Münster City Library

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Cultural
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Münster
YEAR: 1993
COMPETITION: 1987, First Prize
CLIENT: City of Münster
COLLABORATOR: Harms & Partner (in realization phase)
AWARDS: Mies van der Rohe Award 1995, Nomination
German Architecture Award 1995, Commendation
PHOTOS: © Christian Richters, Julia Cawley (update 2010)

The Münster Library was BOLLES+WILSON’s first major public commission. After more than ten years it remains near the top of Germany’s ‘library-user-ranking-list’. A verification not only of functionality but also of the attention to detail, to spatial multiplicity and to the ambience and atmosphere within.

The complexities of the overall building form are derived from internal organisation and from a careful re-constitution of the fragmented context. A new pedestrian street on the axis of the nearby Lamberti Church divides the not inconsiderable mass of the Library. This fissure in the library volume is closed with folded screens (copper outside, acoustically absorbing perforated wood panels within).

A transparent entrance zone (café, newspaper salon) leads via an information supermarket to the main information desk on the connecting bridge. This in turn is adjacent to book stacks in the ship-like outer volume. The atmosphere is quiet, studious. Books line the outer curved wall, a dramatic stair leads down through a 22 m void to the basement media library, which connects in turn to the courtyard facing children’s library and back up to the entrance zone. Up to four thousand users enter the Münster Library on one day.

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Münster City Library – Update 2010
With a newly painted facade and new automatic check out and 24-hour return automat the Münster City Library in its 18th year remains near the top of the German public library ranking list.

Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Exterior, main entrance, Eingang
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Exterior
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Exterior, Christian Richters
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Julia Cawley, Interior
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Christian Richters, Interior
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Julia Cawley, Exterior, Buchrückgabe
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Interior, meeting room
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Christian Richters, Interior
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Christian Richters, Interior
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, plan, Grundriss, 1. Etage, 1st floor
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, plan, Grundriss, 1. Etage, 1st floor
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Exterior, elevation, Ansicht, Fassade
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Exterior, section, schnitt
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Exterior, section, schnitt
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Exterior, isometry, isometrie
Stadtbücherei Münster, City Library, Isometrie, Exterior
U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, Olaf Mahlstedt

U Boat Hall

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Retail
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Hannover
YEAR: 2012
CLIENT: RS Möbelhandelsgesellschaft mbH
PHOTOS: © Olaf Mahlstedt

LOCKED IN SERVITUDE THE DRAMA OF A BUILDING’S MAKING REMAINS HIDDEN: (Louis Kahn)

There is today an enormous potential in the re-scripting of grand industrial spaces, survivors from an epoch that had less trouble expressing itself and its mechanical or technical potency than our current mean and exploitative ‘global shopping-centre-culture’.

One thinks of São Paulo’s Fábrica da Pompéia by Lina Bo Bardi, London’s Tate Bankside, or the Zollverein Coal Mine in Essen, Germany.

This was our first reaction as our client drove his black Porsche into the rusting cathedral of Hannover’s ‘U-boat Hall’. Was it a panic reaction at the end of WW II to build a submarine production space so far from the North Sea? The structure of the hall had in fact been originally designed for a U-boat production site of a naval dockyard in Wilhelmshaven. As it turned out the enigmatically named ‘U-boat Hall’ was only finished in 1944 and was thus not used for armament production.

Now sliced like salami the ‘Industrial Heritage Structure’ is to house various commercial outlets – a mega Bicycle Emporium where racing bikes can be tested in the shop or this landscape of coloured furniture.

This is in fact two shops; RS (wholesome wood) and Yellow (sub-designer). BOLLES+WILSON have already realized their flagship store in Münster and the HQ Building, a rooftop lake above a ‘big box’ two-floor warehouse/distribution centre.

For the ‘U-boat Hall’ the rent was based on the square meters of the hall’s floor. The architectural question was how to maximize this floor area with a selling landscape and a back of house warehouse for customers to pick up their new sofa / table / lamp.

The magnificent scale of rusting columns, elevated crane track and skylight box, resist the invasion of domestic equipment, relegating it to the status of ‘a carpet of coloured pixels’ spread across the selling decks.

U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, Olaf Mahlstedt
U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, Olaf Mahlstedt
U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, modell
U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, Olaf Mahlstedt
U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, Olaf Mahlstedt
U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, Olaf Mahlstedt
U-boot, U boat hall, Hannover, yellow, Olaf Mahlstedt
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, Rainer mader

Kaldewei Entrance

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Office

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Ahlen

YEAR: 2007

COMPETITION: –

GFA: 550 m2

CLIENT: Franz Kaldewei GmbH & Co. KG

PHOTOS: © Rainer Mader, Christian Richters

The small ‘signalising’ pavilion re-focuses and re-orients the visitors entrance to the main Kaldewei production plant. The pavilion stands like a bookend in relation to the original 1930s Works Facade of the leading manufacturer of enamel steel bathtubs. It connects to new reception spaces within the existing structure and to a planned administration wing.

The mass of the stone-clad volume projects acrobatically. Structural dexterity is not the issue, mass is here co-opted as a silent, announcing presence. The lobby behind is carved out of the existing volume. Meeting rooms hover above the entrance, the white stone of the new facade extends inwards as lobby floor and wall material. A steel spiral stair stands centre-stage and backlit by a dematerialised ‘Light Wall’. After the spatial expansion of the lobby, lower ceilings and an emphasized materiality of wood panels introduce a contrasting intimacy. The ‘Actor Stair’ leads the visitor through a short but complex spatial sequence. The spatial and material language here is closely related to that of BOLLES+WILSONs first Kaldewei building. – the nearby KKC (Competence Centre) 2003-2005.

Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, christian Richters
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, plan, Lageplan
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, christian richters
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, christian richters
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, treppe, foto, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, treppe, foto, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, treppe, foto, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, plan florrplan, section
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, sketch, Skizze, Peter Wilson, drawing
Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition

Mittelhafen

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Competition / Office

COUNTRY: German

CITY: Münster

YEAR: 2020

COMPETITION: Close competition, 3rd Prize

GFA: 12.740 sqm

CLIENT: Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe

Both the property side facing the city port and the street side to “Am Mittelhafen” require representative façades. Therefor a building in the north-south axis is required, which fills the property over the entire length. The two narrow views speak a suitably dignified language – to the waterfront through an invigorating silhouette that adds a building with personality to the row of existing office buildings. The opposite side facing the street is emphasized by an expressive façade – in contrast to the buildings in the immediate vicinity, which do not have such a concise address. This gives the quarter a much needed “urban flair”.

Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition_Elevation_Ansicht
Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition
Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition_Elevation_Ansicht
Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition_Plan_Grundriss
Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition_Plan_Grundriss
Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition_Section_Schnitt
Mittehafen_Munster_Aerzteversorgung_Competition
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters

City Library Helmond

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Cultural

COUNTRY: The Netherlands

CITY: Helmond

YEAR: 2010

COMPETITION: 2006, First Prize

GFA: 5.630 sqm

CKIENT: City of Helmond

COLLABORATOR: Vrencken Hoen Architecten

AWARD: Fritz Hoeger Preis 2014, Winner Special Mention

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

Like most Dutch cities Helmond is busy reinventing itself. The new City Library, which officially opens in October 2010, is the first component of a comprehensive new inner city shopping zone (masterplan: Prof. Joan Busquets). Directly adjacent to the new library are the 1970’s Tree Houses and Theatre by Piet Blom. Here the new library facade is moulded and sloped in dialogue with its dramatic neighbour. A between space, a block internal café terrace, a comfortable and dramatic extension of the existing enclosed Theatre Square is the result of this spatial symbiosis.
The outer, street-facing facade is the representative face and entrance of the new library. Upper level projections mark the extremities, brackets (ears) carrying large-format ‘Bibliotheek’ letters. A horizontal facade articulation differentiates ground level shops from glazed and setback first floor (Children’s Library) and the brick surface of the upper office level.

A careful detailing and material choice for external surfaces provides a ‘tactility’ fitting to the historic Helmond city centre. Rough dark brown and unusually horizontal bricks (Hilversum format 50 x 290 mm) on upper levels have open vertical joints and a beige horizontal mortar joint, stressing the layered grain of the brickwork. In contrast the base is in a flat beige brick (in 3 different heights – 50, 100, 140 mm). These are not laid in mortar, but glued together – resulting in a stone-like solidity and homogeneity.

The internal spaces of the library are developed as an unfolding spatial sequence. Much of the ground floor is given over to retail. Entry is from both sides – via a generous double height entrance hall to the street side and via the more intimate café and event corner facing the Theatre Court. The upward sequence is announced by a grand stair, which arrives at a first floor exhibition deck and the ‘piano nobile’ of the library. Here information stations, bookshelves and children / teenager zones are arranged around a central media Hot Spot: precisely circular, a Chinese-red sandwich. The Hot Spot offers the digital latest. The route continues upward concluding in the light-filled upper level with a long working bench integrated in the long ‘tree house-facing’ window.

BOLLES+WILSON’s commission also included furniture and lighting elements, the choreographing of atmosphere and character. Lanterns in the foyer, a newspaper reading table, a striped and upholstered café bench seat with Scandinavian lighting, information counters and a group study room with fragments of a 1950’s mural mounted on the wall, are among the long list of localised detail. The philosophy is one of multiplicity, a user-friendly comfort already much appreciated by librarians and reading Helmonders.

City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Photo_Foto_Christian Richters
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Sketch_Skizze
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Siteplan_Lageplan
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Section_Schnitt
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Plan_Grundriss
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Plan_Lageplan
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Plan_Grundriss
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Lamps_Lampen
City Library_Stadtbuecherei_Helmond_Sketch_Skizze