Page 99 - AIT1223_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Bez + Kock Architekten, Stuttgart
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Grundriss 2. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +2
Bauherr • Client Gemeinde Holzwickede
Standort • Location Allee 5, Holzwickede
Nutzfläche • Floor space 5503 m 2
Fotos • Photos Brigida González, Stuttgart
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 126
TOWN HALL
IN HOLZWICKEDE
Built in the year 1915, the town hall in Holzwickede, North
Rhine-Westphalia, was not only extensively renovated
and restructured. The extension allowed the available
space to be increased to such an extent that all functional
areas could finally be accommodated. Bez + Kock Archi-
tekten also ensured that the meanwhile lost atmospheric
qualities of the old building could be experienced again.
T he town hall in Holzwickede listed as a monument had long since
run out of space. Several functions had to be relocated to other
premises which, unfortunately, were scattered around the town. Thanks
to the newly designed extension, they have now been centralized again.
These days, there is plenty of space: an additional 3,500 square metres
have been added to the almost 2,000 square metres of gross floor space
in the historic building. The conversion project, which has reached com-
pletion this spring, was the result of a competition that had been held
in 2017 and which was won by Bez + Kock Architekten. At the time, the
jury was impressed by their proposal to add a three-storey, L-shaped
volume to the old building, which encloses the existing building on two
sides but, at the same time, successfully blends into the overall situation
as a restrained structure. The competition design did not promise too
much: the built result shows how the venerable old building remains
recognizable as a solitary structure and becomes part of a larger whole.
Its centrepiece is a central foyer: the old and new parts of the town
hall are positioned around a covered inner courtyard. Skylights with
sculpturally modelled walls provide an attractive incidence of daylight.
The inviting atmosphere created in this way is important, as the foyer
serves as a citizens’ hall, contact point for the citizens’ service, central
communication point and also as a kind of museum hall in which the
historic town hall itself is exhibited. The clinker brick façades of the
new building communicate with the colours of the old building. Oak
wood complements the deliberately simple range of materials chosen
for the annex. A glazed entrance area elegantly mediates between the
two parts of the building. The question of access was cleverly solved: a
new open staircase in the hall provides an attractive meeting place. The
once dead-end corridors of the historic town hall were opened up and
extended. The result is a circular access system that fulfils both functio-
nal and aesthetic tasks. Today, employees and visitors can move from
new to old and vice versa on several levels, experiencing the historical
details from completely new angles and an unusual proximity.
AIT 12.2023 • 099