What to Expect on the Day of Architecture
This year I was able to support the Saxony Chamber of Architects as a photographer at the Day of Architecture. The event series has been around since 1993 and since 2001 the Day of Architecture has been held annually throughout Germany on the last weekend in June. I would like to show all newcomers to this format what they can expect in the coming year. I have documented four guided tours for the Chamber: the fortress and the Heliumhalle in Dresden, the main railway station in Chemnitz and the Schlossplatzquartier in Freiberg.
Dresden Fortress
We started on Saturday at 09:00 with a guided tour of Dresden Fortress by Alexander Krippstädt from the architecture firm Raum und Bau and Kai-Uwe Beger from the State Office for Real Estate and Construction Management. From the Brühl Terraces, visitors are greeted by an approx. 5 square meter grid cube, which is a very good haptic and visual representation of the impregnable character of the fortress. In two layers of a solid metal core encased in a strong lattice wall, the portal protects the entrance to the underground fortress. We step through the mirrored elevator doors into a piece of Dresden's history and descend into the catacombs of the old town.
Mr. Krippstädt and his team faced two major challenges when designing the museum in the fortress. Firstly, the building had to cause as little damage as possible to the listed walls. For this reason, all the cables for the technical installations were laid on the walls and only fixed in the joints. Secondly, the fortress is regularly flooded when the Elbe overflows its banks. The walkways can cope with the temporary flooding and the electronics can be dismantled with little effort and reinstalled after the flood.
The rooms have a damp, cold climate all year round, which demands a lot from both the materials used and the employees at Festung Xperience. Here, too, the colleagues from Raum und Bau have come up with a few ideas. The reception cubicle for employees has its own ventilation system. The projectors for the multimedia presentations are also housed in expansion tanks to protect them from the adverse conditions. As part of the tour, we were not only able to walk through the normal visitor routes but also take a look behind the scenes in the ramified side corridors of the fortress. The tour was very worthwhile for those interested in cultural history as well as for visitors with an affinity for architecture.
Helium Hall Dresden
In the second tour, we went through the helium hall currently under construction at TU Dresden. Lars-Olaf Schmidt and Eckhard Helfrich from DD1 Architekten led us through this special research building. A house is being built around a huge helium balloon, which will be located in the middle of the two-storey building. In addition to lots of research equipment, there are also four workstations for the research team on the upper floor. It was a challenge for the DD1 team to build a house on the small plot of land that would provide enough space inside for the helium balloon and at the same time fit in with the existing buildings.
When developing the site, the labyrinth of gas pipes that runs through the university complex had to be taken into account. The helium in the building is not only used for research. The new building is also the central distribution point for helium throughout the campus. The buildings are connected by a 100-year-old pipeline system.
The Helium Hall is a sub-project of the overall renovation of the Mollier Building in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
On your own
However, Saturday did not end with the official guided tours. There is a lot to discover architecturally in Dresden. In 2011, Knerer + Lang Architekten built the Center for Energy Technology right next to the Helium Hall on the grounds of TU Dresden. With its future perforated façade, the Helium Hall is intended to create a visual bridge to the ZET.
Opposite the Brühl Terraces, Nieto Sobejano is currently gutting the Archive of the Avant-Garde at the foot of the Augustus Bridge. A floating concrete cube is being inserted into the listed façade. So it won't be boring in the city on the Elbe.
Chemnitz main station
The guided tour of Chemnitz Central Station began at 10:00 on Sunday. The team from Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen took us on a tour of the multi-award-winning façade of Chemnitz Central Station. The extension, designed by Grüntuch Ernst Architekten, enables local public transport to run right into the station building. This is a unique service for passengers in Germany.
As the old steel structure of the station concourse was already projected to reach its static load limits, the new façade had to be added to the station as an independent element. As part of the extension, the existing supports were reinforced with a concrete jacket. This meant that every second support could be removed to allow streetcars to enter. The old supporting structure is protected from the strong wind forces by the new façade, which will extend its service life by several decades.
The new façade consists of around 100 frosted pneumatic cushion elements measuring up to 3.5 x 27 meters. In the evening, these cushions are illuminated with a back-tensioned network of LEDs. The inside of the hall façade is covered with a Teflon-coated glass fiber fabric, which allows plenty of daylight to shine into the station concourse.
The first guided tour to the roof of the main station also took place as part of the Day of Architecture. Such unique opportunities make this event particularly exciting. The conversion of Chemnitz Central Station is part of the Chemnitz model for the expansion of transport infrastructure in Saxony.
Schlossplatzquartier Freiberg
Immediately after the tour in Chemnitz, Thomas Obermann from BKSP Architekten inHanover came to Freiberg at 12:00 to present the new Schlossplatzquartier at TU Freiberg. Completed in March 2020, the building houses a lecture hall for 270 people, two seminar rooms and a spacious foyer. The expressive building in Freiberg's city center is already popularly nicknamed the Sarcophagus. Even if the shell of the new lecture hall building with its beautiful sandstone façade and clear sculptural edges is reminiscent of the final resting place of the pharaohs, the interior of the building is full of life.
The generously wood-clad walls in the foyer, staircase and lecture hall are reminiscent of the old university lecture halls. In the foyer we find the museum-like foundation walls of the Dominican monastery of St. Pauli, as well as a fountain and numerous tombs (which may have led to the building's nickname).
In order to equip the lecture hall for international lectures, there is plenty of technology hidden behind its walls, as well as a separate translator's booth. The striking roof construction of the Schlossplatzquartier houses the building's extensive ventilation technology, which is elegantly encased in the stone façade.
Of course, these four projects only offer a small insight into the more than 60 guided tours and events that took place over the weekend as part of the Day of Architecture 2020. For example, the new swimming complex in Dresden from my last post was also open to visitors.
For me as an architectural photographer, it was an exciting challenge not only to document the guided tours within 90 minutes, but also to capture the buildings in an exciting way. It was an interesting change from my otherwise very planned shootings.
The Saxony Chamber of Architects presented a great mix of contemporary architecture this year. I am already looking forward to the continuation of the event series in June 2021 and can only warmly recommend the Germany-wide format to all architecture enthusiasts.
