К типологии советского типового домостроения

From Outer Envelope to Interior Space

Facades must solve many tasks at once. Not only do they give buildings a face and character, they must assert themselves in the cityscape and fit into the surroundings. They keep out rain, wind and cold, while protecting against heat and direct sun. The outer shell is also decisive for interiors. It contributes to a pleasant indoor climate, directs our gaze outwards through its openings, controls the entry of natural light, and contributes to our well-ventilated wellbeing with a balcony, terrace or loggia.

For our May issue, Julia Liese compiled extraordinary examples of facades on new buildings in places such as Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid and Seoul, showing a variety of ways architects are designing buildings that fit into the urban context and respond to climatic or functional conditions – as residential towers, town halls, sports halls or office buildings.

In Nordhavn, Copenhagen, the shimmering metal facade of The Silo residential building breaks into glittering fragments that reflect on the water’s surface. Our documentation of this project shows the clever way in which Danish architectural firm Cobe covered an existing concrete silo with a new curtain wall facade in the course of its conversion, with detailed photos, plans and construction details. This is complemented by our essay which presents current examples of metal facades with very different functions. Author Roland Pawlitschko looks at unusual and even radical solutions that respond in a variety of ways to specific requirements while ensuring translucency and transparency.

Technology is another aspect of the facade, and a lot has happened in this realm in recent years. In our technology feature Rob Nijsse, Vincent Kersten and Ronald Wenting take a closer look at facades used in OMA projects. They examine the structural importance of corrugated glass as a facade material, and explain the technical details involved in the development of these outer shells.

In this issue you will also find the special green section. Jakob Schoof presents a selection of projects with successful plus energy concepts.

Sandra Hofmeister

Whether they are hiding and playing games or learning, chatting and relaxing, children and young people love exploring new places and interpreting them according to their mood. They are masters in the appropriation of space and experts in their surroundings. Berlin-based architecture firm Die Baupiloten works with this unfiltered knowledge. In an ­interview practice founder Susanne Hofmann explains how real-life architecture emerges from the discussion of atmospheric qualities and seemingly utopian wishful thinking and looks at what contributes to the success of participatory design processes (page 56). ­Integration and identification are key concepts in day care centres and schools. In addition to creative opportunities for development, current pedagogical approaches concentrate on promoting greater autonomy and the acquisition of social skills. The influence of these trends on interior design is the focus of this ­issue dedicated to the theme of ‘Playing and Learning’.

We take a look at the memorable colour scheme of a special school in Ghent (page 26), we show how a meandering shelf structure becomes an integral part of a Madrid language school’s spatial design (page 38) and we visit the play and learning environment of an Austrian kindergarten (page 32).

On the Great Stage

Approximately one year ago, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg opened its doors for the first time. With the advent of this new landmark on the River Elbe in North Germany, one registers an increase in the general esteem for stage structures. Nowadays their cultural significance is no longer called in question; it is appreciated instead. In the public perception, buildings of this kind everywhere have assumed a status that was formerly reserved for museums.

In the March issue of Detail, we present concepts for auditoriums and open-air theatres, congress centres and large opera houses. The one thing they all have in common, of course, is a stage – sometimes larger, sometimes smaller and sometimes even variable in size. The examples we include here, from Swabia to North Jutland, from Canada and China, allow a comparison of typological aspects; for example, questions of access and circulation and the layout of the individual halls. In the two longer “Process” contributions, which describe the Music Forum in Bochum and the Auditorium and Congress Centre in Plasencia, Spain, we investigate concrete issues involving the acoustics and planning.

Stage structures are public places where people gather and feel at home. In Bochum, Bez+Kock Architects have succeeded in reactivating a 19th-century neo-Gothic church for this purpose. And in the Extremadura in Spain, a new auditorium by José Selgas and Lucía Cano has caught the attention of the public for the first time in this context in a remote location where such an audience did not previously exist. These, too, are aspects with which we have been keenly concerned in the editorial team.