IParch

New building for teaching and research at FH Aachen with a large lecture hall for 350 people and a central atrium.

In cooperation with Studio MDA, IParch was responsible for the detailed design. My focus was on the interior fit-out: seating and space planning, lecture hall seating, metalwork such as the atrium railings and escape stair, as well as gates and doors.

Team

Employed at IParch, Aachen
Dipl.-Ing. Hendrik Daniel

Cooperation with Studio MDA, New York
Markus Dochantschi

As part of a university research project, four 7 × 7 m pylons made of textile-reinforced concrete were built on Mies-van-der-Rohe-Straße in Aachen. The textile reinforcement allows a structural depth of only around 4 cm at the outer edges, making them appear extremely slender.

Our task at IParch was to give the pylons a façade that does justice to their construction, and ultimately to complete the ensemble as a workspace for students. Our highest priority was the visibility of the supporting structure, which led us to a façade of large-format panes. The necessary technical installations were reduced to the absolute minimum and set back from the columns and façade. To emphasise the concept of the pylons standing in an open meadow, the floor is finished in grass-green linoleum.

I was involved in the façade and interior design as well as in the tendering and construction phases. After the building was completed, I took this series of photographs.

“Since April, a beautiful, simple pavilion has been offering civil engineering students at RWTH Aachen space to study and work. It was initially planned ‘only’ as a demonstration object for textile concrete shell structures, in an incarnation as an exhibition space, but its current function is far more sustainable: it is in permanent use and can serve the young engineers as direct illustration and inspiration.”

db deutsche bauzeitung

Team

Freelance collaboration with IParch, Aachen
Dipl.-Ing. Hendrik Daniel
Dipl.-Ing. Ralf von Ameln

Chair of Building Construction, RWTH Aachen
Prof. Hartwig Schneider

Institute of Structural Concrete, RWTH Aachen
Prof. Josef Hegger

Institute of Steel Construction, RWTH Aachen
Prof. Markus Feldmann

Photographs by Benno Helpenstein

Living and Life in the University Quarter, State Competition 2014.

“The Ministry for Building, Housing, Urban Development and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, together with the City of Aachen and investors, is launching the 2014 State Competition for sustainable housing. The cooperation partner is the Chamber of Architects of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The subject of the competition is the development of an urban design concept for a residential area of around 3.2 ha on the site of the former ‘Guter Hirte’ convent. The planning area directly adjoins the future Campus West, an expansion area of RWTH Aachen intended in particular for research and development. The new residential quarter is to help meet the additional demand for housing created by the campus development.

The aim is to create innovative housing types that can be let sustainably over the long term, with a significant share of publicly subsidised housing. Given the dense development of Campus West, attractive public spaces and green areas are also to be created. An exemplary energy-efficient urban quarter is likewise sought. The goal is to develop the site independently of the Campus West development plan. This is intended to provide an impetus for the campus planning, but also to upgrade the very heterogeneous surroundings. A further important part of the brief is the development of solutions for the particular noise and emissions situation.”

Ministry for Building, Housing, Urban Development and Transport NRW

Noise from the railway line to the south, the particular topography and the listed monument to the north shaped our concept: a noise-shielding block to the south dissolves towards the north into small-scale development whose buildings stand on plates slid into the topography. This creates quiet courtyards and squares where people enjoy spending time.

Team

Freelance collaboration with IParch, Aachen

Competition entry for the Volvo trade fair stand at BAUMA Shanghai. We developed a form in which the construction machines are not staged merely as simple exhibits. It forms a backdrop that places the machines in the setting of their actual purpose.

The rock-like structure is achieved with a substructure of aluminium tubes spanned with a mesh. Beneath the large element lies the actual pavilion with reception, conference rooms and an exhibition. The smaller element houses a small interactive installation on the company’s sustainability.

Team

Freelance collaboration with IParch, Aachen
Dipl.-Ing. Hendrik Daniel

The brief was an office complex extending the FEV site in Aachen. A later extension of the workshop halls was also an option.

We set ourselves no lesser goal than to develop, in keeping with the company’s distinctive logo and global relevance, a corporate architecture that gives the firm a worldwide recognition value going beyond that of the logo.

The office buildings were to be clad in a white metal façade with a strongly horizontal arrangement of elements. The workshop halls, by contrast, are clad in a metal façade shimmering between black and anthracite, whose elegance represents the company’s true pride: its research facilities and production lines.

As a connecting link between office building, workshop hall and the company’s corporate identity, a band in the red of the logo wraps around both building types, giving them the company’s signature.

Team

Freelance collaboration with IParch, Aachen
Dipl.-Ing. Hendrik Daniel