Exemplum 27

77 76 M anfred Löffler Bauunternehmen GmbH, based in the Upper Swabian district of Ho- hentengen, builds houses and various kinds of turnkey commercial and industrial buildings. A few months ago, the company demonstrated its expertise with the development of its own new headquarters. The Neckarsulm-based company was founded in 1983, offering IT services and the direct sale of IT products. In order to optimally implement the spatial requirements of the branch and make the company’s technical expertise immediately recognis- able, the planners developed a slim yet high-quality new construction with a classic central corridor structure, providing 2,200 square metres of space across three floors. The renowned Stuttgart-based office, Ack- ermann und Raff, was commissioned to plan the project in 2015. The planners developed a three-sto- rey building with a clear and confident design that stands out for its vibrant brick façade, integrating all the necessary functions under one roof and creating an attractive eye-catcher at the southern entrance to Hohentengen. The inside of the building provides the construction company with a spacious foyer, a large events area in the single-storey section, and two flexibly partitionable office floors in the two-sto- rey section. Additional space for staff members is provided by the covered roof terrace located above the events room, featuring four differently sized circular skylights. The planners decided to give the new building a clearly modern design with individual details to demonstrate the construction company’s exper- tise at first glance. You’ll immediately notice the interplay of the reddish-brown brick façade with the square-shaped, white-framed window apertures: “These box-like window frames made of pre-fab- ricated white concrete are complemented by oak window elements and latch on to traditional façade typologies in Upper Swabia”, explains project archi- tect JohannesWeiß. The design is accentuated by a vertical panoramic front integrated fully along the back of the building, and this is brought out even further by the protruding concrete bordering and orange sun screens. JohannesWeiß explains the intention behind this: “We wanted to use durable and low-mainte- nance materials like bricks, wooden windows and exposed concrete walls and ceilings on the inside to create a robust and durable building”. Standard Röben GEESTBRAND rock-grey hand-formed facing bricks were ultimately chosen as a suitable material for the outer shell. The moving surface of the brick, laid in a rustic bond, accentuates the powerful character of the architecture and helps to make the new building a real eye-catcher at the entrance to Hohentengen. T he Hanseatic city of Lüneburg is one of the oldest and prettiest in northern Germany, boasting a historic centre and numerous listed Brick Gothic buildings. The residential area of “Ilmenaugarten” is currently being developed on the site of a former freight yard in the city centre. The first construction phase led to the develop- ment of a 200-metre-long row of apartment blocks at the side of the road, which also acts as a buffer by protecting the buildings behind from the noise pollution caused by the railway line. The blocks on this row provide 7,500 square metres of living space, alternating between four and five storeys and housing a total of 83 apartments sized between 47 and 136 square metres. The Meyer-Wolters & Yeger architects’ office in Hamburg won a competition to plan the project. In order to structure the huge length of the building, the planners developed a high-quality piece of brick ar- chitecture with a varied and detailed front, which is characterised by its protruding loggias and rhythmic tower houses: “The basic idea was to face the long building block with two differently coloured bricks, in order to carve out the plinth area and towers”, explains architect Can Yeger. The large passageways leading to the gatehouses are another important fea- ture, as they provide easy access to the underground car park and the almost car-free area by the idyllic Ilmenau River located behind the apartments. The detailed planning for the project and façades was carried out by Ilmenaugarten GmbH & Co. KG. Standard Röben warm grey DOVER ceramic bricks and reddish coal-fired SHEFFIELD bricks were used after an initial sample had been provided. The brickwork emphasises the sophisticated character of the facilities and instantly makes you think of the historic façades found in Lüneburg’s old town. In order to speed up the construction process and cut costs, Röben delivered pre-fabricated, dou- ble-interlocking soldier lintels that simply had to be placed on the side of the masonry and then fastened to the reinforced concrete with support brackets. This interlocking system allowed them to be invisibly integrated in the surrounding conventional masonry. I n the hip London district Hackney Oliver Lazarus from the practice Urban Mesh Design has created an unusual house with a black “shimmer façade”. To use the slim site optimally and make a design statement, he stacked four intelligently organised levels on top of each other and wrapped them in an expressively designed brick mantle. R E S I D E N T I A L D E V E L O P M E N T L ü n e b u r g ( G e r m a n y ) – Page 22 Planning: Meyer-Wolters & Yeger Architekten, Hamburg Ilmenaugarten GmbH & Co. KG, Lüneburg Processor: Busch-Bauunternehmen, Süd-Gellersen Röben ceramic clinker brick DOVER, NF Water absorption: approx. 1,5% Röben coal fired clinker brick SHEFFIELD, NF Water absorption: approx. 5,5 % e X emplum MAGAZIN FÜR KLINKERARCHITEKTUR Reports T OW N H O U S E L o n d o n ( G r e a t B r i t a i n ) – Page 26 Planning: urban mesh design, London Processor: Get Turner Ltd., London Röben clinker brick FARO black nuanced, smooth, NF Water absorption: approx. 2,5% Over the past few years the area around Broad- way Market has developed into one of the most sought-after locations in East London. So Oliver Lazarus and his family were particularly pleased when they had the opportunity to acquire a plot of land for their own house in Coate Street in 2011. On the basis of the extremely narrow sliver of land and the existing linear structures, Lazarus developed a highly individual town house with levels stacked on each other like terraced housing, which despite its experimentally designed brick façade, fits perfectly in the colourful neighbourhood of the district. An important source of inspiration for the planning was two smaller shimmer panels that are integrated in the façade of the Blue House, a building in a neighbouring street, which is greatly admired by Oliver Lazarus, from the firm of architects FAT. Starting from the idea of transferring this motif to a larger scale, in the end the concept of a collage-line outer mantel with a shimmering surface emerged. This was intended to create a quite conscious con- trast to the colourful wood façade of the house next door and the bright white, factory-like architecture of the adjacent “Coate House”. And after a range of other materials were considered at the beginning, it was finally decided to build the façade with different black bricks – also in the style of the numerous brick façades painted black in the neighbourhood. Building on a façade model worked out in detail and several samples with different stones, the choice was finally made on a hand-produced black, glazed brick from the British company H.G. Matthews, com- bined with the black-nuanced Röben brick FARO. Both of these were used in alternating, horizontal areas placed on top of each other. The smooth FARO bricks, which were used at the height of the large window areas, were built in alternation with module stones in the runner, which was covered with polished stainless steel plates. Thus, a seemingly transparent surface emerged, which reflects its surroundings and offers completely different views depending on the perspective and the weather. A clear contrast to this light impression is creat- ed by the heavy, rustic-seeming façade sections with glazed bricks. The alternation of the hand-produced bricks with the slightly set-back, halved FARO bricks generates a pearly, shimmering surface here, whose character also changes with the light. The ground floor was implemented differently with convention- ally built FARO bricks. The wooden entrance area cleverly takes up the design of the neighbouring house with its colourful wood façade. In addition, black plastered surfaces and FARO bricks cut in half lengthways and turned outwards were used for the side front of the house. The outward facing bars created by separating the perforated brick create a characteristic surface structure, which further intensifies the rustic-idiosyncratic charm of the building. This impression is emphasised by vertically integrated, column-like sections with conventionally built FARO bricks. However dark and secretive the house looks from outside, it appears surprisingly bright and airy inside. There is a studio on the ground floor with an adjacent guest room at the rear. On the first floor, an open space continuum connects to a living room at the front and to a kitchen, dining area and roof ter- race at the rear part of the building. The second floor accommodates the two children’s bedrooms and a bathroom. The penthouse third floor also integrates the parents’ bedroom with en suite bathroom. Q U E S T I O N S F O R O L I V E R L A Z A R U S Mr Lazarus, how do you come to the idea of implementing a façade like that? Actually, it happened quite accidentally. In order to anchor the new building in the location, I quite deliberately let myself be inspired by the colourful and expressive design of the neighbour- ing house and by the architecture of the adjacent, brick buildings, which are partly painted black. Also, something that was instrumental for the planning was two smaller shimmer panels that are integrated in the façade of a building in the next street. The black brick façade is, as it were, the result of these different influences. Why did you decide on black FARO bricks from Röben? In a first step, we initially developed an exact mod- el of the façade. What was really important here was the alternation of matt, transparent reflecting and somewhat shimmering surfaces. Moving out from this idea we asked our supplier EBM to show us some different bricks. After checking several samples and various tests on site we finally decid- ed on the Röben bricks. The brick mainly won us over with its deep black colour shade and great dimensional precision. And it perfectly matches the glazed bricks and module stones with polished stainless steel that we also chose. Which special challenges were there on the building site? What wasn’t very easy in particular was forming the lintels and the corner of the building at an an- gle of 94 degrees. In order to achieve a homogene- ous façade appearance nevertheless, we built both areas with what’s called “Pistol Bricks”, meaning bricks we cut out of solid bricks. You also used black plastered surfaces and FARO bricks cut in half lengthways and with the cut inside turned outwards for the side front of the house. Yes, the protruding bars of the perforated bricks create a bar code-like surface here, which simultaneously references the steel doors in the neighbouring house. A growing number of communities are opting to further develop existing residential areas to overcome the increasing lack of living space in metropolitan areas and university cities. One good example of a careful approach can be found in the high-quality residential complex designed by the Selugga & Selugga architects’ office in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. The building had to be bright but as light as possible to avoid dominating the surrounding structures. The planners achieved this by developing a two-storey building with a recessed penthouse floor. Its design is particularly characterised by the contrast between the bright brickwork and the oak-coloured façades integrated in the window areas. The building’s aura of warmth and sophisti- cation is emphasised by its many curves. An imme- diate eye-catcher can be found on the south-west edge of the building, which is characterised by wide protruding balconies with rounded balustrades. This motif can also be found in the flat plinth area and on the recessed upper penthouse floor, where the planners have also integrated a convex arch in the opposite direction. The façade was developed at Axel Jachol’s office in Oldenburg during the detailed planning stage. The architects were quick to choose brick slips for the façade, in order to make the wall structure as slim as possible to match the narrow shape of the land. “This meant we could reduce the structure of the outer wall by 10 to 12 centimetres and expand the living space a little”, explains Jachol’s project manager, Martin Karger. “This also made it easier to construct the rounded balustrades and the lintels above the large window features without pre-fabri- cated parts or mountings”. The standard AARHUS white grey ceramic brick slips fit nicely into the peaceful surroundings and create a pleasant contrast to the wooden-style clad- ding on the first and second floors. The harmonious character of the brickwork is accentuated by the bright, cream-coloured grouting. M U LT I - FA M I LY H O M E O l d e n b u r g ( G e r m a n y ) – Page 34 Planning: Selugga & Selugga Architektur GmbH, Oldenburg Façade design:Axel Jachol Architekten, Oldenburg Processor: Kellermann & Partner GmbH, Cappeln Röben ceramic thin brick slips AARHUS white-grey, NF Water absorption: approx. 3% C O MM E R C I A L B U I L D I N G H o h e n t e n g e n ( G e r m a n y ) – Page 16 Planning:Ackermann und Raff, Stuttgart Processor: Revermann Klinkerbau GmbH & Co. KG, Messingen Röben hand-formed facing brick GEESTBRAND rock-grey, NF Water absorption: approx.10% CAN YEGER MWY Yeger Niedziella “ T h e b a s i c i d e a w a s t o f a c e t h e l o n g b u i l d i n g b l o c k w i t h t w o d i f f e r e n t l y c o l o u r e d b r i c k s , i n o r d e r t o c a r v e o u t t h e p l i n t h a r e a a n d t o w e r s . ” “ T h e b r i c k m a i n l y w o n u s o v e r w i t h i t s d e e p b l a c k c o l o u r s h a d e a n d g r e a t d i m e n s i o n a l p r e c i s i o n . A n d i t p e r f e c t l y m a t c h e s t h e g l a z e d b r i c k s a n d m o d u l e s t o n e s w i t h p o l i s h e d s t a i n l e s s s t e e l t h a t w e a l s o c h o s e . ” OLIVER LAZARUS urban mesh design JOHANNES WEISS Ackermann und Raff “ We w a n t e d t o u s e d u r a b l e a n d l o w - m a i n t e n a n c e m a t e r i a l s l i k e b r i c k s , w o o d e n w i n d o w s a n d e x - p o s e d c o n c r e t e w a l l s a n d c e i l i n g s o n t h e i n s i d e t o c r e a t e a r o b u s t a n d d u r a b l e b u i l d i n g . ”