Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros

WLV Office Building

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Office

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Münster

YEAR: 1995

COMPETITION: 1992, First prize

GFA: 7.200 sqm

CLIENT: WLV

AWARDS: German Architecture Award 1996, commendation

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

The reflective surface of the ‘dark green glazed’ brick animates a monolithic self-focusing form. An ambiguous surface alternating between the brilliance of the sky or the depths of black shadow. Mass is also the subject, a single building block in the urban fabric. A block further animated by the vectorial trajectory of the adjacent railway which instigates a façade curve and lean. A relatively simple slippage whose justification lies not in its formal but its tectonic resolution. Each brick course slips out one cm from the one supporting it. For the train traveller the WLV building is an event of a few seconds, its deflection perhaps only the effect of speed, its roof perhaps only temporarily hovering.

The three floors and 7.000 sqm of offices house a branch of local government that deals with the administration of psychiatric services. Shops on the ground and rooftop canteen-restaurant complete the sandwich. A specified planning module of 1.625 m results in a deep precast concrete fin on each axis, visible structure in unpainted concrete defining a window zone for heating, cable canals and glare blinds. From inside window frames disappear behind fins, to the south sun screens extend the internal ceiling line beyond the window. Systematised cellular offices are animated by contextual deflexions in the overall plan form, resulting in serpentine office strips, floating service islands, the ‘elastic plan’. Not high but low-tech is here and in the entire building thematizing, the simple, the well made, the long lasting.

Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, plan, ground floor, grundriss, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Christian richters, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, zeichnung, Isometrie, isometry, drawing, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, Modell, model, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, zeichnung, Isometrie, isometry, drawing, sketch, Skizze, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, zeichnung, lageplan, siteplan, site, drawing, Büros
Warendorf Strasse, WLV offices, Münster, muenster, zeichnung, sketch, Skizze, Aquarell, Peter Wilson, Büros
Prison Library_JVA Buecherei_Munster_Collage

Prison Library

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Library

COUNTRY: German

CITY: Münster

YEAR: 2005

GFA: 80 sqm

CLIENT: Justizvollzugsanstalt Münster

AWARDS: Library of the Year Prize (German Library Association + the ZEIT Foundation)

PHOTOS: © BOLLES+WILSON

In 2007 the German Library Association together with the ZEIT Foundation awarded the ‚Library of the Year Prize‘ to the small but significant Prison Library in Münster (concept BOLLES+WILSON, implementation prisoners). The jury praised the exemplary, user-friendly and new interpretation of library functions and the atmosphere, an estranged relative of the nearby City Library (BOLLES+WILSON 1987–93). The single library room, jammed in the ‚armpit‘ between two Panopticon wings is simply furnished with shelves and counters in ‚optimistic‘ wood and friendly colours. Facing mirrors above and adjacent to the shelves multiply the original triangular room into a kaleidoscopic virtual hexagon. The prison in its entirety is optically reduced to a small central pavilion. Reading as transcendence or Borges‘ infinite ‚Library of Babel‘ are the unavoidable message. A leaf motive on ceiling and walls, like the new furniture, is the handwork of the prisoners themselves.

Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Photo_Foto
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Photo_Foto
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Aerial View_Luftbild
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Idee
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Photo_Foto
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Plan_Grundriss
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Mirrors_Spiegel
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Leafs_Blaetter
Prison Library_JVA Bücherei_Munster_Sketch_Skizze

Hotel Urban Loft

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Hotel
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Cologne
YEAR: 2020
GFA: 10.000 sqm
CLIENT: EHBB Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
USER: Althoff Hotels
USE: Hotel with 213 rooms, restaurant, underground parking, 8 apartments
PHOTOS: © Roman Mensing, BOLLES+WILSON

Young creative digital natives arriving at Cologne’s Central Station need now only to duck around the corner to spend time in URBAN LOFT – a new brand by Althoff Hotels. BOLLES+WILSON’s responsibility was the form + language of the building – a textile like street façade (Eigelstein) of warm vertical brick. The former brewery site in one of Cologne’s most traditional neighbourhoods is squashed up against railway tracks. Sound proof windows gaze at the cathedral spires + into the posterior of the station – trains rush past, only 1m from the rear façade. Also at the rear (Am Salzmagazin) stacked apartments watch this urban opera. Following a planners invective a neighbourhood networking is achieved with a passage passing internal terraces + squeezing out in the atmospheric underpass.

hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Peter Wilson drawing, handzeichnung
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
hotel urban loft, Koeln, Köln, Eigelstein, Roman Mensing
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, Rainer mader

Kaldewei Entrance

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Office

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Ahlen

YEAR: 2007

GFA: 550 sqm

CLIENT: Franz Kaldewei GmbH & Co. KG

PHOTOS: © Rainer Mader, Christian Richters

The small ‘signalising’ pavilion re-focuses and re-orients the visitors entrance to the main Kaldewei production plant. The pavilion stands like a bookend in relation to the original 1930s Works Facade of the leading manufacturer of enamel steel bathtubs. It connects to new reception spaces within the existing structure and to a planned administration wing.

The mass of the stone-clad volume projects acrobatically. Structural dexterity is not the issue, mass is here co-opted as a silent, announcing presence. The lobby behind is carved out of the existing volume. Meeting rooms hover above the entrance, the white stone of the new facade extends inwards as lobby floor and wall material. A steel spiral stair stands centre-stage and backlit by a dematerialised ‘Light Wall’. After the spatial expansion of the lobby, lower ceilings and an emphasized materiality of wood panels introduce a contrasting intimacy. The ‘Actor Stair’ leads the visitor through a short but complex spatial sequence. The spatial and material language here is closely related to that of BOLLES+WILSONs first Kaldewei building. – the nearby KKC (Competence Centre) 2003-2005.

Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, christian Richters
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, plan, Lageplan
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, christian richters
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, foto, christian richters
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, treppe, foto, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, treppe, foto, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, treppe, foto, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, Eingang, Rainer mader
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, plan florrplan, section
Kaldewei entrance, Ahlen, stairs, treppe, sketch, Skizze, Peter Wilson, drawing
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters

Landscaping Hotel NY

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Landscape

COUNTRY: The Netherlands

CITY: Rotterdam – Kop van Zuid

YEAR: 2006

CLIENT: City of Rotterdam (dS+U), Hotel New York partner

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

The former embarkation point for emigration to the New World – a ‘Holland/America’ theme. Two landscapes (intimate Dutch gardens and a prairie-like American event- space) are divided by a conceptual border. Large scale text (like a Steinberg drawing) is inlayed in the pavement. To date the Dutch side including the Hotel Terrace, Maaskant Pavilion, vent Funnels, playground and intimate Dutch gardens is complete. despite regular dockings of American warships the narrative landscape on the American side of the Dutch-Amerika border remains unexecuted.

Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Plan_Pavillon
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Siteplan_Lageplan
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Plan
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Sketch_Skizze_Peter Wilson