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Entwurf • Design Lepel & Lepel Architektur, Köln
„Unser neues Büro lässt uns
die Freiheit für unsere eigene
Identität als Lepel & Lepel.“
Monika und Reinhard Lepel
Ausschnitt Grundriss Dachgeschoss • Detail Attic floor plan
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan Lageplan • Site view
Bauherr • Client Clouth 104, Lepel & Lepel, Köln
Standort • Location Niehler Str. 194, 50733 Köln
Nutzfläche • Floor space 600 m 2
Foto: Bettina Malik
Fotos • Photos H. G. Esch (innen), Jens Kirchner (außen)
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More information on page 150
ARCHITECTURAL OFFICE
IN COLOGNE
The listed façades of the former Clouth rubber factory
in Köln-Nippes offered the perfect platform for Lepel
& Lepel Architektur Innenarchitektur for proving what
the two professions in the team are able to achieve.
Reinhard Lepel designed a four-storey loft building for
commercial and residential purposes, Monika Lepel
designed their own offices on the upper level.
T stands for living together and a common identity right through to
he & in Lepel & Lepel has long developed into an office logo and
structural implementation. For the Clouth 104 project, the architect
Reinhard Lepel was fortunate be the real-estate developer and also the
planner. From 1868 until the closing of the site in 2009, the Clouth rub-
ber plant dominated the Cologne Nippes district. Since 2013, on the
area measuring about 14.5 hectares, 1,100 residential units and about
25,000 square metres of commercial and office spaces are being con-
structed. Clouth 104 is the largest piece of commercial property and, in-
cluding the listed industrial façades, flexibly designable commercial
lofts have been constructed on more than 11,000 square metres. Three
entrances to the inviting courtyard, modern flats and future doctor’s sur-
geries, restaurants and retail enliven the inspiring location. While the
open studio- and loft character with industrial and shell charm charac-
terizes the interior design of the whole building, urban gardens on the
roof areas are designed as shared spaces and produce interiors and ex-
teriors with a high quality of encounters. The generous, flexible loft ar-
chitecture provides open spaces for a kind of working environment cha-
racterized by creative thinking and personal development and the con-
cept of a free plan is also the basis of the new Lepel & Lepel working
world in Clouth 104 which Monika Lepel has developed with her team.
The transparent and open spatial design combines architecture with in-
terior architecture, not only as to the space but also at the relationship
level. The planners’ guiding principle is to strengthen the “&”, to grow
even more together and to make the interdisciplinary cooperation even
easier. The title of her latest publication "Building Relationships" (p. 80)
explains and emphasizes this impressively. Rough and honest, the free
area is contrasted with a solid envelope and architectural structure. The
few walls have been equipped with functions – rich in contrast, the in-
stallations contrast the rough concrete architecture as black cubes and,
besides the spatial structure, have added value as visual usable areas
for creative processes. A true plus!
AIT 4.2020 • 117