Dannien Roller Architekten + Partner converted a late classicist residential and commercial building in Tübingen and simultaneously extended it with a single-storey extension. The aim was to create an integrating architecture and a bridge between the present and the past. An insight into the offices showshow the architecture firm now worksin the new building.

The historic residential and commercial building at Pfleghofstrasse 4/1, which was converted by Dannien Roller Architekten + Partner, is located just a few meters from the Neckar and Tübingen’s old town on Schulberg. As an addition and densification measure, a new building with a modern design was also erected on the previously unused garden area at the rear of the building, which clearly stands out architecturally from the existing building.

The architectural firm Dannien Roller Architekten + Partner, which incidentally uses the building ensemble itself as office space, decided on a careful redesign of the old building. It is accessed from Pfleghofstrasse. Here, the base of the building opens up with a window front framed by oiled oak profiles, which also houses the entrance door to the offices behind it. The rooms are designed as open office landscapes, underlining the non-hierarchical approach to workspace organization.

Modern new building creates a link to the historic surroundings

To compensate for the difference in level to the new extension, the floor slab of the old building was partially lowered on the garden side facing Mühlstraße. The single-storey, sculptural new building describes an approximate 90-degree angle and its modern design language clearly differs from the historic building. Despite its simplicity, however, there are also details with which the new building picks up on the historical context in which it stands. The oak-framed windows, for example, can be found here.

Or its rough exterior plaster, whose texture and color refer to the medieval city wall below the garden and the walls of the Pfleghof nearby. In addition, the inner courtyard created by the new building is connected to the footpath on the Schulberg terraces. With this combination of public and private use, the architecture by Dannien Roller Architekten + Partner picks up on a traditionally important element of Tübingen’s urban development.

Economical accents in the interior

Inside the buildings, simplicity and functionality continue to run through the spatial concept. While rough plaster is used in the interior of the old building, the raw load-bearing masonry is still visible in the new building. The architects opted for sand-lime brick because, on the one hand, its good fire protection properties were important, as the requirements in this respect are particularly high in the vicinity of the Pfleghof and the rest of the historic buildings. On the other hand, Dannien Roller Architekten + Partner wanted the building to enter into a dialog with the adjacent natural stone walls with the help of a very coarse, stripped plaster painted in the grain tips. “We certainly had discussions, and a timber construction was also up for debate. But if a building is oriented towards a wall from the outside, then it has to be a corresponding building,” Matthias Roller is convinced.
The fact that the office was serious about the much-vaunted “honesty of the material” becomes even clearer inside: the KS masonry was not plastered, but left largely in its original state – including traces of factory-applied wall section or type designations. “In winter, the shell was scarfed down for moisture reasons, resulting in a very rough surface with colors that are almost reminiscent of marble,” says Maren Dannien. However, it was also clear to her: “If we are going to be this rough, we also need a level of detail that makes it clear that there is a plan behind it!” And so, together with a structural engineer and the bricklayers, not only were wall development plans with a visually appealing bond developed, but also one-centimetre-thick, slightly scraped bed joints in combination with glued butt joints were implemented. This interplay of pronounced straight lines and rough surfaces created a “workshop character”, which is also reflected in the unpolished, merely wing-smoothed through-colored screed.

The architects combined this with sparse accents and splashes of color, such as the bright yellow kitchen counter on the mezzanine floor or the chandelier in the meeting room. Despite the restraint, they lend the interiors a lively overall impression.

Architects: Dannien Roller Architects + Partners

Sand-lime brick: KS-Original, www.ks-original.de

You might also be interested in this: The architectural firm TANK designed a multifunctional building on Rue Castagnary in Paris.

A new year, an old promise: Take a closer look. This time on a material that once turned Europe’s heads – and made the kilns run hot. Porcelain, the “white gold”, is alchemy with evidence: kaolin, feldspar and quartz are transformed into sound, light and an idea of perfection. Between Böttger’s arcanum and series production spans a cultural history that has shaped Meissen, Sèvres, Nymphenburg, Vienna, Herend and Copenhagen – from baroque table dramas and Kaendler’s figures to cool bisque and modernist service forms.

Anyone who restores porcelain is working on a paradox: great hardness and high brittleness in one. Cracks run true and glaze flaking speaks a clear language – the question is how we respond. Bonding must be sustainable and remain reversible; puttying fills volumes without betraying the light refraction of the glaze; retouching respects the age tone and does not compete with it. Leave visible or match? This is not just technique, but ethics. Every intervention is a decision about originality, legibility and time.

At the same time, shards tell their stories: from the Far East’s desire in the 17th century to European manufactory politics and icons that write the history of design and mentality – aquatic fauna from Nymphenburg, bleu de roi from Sèvres and the slender white forms of the classical period. In today’s workshops, microscope and manual memory meet: adhesion tests alongside cold retouching, UV control alongside manual polishing. Restoration here is often precision work in the millimeter range – and a balancing act between material truth and appearance.
This issue takes you through the history of European production, opens up restoration workshops and touches on one or two porcelain icons that have set standards. Our aim is both sober and ambitious: to show how much knowledge, judgment and craftsmanship goes into a perfect cup, a still figure, a smooth flag.
Porcelain is not a luxury of the surface, but a school of precision. There could hardly be a better way to start a happy new year.