4_Meixner Schlüter Wendt_Himmel über Frankfurt_MSW

The Sky Over Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main, Vision

What might a future vision for the city of Frankfurt/Main with its impressive skyline actually look like?

A possible concept would begin with creating a more dense spread of high-rises and the vision of a second level located in the upper area of the high-rises. This additional level would produce an even more striking landmark that intensifies and activates the urban space so that it can be physically experienced as a three-dimensional spatial structure. This newly developed spatial zone automatically fires the imagination and mind, spawning new options for use and social interaction.

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One first step towards increasing densities could take the shape of erecting overhangs and air bridges between the existing high-rises. In a second step, fragmentary levels could be developed that are complemented by structural volumes which could be put to a number of uses.

(Historical examples for high-density tall buildings with cantilevers or tower houses can be found as early as the High Middle Ages in Italy, say in San Gimignano, Volterra or Bologna.)

Ideally this additional area should be used as public space and for green spaces that would make up for higher densities in other areas. These new green spaces and initial architectural elements should be used for cultural and leisure purposes (sunbathing areas, sports grounds, open-air-events with films and concerts, exhibitions, air bathing facilities etc.). This would create a high-level viewing space and tourist attraction similar to what the Japancenter or Maintower offer. Ultimately, such a structure would underscore the city’s cultural quality and above all its political objective.

Such a second conquest of Frankfurt’s skyline would tend to strip it of hierarchical attributes. The overlaying of the urban podium level and the “sky-high” spatial zone generates numerous options for mutual corrections, additions and contrasting. Such a move would also raise legal issues and economic considerations: To whom does this space belong? How might it function commercially?

Visionary approaches for conquering the higher spheres of urban space were broached as long ago as the early days of Modernism by the likes of Sant’Elia and El Lissitzky – or later by Yona Friedmann, Walter Jonas (Oberursel), Hans Hollein, Arata Isozaki, Archigram and Superstudio.

There are many playful aspects to our vision for Frankfurt/Main. However, it goes without saying that great caution and productive skepticism are needed when considering the options relating to such a vision. Anyone who thinks about the future of Frankfurt/Main must bear in mind not only its history but also the potential inherent in advancing its innovative traditions. A continuation of Frankfurt’s skyline on this basis would secure a unique feature for the city by enhancing its appeal and offering citizens new places that they will enjoy visiting. Urban space is sure to experience such developments. The City of Frankfurt should recognize and exploit this potential.

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Visionäre Ansätze

Bologna im Mittelalter

Bologna im Mittelalter

Piet Oudolf; James Corner; Diller Scofidio + Renfro - New York Highline (2004-2009)

Piet Oudolf; James Corner; Diller Scofidio + Renfro - New York Highline (2004-2009)

El Lissitzky - Wolkenbügel (1925)

El Lissitzky - Wolkenbügel (1925)

Hans Hollein - Überbauung Wien (1960), Sammlung Centre Pompidou, Paris Musée national d’art modern/Centre de création industrielle, © Privatarchiv Hollein

Hans Hollein - Überbauung Wien (1960), Sammlung Centre Pompidou, Paris Musée national d’art modern/Centre de création industrielle, © Privatarchiv Hollein

Superstudio - New New York (1969)

Superstudio - New New York (1969)

3_Meixner Schlüter Wendt_Himmel über Frankfurt_MSW
2_Meixner Schlüter Wendt_Himmel über Frankfurt_MSW

Client

Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main

Team

Georg Kratzenstein

Location

Frankfurt am Main

Completion

Vision 2010

CONCEPTS | METHODS | STRATEGIES

The architectural expression of the buildings we have designed varies immensely. Nonetheless, they are based on an explicit architectural stance and share the same design approach.

1. Conceptual

As we see it, an architect should pay close attention to the actual conditions and allow them to develop fully. The logic of what is real imposes limits on the architect’s ideas, and any subjective thrust to the architecture is reduced to a minimum. After all, finding is more important than inventing. At the same time, it is important to transcend the existing situation intellectually and this ultimately transform it into an architectural design. It follows that our fundamental concern is to bear with the ambivalence between the actual parameters and what they inevitably translate into and come up with something beneficial in the process. To do this you must be capable of seeing precisely what already exists, be fascinated by it, but also let it inspire you to go beyond it if necessary.
This is why our concept entails us working with perceptions, images and associations, combining them with the practical parameters of the respective brief.

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Association object: Jigsaw in case

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Sheath of the saw case

Design process
We begin each design process by researching and thoroughly analyzing the specific features of a place and the brief. This involves exploring historical, cultural and symbolic layers and teasing out their vibrancy. Based on these insights, we collect all the possible associations that occur to us. Typically, these thoughts are closely bound up with the particular features of the place, existing architecture and brief. They emerge from a precise observation of everyday things, their arrangement and significance. These features might be furnished interiors or the items that generally shape a space, but can equally be existing, urban situations, the historical layers of a building or the history of a place. We then translate these authentic spatial structures and constellations that have developed naturally into model studies with a view to revitalizing the space at our disposal as perceptual space, space for reflection and space for social interaction.

Transformation
In our design process the analysis of the existing circumstances merges with the transformation of existing situations or buildings. Specifically, we rely on intellectual associations and the images derived from them. What at first sight might appear to be a kind of ready-made becomes the basis for a new reality, which neither ignores its position in a given context nor the conditions under which it evolved. This approach also emphatically draws on past building typologies and techniques.
As such, our approach to architecture is based on our essentially seeing everything we do as a transformation or a conversion of existing situations. This is why the buildings we design respond sensitively to their immediate surroundings and urban context. At the same time, they also develop a sculptural impact. We resolve the seeming contradiction this produces by applying specially developed methods that are established practice in the world of contemporary art.

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For the project Reading Room at the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt an abstract version of the study of an “intellectual compulsive hoarder” was created using multiple stacks of books.

2. Operative

Apart from realizing individual projects we also continually develop spatial studies that are not commissioned and in which spaces are played through on varying scales and explored in an exemplary manner.
Drawing on an idea from concept art we employ calculated experimentation with levels of perception and chains of association to kick off the design process; a method that produces solutions which might seem natural but are also surprising.

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A filled box as starting point for a steel sculpture

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Front view of the steel sculpture. The full box is easily recognizable.

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From behind, the steel sculpture reveals a totally different, abstract form.

Things suffused with human experiences, spatial and urban constellations are transformed graphically, sculpturally and architecturally.
Whether designing a new building or converting an existing one we place the focus firmly on perception – particularly regarding the ambivalence of mass and space, concreteness and abstraction. Existing buildings and constellations are infused with diverse social experiences that trigger specific associations. By identifying and analyzing their complex significance vibrant uses and means of social interaction in real space emerge. This creates a new view of places, buildings and things that in turn stimulates new ways of combining various images, atmospheres and uses.
We also engage in our own spatial studies – and have elaborated them over the years. They focus on examining and exploring examples of urban and urban planning concepts, spatial structures, building typology structures as well as artistic issues.

3. Exemplary

Spatial studies and projects
Over the years we have developed the following spatial concepts drawing on the methods described earlier. Through a series of sculptures, model studies and drawings we have examined how spatial concepts can be developed and realized not only considering the relationship between line, surface and space, but also between drawing and sculpture, representationalism and abstraction.

Steel sculptures
The steel sculptures by Florian Schlüter are conceived as walk-through drawings transposed into the realm of the three-dimensional. They revolve around the ambivalence between concepts such as mass and space, concreteness and abstraction and are aimed at exploring the authenticity of the everyday. These inconsistencies become integrated into later architecture projects as fundamental aspects of them.

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Steel sculpture "Room 01", sketch

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Steel sculpture "Room 01", front view

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Steel sculpture "Room 01", side view

Studies of urban space
In various studies of urban space, Claudia Meixner employs drawings, paintings and models to penetrate the relationship between mass and space, space as a complement of mass and space, mass and intervening space. Her starting points are both abstract but also specific urban constellations whose given sensual and material design become the point of departure for a transformation that can culminate in a new take on reality.

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Study of urban space 01

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Study of urban space 02

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Study of urban space 03

Building prototypes
Moreover, a series of model studies and installations are used to realize potential buildings. Complex spatial concepts are developed through addressing issues on the relationship between shell and core, the importance and function of interstices and elements in space.
Here furniture or furnishing elements in interiors are taken as the starting point. In this model study the constellations that have become usual in everyday life correspond with individual walk-through spaces in a large surrounding space. It is possible to experience the elements and their relationship to the overall space as well as the relationship between the intermediate space and the space as a whole.

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Various objects and arbitrarily stacked boxes as a starting point

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Model of accumulation/stacking

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Model intermediate space

In a first model study the starting point was the seemingly chance accumulation and stacking of things. The individual elements in the model represent interior spaces that can be walked through and form intermediate space.
The point of departure for another model study is the shaping and selective filling of intermediate spaces through a stacking and layering of various objects in the space. The relationship between positive and negative is reversed, while that of the volume and mass is redefined. The intermediate space becomes walk-through mass.

Exemplary projects
In addition to the afore-mentioned conceptual parameters, when realizing projects the practical parameters of relevance to the architecture also come into play and influence the substantive concept.
A whole raft of structural means contribute to the success of a sculptural edifice that expresses tranquility and agitation, gravity and lightness, stability and instability, depending on the overall concept.

Expo pavilion
In designing a pavilion for Expo 2000 the starting point was the geometry of a “simple house” with a saddle roof, a single interior space and several “items of furniture”. By enlarging it ten-fold the things morph into archetypal symbols. Perception per se is addressed and a new perception of the architectural space and the objects in it is created. Depending on the viewer’s angle the house, interior space and garden appear either symbolic, concrete or abstract.

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Rendering of the Expo 2000 pavilion

Wohlfahrt-Laymann House
The concept for transforming this residential building developed from the necessity to extend and structurally improve an archetypal house. A new sheath was created that encompasses the entire house. Diverse spatial constellations were produced within the cubic sheath architecture that experiment with the relationship between interior and exterior spaces and the intermediate spaces created as a result.

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View from the new living room of the old outer facade

Artemide
As part of a project for Artemide, the shapes of several of the manufacturer’s luminaires were regarded as ready-mades, reduced to their essential components, merged with one another and cut out of a compact mass as a negative form. Through the play of light and shadow the resulting polyvalent volume produces a special spatial atmosphere and triggers diverse associations.

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Section of the 3d-printed form

Dornbusch Church
The special nature of the place and the reduction process is made evident in the partial dismantling and conversion of the Dornbusch Church. A new wall marked with indents and molds of the old church and elements that had been removed were used to form a sculpted structure. What is absent remains present in these molds. The perception of area and space is activated and the recollection of its earlier state reinforced.

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Ausgangspunkt Weinkarton

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The partly dismantled Dornbusch Church with relief wall and new plaza

In architecture as we understand it everything is basically transformation. We see our task as controlling the ambivalences that emerge during a transformation of an existing structure. This is not only easy on physical resources, but also revitalizes sensual, intellectual and ultimately cultural resources.