Administrative buildings

The brief resulted in a site-specific conflict of aims between the complex functional demands on the building housing the savings bank and other business functions and the qualitative elaboration of the residential function with particular respect to the need of integrating the planning development into the existing landscape conservation area.

A concept was proposed granting first priority to solving the urban planning and residential-functional issues involved.

The L-shaped configuration adopted both for the savings bank building and the residential complex creates a quiet, secluded open space without impinging significantly on the plan area, which is a designated conservation area.

The ensemble formed by the two right-angled wings articulates and defines the site in terms of three separate zones or areas: a semi-public courtyard space, the public street space and the landscape conservation area.  The landscape conservation area and the open space, which relates directly to the buildings, do not merge seamlessly one into the other.

The savings bank building grasps the street space and emphasizes the corner situation facing towards the town centre on Pfingstanger.  The angling of the structure into the street space serves to underline its presence and invests it with a welcome significance in relation to the town centre and Osteroder Strasse to the north.  The tier-structure of the storeys creates a scaled transition to the neighbouring buildings.

Against these somewhat heterogeneous buildings of architecturally capricious diversity, the new development sets an architecturally appropriate and less pretentious accent – reassuringly confident, while yet retaining a proper sense of scale.

As a new urban landmark of considerable presence, the savings bank building and residential block now mark the new northern limit of the town-centre area, both towards Sieber Strasse and Osteroder Strasse.

The selectively adopted “comb” structure serves both to close off the street space on Pfingstanger and to screen off the necessary goods delivery area, visually and acoustically, from the residential part of the development.