03.10.2024
“I made this drawing on the 3rd of October 12 years ago. Some say the gap has increased dramatically in size since. However, it is never too late to build new bridges…
We should think positive for 2025 and for the start of the next 25 years in this dramatic relationship, and remember that an amazing amount of impressive work has been achieved by all since 1989.” Ruairí O’Brien, 03.10.2024
23.08.2024
Kloster Lehnin is a municipality in Brandenburg, about an hour from Berlin city centre. The district of Lehnin owes its origins to the former Cistercian monastery, the oldest monastery in the Mark Brandenburg, which was founded in 1180 and secularised during the Reformation in 1542. Since 1911, it has been home to the Luise-Henrietten-Stift, a Protestant deaconess house.
Our task is to draw up a design guideline for the town planning office to guide the future development of the neighbouring buildings, houses and businesses in the small town of Lehnin in harmony with the listed monastery ensemble. The aim is to preserve the architectural heritage and at the same time enable the use of contemporary technologies, such as the integration of photovoltaics. A key issue is the sensitive positioning and installation of solar modules in the historic roofscape and the preservation of Lehnin’s special street character, including the protection and adaptation of the vegetation in the townscape with regard to climatic changes.
We carry out the necessary on-site surveys and inspections and liaise with specialist authorities. In addition, we support the municipality in the implementation of the process, assist with public and official participation, prepare draft texts for announcements and meeting documents and analyse the comments. The project period runs from April 2024 to December 2024.
20.08.2024
We are thrilled to announce that we have been selected to be part of the expert team for the ambitious “Transformation 1.535°” project in Lauchhammer, Brandenburg. This large-scale project comprises two sites: “ERZ” (ORE) with the Kunstgussmuseum, the Kunstgießerei and the Friedenskirche in Lauchhammer-Ost (13.8 ha) and “KOHLE” (COAL) with the biotowers, activated sludge basins and the Reliquienpark in Lauchhammer-West (32.2 ha).
Our role in the planning and development team includes the design and implementation of the lighting for public spaces, landscaping, the art casting museum, the emerging “Education and Experience Centre for Art Casting and Industrial Culture” and the listed bio-towers (see image).
The “Transformation 1.535°” project is one of the most ambitious cultural and tourism projects in Germany and possibly even in Europe. The aim is to transform the remains of the East German coal industry into a vibrant centre for art, education and tourism.
A central aspect of this project is the expansion of the Lauchhammer Art Casting Museum into an “Education and Experience Centre for Art Casting and Industrial Culture”. This centre will honour the region’s industrial heritage while promoting modern educational and cultural experiences.
The bio-towers, an impressive testimony to East German industrial culture, are at the centre of this transformation.
These buildings, once symbols of the region’s industrial strength, are being revitalised through exhibitions, information programmes and innovative lighting concepts so that they can be preserved and experienced by future generations.
We are proud to contribute to this ground-breaking project and bring our expertise in the communicative and aesthetic impact of architectural lighting design to ensure its sustainable and holistic success. Stay tuned for further updates on this exciting development!
The House of Sustainability is an architectural study as the result of a multi-stage participatory planning process for the future use/development of a central area in the center of the forestry town of Tharandt. In the past, the German House (host cities, cultural hall, cinema) was located on this area. With the demolition of the former Deutsches Haus hotel and inn in 2014, a central inner-city fallow or empty area was created. The design presented here (tree house / house of sustainability) is the result of a feasibility study on the district development of the central inner-city location in the forestry town of Tharandt from 2014. The House of Sustainability design for Tharandt reflects the genius loci of the forestry town of Tharandt, brings together modern hi-tech and original nature and creates a symbiosis of city and natural landscape in dialogue with the traditional architecture of the surrounding area (church, castle, town hall). The glass facade creates transparency and draws attention into the interior. There is a large space there for trees and plants that need special protection in our climatic conditions or their own climate. In this way, the building also creates a link to the forest botanical garden, which can be expanded with the tree house/house of sustainability to include plants and plants from other latitudes on earth.
The artistic-dicactic concept is an expression of an immersive culture of remembrance that stimulates a productive, critical discourse on various levels about the effect of the colonial-nationalist-ethnically charged Bismarck monument. The spatial light/shadow sculpture intertwines historical past with sensory present, marks relational interdependencies, and engages visitor:s in an immediate, low-threshold way through interaction with solar geometry.
Light and Shadow – Reflection, Change, Time. The object forms an overarching physical and artistic-philosophical roof for the mediation work taking place on site and the examination of Bismarck’s work, the historical context and the history of reception to date.
The urban planning dimensioning takes up the significance of the theme and the scale of the area as well as the location (monument object and park area) in order to create visibility and contextual connection. The object creates a long-distance and close-up effect and breaks with conventional expectations. The design language and surprising positioning trigger attention through irritation, thus questioning the massive presence and emotional impact of the monument.
The light/shadow object forms a roof and creates a microclimatic, sensually and cognitively stimulating space for diverse individual and communal, for analog, media and digital interventions, reflections and activities.
When viewed up close, the object forms an immersive time-space-light-human mesh that offers multi-layered levels of immersion and, through interaction with solar geometry, constantly tells of new things and allows new discoveries to be made.
A simple and large element whose roof, surface, pane blocks the incidence of sunlight and creates a walkable, playable space. This microclimatic space is darkened, colder than the surroundings; those who look up cannot see the sun. This break between outside and inside creates an immediate, low-threshold physical accessibility, sharpens instincts and senses, stimulates receptivity on a haptic and cognitive level. The interaction of shadow and light can be felt by everyone. It opens up spaces of sensation and understanding on a physical and metaphorical level, making the web of topography, history, absence, universality and sensory presence tangible.
A convex mirror in the light-blocking pane collects sunlight from the reflected environment and causes light rays or pools of light to travel across the floor or the dwell space for visitors:inside. Through these light movements caused by the mirror, certain historical moments can be made present.
The convex mirror creates connection/relationship between monument, object and visitor and makes the visitor part of the intervention – puts him in relation to monument, person, history, present, makes conscious these interdependencies and thus creates spaces for individual re-contextualizations.
The “distorted” image of the convex mirror of the Bismarck monument and its immediate surroundings opens up universal possibilities for reflection in the observation of persons and historical events.
Completion of the new premises of the Dresden branch of AMD according to the concept for light and colour by Ruairí O’Brien.
Location: Annenhöfe Dresden, Germany (2022)
Client: TLG REAL ESTATE AG
Architect: O M Architekten GmbH BDA
Services: Interior design / colour concept / lighting design
Client: Xilinx Dresden GmbH / Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)
Photos: Baldauf&Baldauf
The Integrated Urban Development Concept (ISEK) forms the basis for the development of the Baumschulenstrasse – Köpenicker Landstrasse area as part of the Living Centers and Quarters (LZQ) funding program. The aim is both to strengthen the district center around Baumschulenstrasse and to improve local supplies throughout the entire funding area. An attractive design of the public space and the existing buildings is a central component of an attractive commercial street, as is an appropriate external representation of the commercial businesses located in the ground floor zones. This design guide was developed to support local businesses and property owners in improving the appearance of their respective businesses and working towards a coordinated overall impression.
The Mobility Hub presented here has an innovative, modular and flexible overall concept that enables the tendered functions of bus station and bicycle parking garage and also provides an attractive space for different uses, such as offices, hotels, StartUp Centres, studios, shops, etc. The design is based on a simple construction principle.
The ingeniously simple construction principle allows for sectional and phased construction as well as flexible future development. Which offers the potential to adapt structurally to future changes without demolition.
The main structure of the building functions as a bridge over the bus station area to achieve an area as free of supports as possible, which can also be used differently in the future.
Two high-rise blocks will be built on the sides of the “bridge” (total height 50 m). These high-rise towers / Thinking Towers complement the semi-circle of high-rise buildings in the immediate vicinity on the northern side of the station, at the entrance to Prager Straße, and offer plenty of space for a wide variety of uses.
The concept succeeds in positioning a striking, versatile and forward-looking architecture at an enormously important location in terms of urban development, which is potentially capable of adapting structurally to changing requirements in the future and enables new uses when mobility, technology or market conditions change.
Consisting of individual elements:
Planning services:
Client:
Municipality of Neustadt in Saxony
Period of development: 2019-2022
In 15-story residential high-rise buildings in Pirna Sonnenstein, the public corridor areas were redesigned with fire protection measures taken into account. The interior of the buildings was thus made more attractive. Additional design measures also take into account the needs of older residents in particular.
The rooms were made brighter, friendlier and more individual. The individual floors stand out from one another with different color schemes and motifs, making orientation easier. To improve the quality of stay, an individual lighting concept was developed.
New, square surface-mounted luminaires illuminate the corridor area. Individually placed spotlights mark the entrance areas of the apartments. The walls were redesigned. Different individual wall motifs form eye-catching illustrations on each floor when exiting the elevator, creating a focal point at the end of the stub corridors and additionally helping with orientation within the building.
The entrance areas of the apartments were marked with color accents, and the doors and wall were kept in a uniform color, creating a sense of spaciousness in the narrow corridors. In addition to color-coordinated new flooring, the apartments received new doorbell buttons and large signs at eye level.
Handrails made of stainless steel, protective profiles for the existing wall corners and a new information board and signs for the escape routes increase the quality of stay and living for the residents.
Client: Städtische Wohnungsgesellschaft Pirna mbH, 2013-2015
