KAWAHARA KRAUSE ARCHITECTSKKA

For this exhibition on Hamburg’s architecture competitions of the recent years, we decided to make the huge wealth of the about 200 competitions – expressed in about 1.500 ideas and 6.000 plans – all together visible, instead of showing only selected competitions or competition entries. Not only the winning design of a competition is important, but each individual competition entry has a value in itself and contributes to the discussion about the future development of the city. Each work stands in relation to all the other works and is defined by others and vice versa. Together they allow for new readings and narratives that will shape the entire city.

Most competitions are submitted as printed plans – which we used as a medium to design the exhibition. In a spacious former warehouse, 1.100 banners (3m long and 90cm wide) were hung from the roof in long rows. Together, they build a hovering spatial body that we regard as a floating archive of ideas. The competitions printed on the banners are arranged by districts and within the district by chronological order. The competition entries are not shown with the winning projects first, but alphabetically according to the offices ‘names. This neutral order is reflected in a code that was given to each competition, each entry, each plan – representing the concept of an archive of ideas.

The plan of the floating archive shows the parallel rows of the banners crossed by wide and narrow paths. Along the wide paths, so-called islands are arranged, creating separate exhibitions spaces within the floating archive. Here the major tasks of the city planning are featured: Residential, Office/Commercial, Infrastructure, Public/Green Spaces, Culture/Education/Sport, Conversion/ Re-Use, and Urban Planning. Each island showing one of these themes has a unique geometrical shape and colour. The plan of the exhibition resembling a city is to visualise the importance of this first-time show of all competitions together as the sum of all contributions to the entire city

The new façade of the Besenbinderhof is a clearly structured element façade. Prefabricated concrete elements are hung in a grid of 3.2 metres. Compared to the existing façade, the seemingly larger grid creates a visually generous impression. In between, ceramic elements cover the 1.6 metre grid of the existing building and give the new façade depth and rhythm. The width of the concrete elements decreases on the upper floors, gently zoning the overall façade into a base and an upper area.
The intersections of the vertical and horizontal elements are articulated, their surface texture stands out from the other elements. The interplay of the elements, their dimensions and arrangement create a new tectonic clarity. The stone slabs from the existing façade are removed and directly reused as high-quality floor and wall panelling for the new entrance hall. The resulting stone chippings are added to the new concrete façade as an aggregate. The new façade is thus reminiscent of its predecessor.
The new façade derives its decorative character primarily from the surface texture of the materials. It consists of concrete blocks coloured in a light brown-beige, whose formwork creates a roughly structured surface similar to embossing. However, the pattern by the formwork, which is always the same for economic reasons, is given an always different appearance by adding the stone chippings from the existing façade. A high-strength concrete is to be used, which allows significantly lower material thicknesses and thus material savings. It does not require reinforcement, which increases future recyclability.

The so-called Strandlust was a hotel and restaurant at the ferry terminal in Bremen Vegesack, regionally known for decades as a special place for celebrations and festivities. In the course of planning a new replacement building, the surrounding site was to be developed as a new residential area. Due to the direct location at the river Weser and the lack of flood protection, the area was to be designed on a terp level, while at the same time establishing good connections to the (not flood-protected) promenade in front of it.

On the level raised by the terp storey, the design for the new residential area features buildings as free-standing, slightly twisted volumes that form squares that widen and get narrow again. Thus the neighbourhood becomes open in all directions and permeable to walk through. The various views on the river between the buildings stage this special location. The design makes a clear distinction between the edge of the landscape as a retaining wall concealing the terp level, and the buildings, as such clearly reaching down to the lower level of the promenade.

The New Strandlust stands out from the neighbourhood as a prominent solitaire and will become a landmark on the Weser with its individual architectural language. Its round base storey protrudes distinctly from the retaining wall and forms a spacious terrace with a unique view above it. The building volume plays with strong geometric shapes that form another roof terrace, a cantilevering half-round volume providing shading to the terrace and a higher part of the building with inclining roof for good visibility even from a distance.

The remodeling of an old stone house in western France was to give the house a new order, make it more spacious inside, but at the same time preserve its unique character. Together with some lower annexes, this 1850 house forms a courtyard which serves as the entrance. To the rear of the house is the garden. The building ensemble is built in locally sourced stone, the main house has timber ceilings. Before the remodeling, the inside was divided into cellular, winding rooms with thin, non-load-bearing walls in contrast to the very thick, solid exterior walls.

All interior walls were removed. After the remodeling, the ground floor consists of only one large, open space. Shelves on the outer walls provide necessary storage space and underline the character of the room. The space is now characterized above all by the symmetry of the entrance door and the four windows either side of the courtyard and garden, as well as the presence of the solid stone exterior walls. Along the existing wooden staircase, a shelving unit protrudes into the room, creating an open zoning. Upstairs, built-in wardrobes and shelves form a new room structure.

The clients‘ wish for conservatories either side of the house was further developed into a spatial sequence. The first conservatory acts as a threshold and entrance between the courtyard and the now large, open living space, while the second represents the transition to the open garden. The two conservatories are characterized by a diagonal wooden grid, the structure of which was then adopted to form a pergola framing a „green room“ in the garden - a spatial counterpart to the courtyard on the other side of the house.