When you hear that Auer + Weber are building for the European Southern Observatory ESO, James Bond comes to mind. The firm had already built for ESO once before – in the Chilean Atacama Desert. The building exploded in the Bond film “Quantum of Solace”.

When you hear that Auer + Weber are building for the European Southern Observatory ESO, a cinematic association immediately springs to mind: that of James Bond. The office had already built a flat, square building for the ESO in the Chilean Atacama Desert. The building-turned-chameleon made of rust-red exposed concrete was the scene of an impressive explosion in the Bond film “Quantum of Solace”. It has, quite literally, burned itself in. Now Auer + Weber have once again built for the European Southern Observatory, albeit not in an extraterrestrial-looking desert 2600 meters above sea level, but in Garching near Munich. Things are less cinematic there.

Garching is something like the Silicon Valley of Upper Bavaria. It’s not just the Technical University of Munich that has relocated its high-tech campus there. Over 50 research institutions and research-related companies have settled on the extensive site. And now the extension to the ESO administration building has just been completed.

The existing building is a composition of circular segments that intersect at split levels. The striking building on the edge of the research site and in the middle of a nature reserve made its architects Fehlinger and Gogel famous beyond Germany’s borders at the time. It is therefore somehow logical that Auer + Weber pursued a completely different design approach here, on the green meadow at the edge of the forest, than in the desert. The extension is based on Fehling and Gogel’s circular grid: The three-part office building and the delivery and assembly hall nestle against the existing building with their concave shape and form a soft, organic transition to the adjacent Garching forest and meadow landscape.

The new building, which is connected to the existing building via a three-part bridge, was raised so that all views open out into the greenery and cars can park at ground level underneath the building. The anthracite-colored façade scales around the round shape of the building and reflects the surrounding park landscape in fragments. In terms of construction, the whole thing works using a complex, suspended bulkhead construction – actually an outdated system for office use. But ESO wanted it that way. The data obtained in Chile with the help of the giant telescope is analyzed in Garching. This is where real research is carried out by real minds, and they need space. The ESO in Garching has no interest in modern open-plan offices. So Auer + Weber planned small cellular offices, a high-tech cartouche with spacious and attractive meeting zones in between.

The ESO nerds obviously like it. Just a few weeks after completion, all the offices are occupied. The employees make themselves at home. The fixed glazing, through which the interior corridor is to be illuminated, has been covered with opaque panels. Pictures, posters, boards and mind maps hang on the walls. People obviously feel at home – there are even musical instruments in the space scientists’ thinking cells. A meeting hall and an auditorium were inserted as two-storey, rectangular components within the outer ring of office cells. The resulting circular segments form an atrium extending across all floors. You might not be able to film a Bond movie here, but it should be enough for a crime scene.

Photos: Roland Halbe

Special guided tour with Antje Horn – project manager of the Grand Tour of Modernism, a Germany-wide project of the Bauhaus Kooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar. Baumeister: How does the concept of the Grand Tour of Modernism work? ANTJE HORN: The heart of the tour is our website (grandtourdermoderne.de). There we show more than 100 places in Germany that represent the history of architecture between 1900 and […]

Special guided tour with Antje Horn – project manager of the Grand Tour of Modernism, a Germany-wide project of the Bauhaus Kooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar.

Baumeister: How does the concept of the Grand Tour der Moderne work?

ANTJE HORN: The heart of the tour is our website (grandtourdermoderne.de). There we show more than 100 places in Germany that represent the history of architecture between 1900 and 2000. The Bauhaus and modernist buildings and objects are displayed both in a list and on a map of Germany. We visualize each location digitally and add the respective construction period, the architect, a short text and a link to the website of the location or the address – provided it is a publicly accessible location.

BM: You present various tours on your website. So it’s not a linear journey with a start and end point?

AH: We only give tips on which places can be combined thematically or in terms of distance. But we don’t offer routes for booking. Our places are curated and selected in advance by a jury. Considering the sheer volume of modern architecture in Germany, this was no easy task. We have tried to include something in every federal state.

BM: Do you recommend a certain approach as to where and how one should start a tour?

AH: I would encourage everyone to check out our website first to find out which modern buildings are in their immediate vicinity. You can discover fascinating buildings in your city, in your region, in your state. Everyone can decide for themselves whether a day trip, a weekend excursion or an educational trip lasting several days is an option. Some places are a little more complicated to get to, but in principle you can always get there by bus, train or bike.

BM: To what extent does the Grand Tour of Modernism support the many other events celebrating the Bauhaus anniversary?

AH: The tour complements the other events in that it represents the big picture and presents, among other things, architecture that was built before the school was founded. We are interested in the development of architecture, the Grand Tour offers a holistic approach. We also have places in our portfolio that are located both in the city and on the outskirts. So you can get out of the cities and discover places that are not on the usual event map.

BM: How did the idea of combining the locations as tour elements come about?

AH: Several federal states have joined together to form the Bauhaus Association in order to work together on the “100 Years of Bauhaus” project. With Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, there are three Bauhaus locations. It therefore made sense to link these locations, as each federal state and each location naturally has an interest in attracting visitors. The Grand Tour was created with other locations from other federal states. And the name implies travel – Grand Tour as an educational tour – which is why we have also worked out different route tips.

BM: The tour includes key buildings, controversial objects and also “unknowns”. Can you give an example of the latter?

AH: I would mention the Haus Rabe in Zwenkau or the Haus Schminke in Löbau, in Hamburg the Tempel Synagogue in Oberstraße – which today houses the Rolf Liebermann Studio of the NDR. Most people, unless they are local enthusiasts, do not have these buildings in mind. Another example are the department store buildings from the 1930s. The Schocken company, two brothers, built the first department stores in Germany – one is still standing in Chemnitz. It’s a great building that now houses a museum. People have seen it once, but the history behind it is mostly unknown to them.

BM: Do you have a favorite route?

AH: Of the buildings in our portfolio, I particularly like the Teepott in Warnemünde, the Masters’ Houses or the Kornhaus in Dessau, the Mies van der Rohe buildings in Krefeld. As a housing project, I find the Rundling in Leipzig very impressive, a property that I was also made aware of as a project manager.

BM: Isn’t this a project that extends beyond the Bauhaus anniversary?

AH: We are making every effort to continue the project through the Bauhaus cooperation. It would be a shame not to. The website will therefore continue to exist and it would be nice to expand the list. I’m sure that many people are even deliberately waiting until after the anniversary year, because for some, as in Dessau, there is still too much hustle and bustle.

You can read the interview in the July 2019 issue.