be moved back and forth for cleaning and processing. In addition to many other topics, we also look at three-dimensional façades that play with light and façades that react to the sun in particular.

I hope you enjoy this issue. I am proud and pleased that we have been able to talk and work with so many great architects in the course of this issue. As always, please feel free to contact me with any feedback. I look forward to your encouragement, but of course also to your criticism.

The magazine is available here in the store!

Our latest issue is all about the island of Mallorca. Read more about it here!

POTREBBE INTERESSARTI ANCHE

As the population increases, so does the density stress in Swiss cities and conurbations. At the same time, outdoor recreation and sport are becoming more important. A 2014 publication on the greater Zurich area provides examples of how existing green spaces can be made more accessible. Pieter Poldervaart analyzes the results in the December issue of G+L. The study Freiraumnetz Zürich can be […]

As the population increases, so does the density stress in Swiss cities and conurbations. At the same time, outdoor recreation and sport are becoming more important. A 2014 publication on the greater Zurich area provides examples of how existing green spaces can be made more accessible. Pieter Poldervaart analyzes the results in the December issue of G+L. You can download the Freiraumnetz Zürich study here.

8.42 million people lived in Switzerland in 2017, compared to 7.08 million or 19 percent fewer twenty years ago. In the past, this annual growth of one percent and the increasing demand for living space per capita was accompanied by a partly unchecked urban sprawl. Greater Zurich is particularly affected by the rapid growth in the resident population. Three million people live in the perimeter defined as the Zurich metropolitan area, which includes not only the canton of Zurich but also numerous municipalities in neighboring cantons and even in neighboring southern Germany.

Forecasts suggest that 30,000 people per year will continue to move to Switzerland’s economic center. In addition to housing and jobs, these people also need recreational space. In 2014, the Zurich Metropolitan Area Association therefore published an outline that shows the way to a “settlement-related open space network” – as the title suggests. In addition to describing the problem, the guide aims to show how existing recreational areas can be upgraded and new ones created and how planning is possible across municipal and cantonal boundaries. You can download the study here.

You can read the full article in G+L 12/18.

One brick prize, many awards

Building design
Main prizewinner of the German Brick Award 2019

City library

German Brick Award 2019 presented – one prize, many awards for exemplary energy projects

The results of the German Brick Award 2019 were announced on February 1: 120 submissions of exemplary energy-efficient brick projects from all over Germany made the decision difficult for the jury, chaired by Piero Bruno from the Berlin office of Bruno Fioretti Marquez. The high design quality ultimately led to a large number of awards – two main prizes, six special prizes in various categories and eight commendations.

The main prize for monolithic construction was deservedly awarded to Harris + Kurrle Architekten from Stuttgart for the municipal library in Rottenburg am Neckar. The jury praised “the sensitive positioning of the remarkable new building as a communicative and contemplative place in the fabric of the city”. It also praised the public building for its skillful, creative use of monolithic exterior wall constructions made of highly insulating bricks.

An extension

The main prize for multi-shell construction went to the remarkable extension to the Philosophy Department of the University of Münster by Peter Böhm Architekten from Cologne. “The building, modestly described as a ‘shelf wall’, cleverly incorporates the existing listed building and forms an attractive façade opposite the historic Fürstenberghaus,” said the jury. “In this case, the haptic brick becomes synonymous with sensual appeal and a cleverly reduced, ornamental appearance.”

A special prize for energy efficiency

Several special prizes were also awarded, including one for “Cost-effective, energy-efficient multi-storey residential construction”. This was won by the Ulm-based firm Braunger Wörtz Architekten with their project at Vorwerkstrasse 23/1 in Neu-Ulm. The new building for the Neu-Ulm housing association (NUWOG) comprises 31 publicly subsidized, barrier-free rental apartments in a six-storey building and is designed as a KfW Efficiency House 70. The jury: “The uncomplicated design with monolithic brick exterior walls, which are finished with a white cement scratch coat that does not require painting, guarantees this residential building a low-maintenance, long life.”

Awarded by: Ziegelzentrum Süd e.V. in cooperation with the
Federal Ministry of the Interior
www.ziegel.com

The exhibition can be seen until February 15, 2019 at the Haus der Architektur, Waisenhausstraße 4 in Munich. It will then travel to various universities.

Photos: Roland Halbe; Lukas Roth; Erich Spahn