OFFICE BUILDINGS

Dear Readers,

This issue on Public Buildings is about the three Cs: No, we do not mean the disrespectful alliteration children, cooking, church used in the 1970s to describe the social role of women according to conservative values! The variation children, church, culture fits our project selection perfectly. As regards children, we feature remarkable day-care centres, kindergartens, schools, a youth traffic school (picture above, p. 90) and universities. Under the title The future is now! (from p. 110) gernot schulz : architektur reflect profoundly on the connection between pedagogy, society and school construction.With the exemplary school refurbishment in Röhrliberg (p. 114), we focus on a highly topical building task, since more and more school buildings constructed as a result of the education boom in the 1970s will have to be refurbished in the next few years. It is no secret that Scandinavian countries, in particular Finland, are way out in front when it comes to education: Quality and appreciation is a good design guideline — not only for the New Nordic School in Helsinki (from p. 68). The pre-school (pp. 118 ff.) in the Dominican Republic (!) was actually developed on the Finnish model. You can experience the trend-setting Finnish design parameters for yourself when staying at Alva Aalto’s town hall in Säynätsalo. Architecture journalist Hendrik Bohle has lived in this icon for some time and expresses his enthusiasm from page 34 onwards. From there, a detour to Vantaa would be worthwhile to visit the impressive church by OOPEAA (starting on p. 104). Not quite as far away is Tirschenreuth, where the Brückner brothers have created a gem of a wayside chapel (from p. 108), and we encourage you to visit Gottfried Böhm’s Mariendom in Neviges (p. 122). The interiors of the Three … Monasteries (pp. 38 ff.), however, can only be visited in this issue. Regarding culture, we have a Netflix tip: the film Oi!Warning by our essayists Dominik and Benjamin Reding is available for viewing, and they prove their expertise in cinemas from page 50 onwards. Karsten Ermann takes a look into the future in his master’s thesis The Portal (pp. 44 ff.) and develops a mixed reality concept for exhibitions and museums. And the fact that two Hölderlin anniversaries are being accompanied architecturally this year is pure culture!

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