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Plant 12 in Munich from the MVRDV office in collaboration with NVO Nuyken from Oefele Architects: Architecture can also be relaxed.
Photo: Ossip van Duivenbode
This manual is something like the Michelin Guide for local architecture.
99 projects are recommended by experts from the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt - and the geodata are supplied via QR codes.
In case someone wants to go.
Because in Corona times, this list should also be a travel guide that helps you rediscover your own country or at least your own state.
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Title: Architecture Guide Germany 2021
Publisher: DOM publishers
Number of pages: 224
Author: Yorck Förster, Christina Graewe, Peter Cachola Schmal
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What do you see there?
Buildings for living, working and sweating - like a bowling alley in Wülknitz, Saxony.
No construction or renovation is older than two years.
The corrugated iron look can also be elegant
It is easy to see that Germany is dominated by a self-contained boxiness, an aesthetic of seclusion that is sometimes already uptight, but in the better case appears elegant.
As with the two pavilions for the Berlin University of the Arts, in which practice rooms for music students are housed.
A metallic, golden shimmering outer skin surrounds this retreat, the responsible team of architects Tru has ingeniously recycled a corrugated iron and container style for the 21st century.
There would also be Plant 12 in Munich.
Also a kind of pavilion, albeit multi-storey, it stands on the former Pfanni factory site and is dedicated to sport, wellness and gastronomy.
On the facade, in capital letters that are visible from afar and glow at night, equal effort and enjoyment are promised, something like: "AAHHH." "OH."
Surprise effects of a different kind are provided by two architectures for the Adidas site in Herzogenaurach, which the sporting goods group afforded for the company's anniversary in 2019.
One of the buildings houses offices and, because of its design, could also be used as a football stadium.
Although the basic shape is reminiscent of a shoebox, the aluminum pattern of the façades conceals this very well, and thanks to the stilts the box appears to be floating.
The diamond-shaped floor plan and the jagged edges of the other building, which is also part of the corporate headquarters, make it look like an expressionist sculpture.
Both houses do not go together at all, that makes everything even more daring.
Concrete is still too popular in this country
The 14 meter high Urbach Tower in the Remstal, for which the self-shaping power of the spruce was used, is just as sculptural and beautifully wooden.
Actually, this is not a building, more of a greeting from the architectural test kitchen, but it will give the industry other ideas and show it what can be done with wood as a material.
Because when leafing through the book it becomes clear how concrete the country still is, despite its poor environmental balance.
Sure, the building material is practical, cheap and can look cool.
But it's time for alternatives.
A lot of surprising things can be done with wood, in a laboratory hall of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology there is even an attractive connection with polycarbonate.
The brick building for the job center in Oberhausen, on the other hand, benefits primarily from the idea of putting a greenhouse on the roof.
One wishes that the green or vegetables will soon grow down and cover the rather subtle facades.
The Germans, please, have more courage
One would wish the Germans a little more courage.
Hardly any of the buildings come out of themselves, so to speak.
Why does the extension of a district office have to wear a prison look?
Houses the panel house style?
Why does redensification in residential areas have to create claustrophobia just by looking?
Perhaps it is even a greater achievement to revive old buildings through clever interventions, to make them look surprisingly modern, than to build new houses, some of which do not even look contemporary.
"Re-use" is still an underestimated motto of the time.
more on the subject
Icon: Spiegel Plus Climate-friendly alternatives to concrete: The skyscraper of the future will be made of mushrooms, hemp or bamboo By Ulrike Knöfel
Icon: Spiegel PlusArchitekt on the cities of the future: This is how we will build, live and workAn interview by Susanne Beyer and Ulrike Knöfel
According to the experts, these 99 projects are the best the country has to offer.
The architecture guide does not distribute stars like in the restaurant scene, but some examples were highlighted as particularly successful.
Four of them are shortlisted for the German Architecture Museum Prize, including the screaming “WOW” Munich pavilion.
A real pick-me-up that the country needs.
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