2015

HEALTH AND SPA

Dear Readers,

It was a new hospital building that has accompanied me through my entire architectural studies: the Katharinenhospital by Heinle Wischer und Partner in Stuttgart. The reason for this wasn’t because I had been involved in this project, but because one of our structural design professors had asked us as students in the second semester: “Watch the building site!” Since I had to walk past or around it during my studies at Stuttgart University, regardless whether I was on my way home or to the editorial office, where I was also working at that time, I couldn’t avoid seeing it! Nine years passed by between winning the competition in 1984 and the official opening in 1993 – as I recently noticed during my short visit (see the photo)! Back then I already decided that, for me, hospital projects simply take too long and that I would therefore try to avoid being involved in their planning and design! Hospitals are not everybody’s cup of tea, not only because they represent a highly complex planning task, but also because people do not really like to spend time inside them! At least in most cases – and this also applies to medical practices! Nonetheless, we dedicate a whole issue to this project type every year and diligently look for implemented results that are different. The fact that for healthcare buildings the majority of the available funds is already budgeted for the technical and medical equipment and little is left for an appealing interior design and fitout at the end doesn’t make it easier – neither for us nor for planers and patients. However, we still made several finds and have – as always – discovered some “odd” examples! Since this issue is not just about health but also about wellness, we also want to show you three really well-executed indoor swimming pools starting on page 106! From our 39th AITNewsletter@ait-online.de you have probably gathered that we are sending welcome packages with an (interior) architecture book, two AIT issues and a sketching pad to all (interior) architecture freshmen. Inform your friends, children, nephews and nieces, … and send the certificate of enrolment including your address to pstephan@ait-online.de!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

OFFICE BUILDINGS

Dear Readers,

No, the respectable mess – on the left in the photo – is not my desk but a re-staged 1970s office scene. The photo was taken in the Emigration Centre in Bremerhaven by architect and museum operator Andreas Heller! For advocates of the paperless office it is hard to imagine that mountains of paper, files, punchers, stamps, and floral coffee mugs still characterise the appearance of many an office workspace – however, this is certainly still lived reality in many places. Modern office design does, of course, show other options and this is what our current issue on offices and administration is about. “…The ‘normal’ individual office with ‘normal’ working conditions and working hours will definitely continue to exist. Unlike for the often missionary campaigns against the individual office of the last decade, it is crucial that today’s office layouts ensure flexibility and spatial adaptability to the requirements of modern office and knowledgebased work. The requirements focus on the four areas of communication, concentration, cooperation as well as reflection/contemplation, each with different demands on room concepts and furnishings” assert Franz-Gerd Richarz and Bruno Zwingmann in their article “Office Work 4.0” in our Theory rubric (p. 146). We present exceptional office solutions from, amongst others, Cologne, Berlin, Barcelona, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Kiev, and Moscow. The next generation of students, who will start their studies in the winter term in Germany in the next few days, will also have to get used to working at a desk. Here we would like to welcome the future architects and interior designers with the words of Renzo Piano “The architect has the finest job in the world because, on a small planet where everything has already been discovered, designing is still one of the greatest adventures possible.” We are glad that you – like we did – want to take this wonderful, but also demanding professional path. Welcome to the club!!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

RETAIL AND PRESENTATION

Dear Readers,

Does the term Euclid Analytics ring a bell or has a client from the shopfitting field even confronted you with it? Firstly, I‘d like to mention that it comes from the USA and 74 percent of US citizens think it is scary. Actually, this is a very good reason to not consider it any further! However, we want you to be ready for it: “The US start-up Euclid Analytics uses the WLAN function of smartphones to observe and analyse the shopping behaviour of customers in local retail businesses. That way comprehensive statistics are created, comparable to visitor statistics of an online shop by Google Analytics,” reports “dlv–Netzwerk Ladenbau” in its latest publication. In real life, this means for the customer to be greeted by name by the shop assistant after having been identified via one’s smartphone or to receive recommendations for matching products from the digital mirrors in the changing rooms – horrible concept! The fact that so-called push messages on the smartphone inform the customer about special campaigns without one’s approval when entering the store is already state of the art. Is this really what the customer wants and needs when he actually makes the effort to go to a store instead of ordering products online? We think and hope – it’s not! That’s why we didn’t grow tired of collecting the best, most unconventional, funniest, and most inspiring shopfitting concepts for this issue we could find all over the world (starting on page 92). Since fashion items are the second most purchased goods after food, we also looked into this topic. Distributed over the whole issue, you find – marked with the ? symbol – contributions on architecture and fashion. It is very exciting to read what our colleagues are dealing with in this respect: with the design of shoes, catwalks, handbags, clothing, jewellery, showrooms, galleries – through to fashion photography! And since the topic of colour belongs to fashion as much as to shopfitting and trade fair construction, we have also included a special section on this topic (as from page 76), where Prof. Dr. Klaus Jan Philipp explains why white also is a (good) colour. I have yet looked at the Stuttgart Mall The Gerber (photo left), before life will be breathed into him with the new concept Gerber Upstairs (page 11) meanwhile colleague Uwe Bresan met Rem Koolhaas at the Fondazione Prada in Milan (page 120)!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

LIVING

Dear Readers,

the summer of 2015 will stick in our memory as a very hot one – and we will always associate it with the Expo in Milan! Almost every two weeks, another member of our editorial team visited the World Exhibition and every one of us returned with very personal impressions (for example a picture in front of the selfie-mirror in the estonian pavilion). No one had seen all of it and which pavilion was the most successful one could simply not be determined. As from page 20, we have compiled the ones, which impressed us with their architecture and/or their contents – without any claim to completeness. One thing, however, is for sure: a visit to the Expo is worthwhile! You still have the opportunity until 31 October, maybe you can think about a detour on your way to your summer holiday destination! For those who absolutely do not want to visit Italy, we have a completely different recommendation! Timisoara – the third largest city of Romania, where the Romanian revolution began in 1989, is full of architectural and interior design surprises. In his profound and entertaining contribution “A weekend in… Timisoara” (starting on page 56), Rudolf Gräf, co-founder of the Timisoara-based architectural office Vitamin A and Vice-President of the Romanian Chamber of Architects guides you through his adopted home town and illustrates how good life is in this city today. This is also the topic of our comprehensive main section (as from page 100) in our AIT issue on housing. It is out of question that living is very pleasant in the apartment in Turin, the refurbished apartment in Lisbon, the eccentric holiday home in London, the villa in Ljubljana, the stacked up loft in Stuttgart or the converted barn in Gerswald. The common feature of all of them: unusual conditions require unusual solutions and provide a plethora of stimulations for your residential projects. Good (interior) architecture is also achieved when incorporating good products – our product focus starting on page 84 highlights innovative solutions in the fields of switches and door communication systems and provides ideas for kitchen designs. The latest news from the luminaire industry – the highlights of the Lighting Fair Euroluce – can be discovered as from page 28. Interior designer Heiko Gruber visited the trade fair with us and commented on his favourite products!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

Bar Hotel Restaurant

Unfortunately out of print

Dear Readers,

Have I already mentioned that the AIT issue on gastronomy published every June is our favourite magazine? There is such an incredible number of imaginative, exciting and courageous concepts for restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels that it is always really difficult for us to draw up a shortlist. Nonetheless, we managed to do so once again and show you almost 40! catering businesses that could not be more different. We omitted anything mainstream and selected projects, which ooze imaginativeness and exceptional concepts: you will find everything from luxury holiday destination to peculiar cafés and trendy restaurants through to well-designed (they actually exist!) university canteens and hostels. We even present a hotel on fire, from which our columnist Benjamin Reding thankfully managed to escape! You find his exciting essay “Free Hugs” on page 70. It is an open secret that (interior) architects have a special relationship to the subject of catering, which means that they not only like to work on such projects or spend many hours in the completed ones, but occasionally one might even become a restaurateur. So it is easily comprehensible that an architect turns to the topic of wine. Although Marc Nagel from Stuttgart studied architecture, he could not be discouraged from cultivating his own vineyard and assumed the management of the vintners’ cooperative, Bad Cannstatter Weingärtner. In our heading “Change of Perspective” starting on page 54, he explains how this came about. If architects are asked what they always wanted to design, the answer often is: a hotel. Maybe you are in the fortunate position – then our report on the Milan Furniture Fair (page 24) can give you current suggestions for interior furnishings, whilst our product focus on outdoor furniture (page 74) provides latest information about furnishing products for outdoor areas. If you think we have had the opportunity to visit all the fantastic projects in Toronto, Shanghai, Mexico or Vietnam – far from it! At least we made it to Andermatt, Ostfildern-Nellingen and Stuttgart: The picture alongside was taken late at night in the Vietnamese restaurant Breitengrad 7 (page 38) in Stuttgart’s Schwabenzentrum. Our colleague Annette Weckesser travelled a little further: at the Expo in Milan she (also) took a closer look at the German Pavilion!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

PUBLIC BUILDINGS

Dear Readers,

when architecture editors travel they cannot help but make frequent detours to architecturally interesting places and interiors! That’s easily done when visiting churches, since they are mostly open to interested visitors as, for example, the “Pfarrkirche zu unserer lieben Frau”. The most significant Gothic church building in Bamberg (image on the left) is the appropriate introduction to this issue’s topic of “Public Buildings“ – you will find more church projects in this journal. The selected kindergartens, schools, universities, art museums, theatres, and concert halls in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Australia also represent an impressive cross-section of current, culture communicating interiors. Hardly any other building assignment has the huge responsibility to not only provide a protecting room for the users but also create an emotionalising envelope, which perfectly supports the educational content to be conveyed. From an early age through to adulthood there is the possibility to acquire both cultural knowledge and design competence. The budget required for this purpose is, however, not always available. In our article “Klasse Schule” (page 130), we use five exemplary school buildings in Africa, Asia and Latin America to illustrate that exciting learning venues can indeed be implemented with limited means but numerous good ideas. If there are the necessary funds, one can resort to many well-designed products for the very young ones. Our main topic of “Children’s Furniture” (page 72) features many convincing examples! Salone del Mobile in Milan, on the contrary, offered countless stimulations for design-oriented adults last April. After the cold of the Easter holidays, the bright sunshine in Italy’s design capital provided exactly the right ambience for a visit to the trade fair during the
day and inspiring events in the nearby showrooms of renowned manufactures in the evening. Long days and short nights was the motto for all media representatives, but in return, my colleague Uwe Bresan and I (image at the bottom) have found many new solutions and exciting news regarding furniture and luminaire design. After careful selection, we will show the highlights in the next AIT issue, which will be published in early June. For now, we wish you an enjoyable read of the current May issue!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

BANKS AND AUTHORITY BUILDINGS

Dear Readers,

Sometimes, you already have to think of the projects of tomorrow and beyond and dare to take a look over the construction site fence: A regional state bank has a new building constructed at the Domshof in Bremen. After demolishing the old building, construction works behind the listed façade of the bank’s original building at the cathedral square are in full swing. Until summer 2016, a bank building will be completed here (according to the design by Zurich-based architect Caruso St John), which will enrich the historic environment between the town hall (also see page 140) and the cathedral, whilst also allowing modern banking operations. We are looking forward to see the result! If the interiors are successful, we will present them to you in AIT 12/16, our next issue focusing on bank buildings. However, we are still in the here and now – in 2015. For the last issue of this year, we have taken great pains to compile a variety of remarkable bank and authority buildings – in line with the theme of this issue – and pre-Christmassy news. Although latest political events could indeed contribute to encouraging fear and mistrust of anything foreign, we would like to use our articles “Welcome!“ (starting on page 10) and “Charity” (starting on page 24) to present projects by colleagues, which have the opposite effect and demonstrate that sensible and good things can be done in various ways. (Financial) supporters are welcome everywhere! For those lacking ideas for tangible architectural Christmas gifts we provide a remedy, too. On page 169, you find oddities and scurrilities for and from (interior) architects! Or do you prefer a travel voucher? Before you start flirting with the idea of participating in a watercolour course in Tuscany, read the declaration of love of Icelandic architect Soffia Valtýsdóttir to her home city of Reykjavik (page 60)! A perfect winter’s tale! Speaking of reading: What happened to our author Dominik Reding at the registry office is almost unbelievable – but very entertaining (page 72)! We wish you an equally enjoyable (pre-)Christmas Season and a relaxed New Year!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

RETAIL AND PRESENTATION

Unfortunately out of print

Dear Readers,

Hardly a day goes by without the local press having to bewail the closing down of a retail store – major cities as well as small towns are affected by the decline in stores. As a rule, online trading and large-scale shopping malls are held responsible for this. Nonetheless, the German Retail Association (Handels-verband Deutsch¬land – HDE) instilled a little sense of optimism amongst its members earlier this year: at the press conference on 30th January, HDE Chief Executive Office Stefan Genth forecasted an increase in turnover of 1.5 percent for 2015 and thus “…a slight growth in sales in the German retail sector for the sixth consecutive year.” However, inner-city locations are still on a drip-feed. According to a survey conducted by the Institute for Retail Research (Institut für Handelsforschung) in Cologne, meanwhile every fifth consumer buys less in city centres. The frequently invoked shop hours shall do the trick. Federal states and municipalities were required to make use of legal latitudes, HDE demanded. Those retailers who do not want to wait for such action do well to analyse their customer structure and work out new concepts. Here, architects and interior designers can help and effectively turn fresh ideas into attractive shopping experiences. We have chosen several inspiring examples from countless implemented shopfitting projects all over the world and present them to you in this shopfitting issue. Patisseries, boutiques, flagship stores, malls, market halls or shopping centres – in Belo Horizonte, Montreal, New York, Istanbul, Mallorca, Munich, Frankfurt or Stutt¬gart – they are all distinguished by a high level of design quality and an intelligent concept. Perfect examples and most warmly recommended as an interesting read: Shopping City in Bad Münstereifel (page 130) and the Open Space Project in Cologne (from page 138 onwards). What our columnists, the Reding Brothers, came up with on the topic of shopping page 64), is – as always – not only very entertaining, it is movingly real.

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

LIVING

Unfortunately out of print

Dear Readers,

have you also told yourself to take it a little easier in the New Year? In the first weeks we already had to lower our sights in this respect and have managed a real trade fair hopping between Frankfurt, Hanover, Cologne, and Munich! Before that we already raised our glasses on the 125th anniversary of our foundation. On 10 January 1890, Alexander Koch, the founder of our publishing house of the same name, brought the first issue of ‘Innen-Dekoration’, the forerunner of AIT, to the market. The guide on home furnishing quickly evolved into a guideline for all questions of taste and style in modern life. In subsequent years, Koch committed himself as a successful publisher and exhibition organiser, and in 1898 he laid the foundation for the construction of the
famous artists’ colony at the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. Until his death in 1939, Alexander Koch was to be found wherever the new time presented itself in a new form. The first post-war issue – after a two years time-out due to the war – was published in 1946 under the tile “Architektur und Wohnform”. Koch’s son, Alexander Koch junior, not only adapted the title, he also adapted the content to the requirements of the postwar period: the reports focused on cost-efficient small houses and their furni shing. Thanks to numerous contributions by foreign correspondents, the journal soon lived up to the successes of the pre-war period. In 1971, the title “Architektur und Wohnform” was changed to “Architektur und Wohnwelt“ when the publishing house was sold to the Weinbrenner Family. The subtitle “Zeitschrift für Architektur, Innen architektur und Technischer Ausbau” finally became the current title “AIT” in 1980! And still today we do report – as in this issue – on remarkable small and large residen ces from Germany and abroad however expanded the range of topics from home interiors to current building tasks such as offices, shopfitting and trade fair construction, public buildings, restaurants, healthcare buildings as well as banks and authorities. After 123 years of appearance fresher and more topical than ever! This is verified by numerous awards and a large and loyal readership! This will continue to be our obligation and incentive in the future – we already work on specials for the 125th anniversary of foundation.

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect

OFFICE BUILDINGS

Dear Readers,

Right now you are probably where 18 million Germans spend a majority of their lifetime – in your office! As many people as never before – about one quarter of the total population – practise a job between computer screen, desk and swivel chair. Depending on the range of duties, this job is more or less inspiring, specified in varying degrees or simply functional. In many offices you can see what is happening inside: whether the user is doing administrative work, develops ideas or exercises power! For this office issue, our AIT columnists, Dominik and Benjamin Reding, visited eight influential office users and took a curious look at their working environment. The workplaces of politician Claudia Roth, Bishop Markus Dröge, entrepreneur Christian Boros, Foundation President Hermann Parzinger, artistic director Dagmar Reim, editor-in-chief Lorenz Maroldt, theatre maker Friedrich Barner and ambassador Tim Guldimann could hardly be any more different. Under the title of “How power works.” You can expect an – as always brilliantly and hilariously worded – insight into these personal control centres! Claudia Roth is already looking forward to the publication, her press office informed us! Another person who can be delighted is AIT reader Dr. Konstantin Knecht, architect from Stuttgart and participant in our contest related to the Reding essay in AIT 1-2/15 (p. 60). His vote for the housing scenario of bookkeeper Peter K. described by Benjamin Reding was drawn from numerous entries, and in the next few days, Dr. Knecht will receive an original issue of “Innen-Dekoration” dating from Mai 1930 by post! In this issue, we can also announce another competition result in our own account: every year we ask our readers which AIT cover they liked best – no, it´s not the AIT-issue, which ambassador Tim Guldimann (see photograph below) browsed through! On page 14 you can find out which one it is and if you have, participation provided, won one of numerous architectural book prizes. In case you also want to know, which wall colour (photo on the left) has inspired and motivated me for the last 13 years at my workplace – it is Rouge Rubis by Polychromie Le Corbusier – and it still does! Good work!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect