Terry Pawson Architects

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Terry Pawson Architects2001 - 2008

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Terry Pawson Architects2001 - 2008

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Terry Pawson | by Edwin Heathcote

Reflections on a developing architectureby Terry Pawson

Projects | Projekte Vernon Street OfficesLondon, UK

St Mary’s Garden HallWimbledon, UK

The Tall HouseLondon, UK

Cheltenham Art Gallery & MuseumCheltenham, UK

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary ArtCarlow, Republic of Ireland

Opera House | Neues MusiktheaterLinz, Austria

Twin HousesKingston upon Thames, UK

American ChurchLondon, UK

Competitions | Wettbewerbe

Concert Hall, Library & Art GalleryLuleå, Sweden

German National Maritime MuseumBremerhaven, Germany

Terry Pawson Biography | Biographie

Projects and competitions 2001-2008Projekte und Wettbewerbe

TPA Staff 2001-2008 | TPA Mitarbeiter

Contents | Inhalt

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© of the edition: 2008 Terry Pawson Architects© of the drawings and images: 2008 Terry Pawson Architects© of the photographs and texts: the authors, Terry Pawson ArchitectsAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.www.terrypawson.com | [email protected] | tel +44(0)2074625730

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Terry Pawson | by Edwin Heathcote

There is a kind of modernism that can seem rather un-British. An architecture of clarity, of sculptural massing and of a sophisticated, almost painterly abstraction in plan and elevation. The architecture of Terry Pawson seems to me to slot smoothly and entirely into that category. Existing on a plane above the bland and predictable tropes of contemporary commercial architecture and the indulgence of the self-conscious icon, Pawson’s work exudes a calm thoughtfulness and a concern with qualities of space, site and light.

Three small buildings in London collectively describe an approach which builds a kind of complexity through the subtle composition of a series of simple, geometric elements. St Mary’s Garden Hall in Wimbledon explores a language of the unrealised potential of emergent modernism in a simple composition of pure white solid, expansive clear and translucent glass, a tripartite vocabulary set upon a plinth of stone which draws much of its power through its striking setting against the bucolic churchyard with its sculptural monumental fragments and the robust Victorian structure. It carries surprising echoes of the sublime yet unpretentious contemporary language of the Porto School, a building at once deeply embedded in and yet sharply defined against a historic context, a building concerned with making and meaning.

In the nearby Tall House, designed for Pawson and his family, the same paradox of appropriateness and striking juxtaposition occurs in a building which plays with that most English of typologies, the suburban house whilst placing itself firmly in opposition to a traditional language of the English idyll. Here stucco, timber and glass appear to chime with the half-timbered setting yet place themselves firmly in an international tectonic context. The section reveals a far greater complexity than the tall narrow frontage would indicate. Three interlocking forms, tower, box and attenuated vault make the transition from public, opaque front to private, transparent rear. It is an interior in which the route and sequence of spaces are every bit as codified and hierarchical as that of a major public building yet which retains a clear narrative and a series of simple, superb spaces.

In Vernon Street, an exquisite office development in a typically London street of brick terraces, oddly butted up against the Deco monolith of Olympia, Pawson inserts a striking structure which is in proportion with and formally related to its urban site yet harshly different in its clear geometry and clean lines and materials. Organsied around a series of small courtyards, this building also deals with a set of awkward urban conditions, yet manages to carve out a dignified, quiet realm in which work is set against landscape and garden. It is a building which one might expect to see in Basel but is surprised and delighted to glimpse in a London back street. I have seen few better commercial buildings in a city which has almost entirely rebuilt its office stock with shockingly poor results.

In each of Pawson’s buildings their size belies their spatial complexity, the careful, considered sequences of public, semi-public and private space. Courts, gardens and yards segue smoothly into lobbies, halls and living rooms, each a natural extension of the other. Private or public the buildings are treated as sophisticated and enticing extensions of the civic realm, each imbued with the spirit of the Nolli diagram which enhances the public realm through intrigue and complexity even though that interior space may be entirely private or only visually accessible.

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Realised and as yet unrealised schemes show shifts in language but a consistency of interests; the interlocking sculptural forms of the American Church in London with its sculptural tower; the powerful, post-industrial roof forms of the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum and the Bremerhaven Ship Museum, each asserting itself against a set of existing buildings of civic presence and scale. The sketches included here are critical. Everything is there - the concept, regardless how complex, is instantly readable. Both Tony Fretton and Alvaro Siza seem to me to work through the same kind of drawings, slightly scruffy, reductivist, typological and always clear. Pawson has developed an architecture which is profoundly responsive to its cultural, physical and material setting yet which remains completely engaged with a language of modernism which has, after a century, itself become an engrained cultural tradition. Almost paradoxically it is an architecture which has the power to surprise yet to appear completely comfortable in its surroundings, as if this were the most obvious response.

Pawson’s success in Europe seems an indication that the tradition within which he works remains, unfortunately marginal in Britain, albeit perhaps one which is gathering momentum. His is not an architecture of dogmatism but of careful response within a tradition. It is the quiet, serious and thoughtful architecture of an architect who himself displays all those characteristics. Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura said that ‘when an architect designs he should not speak by barging past those who are talking and if he succeeds in making himself heard it will be solely on his own merits and not because he has forced his way past others.’ I think it is that success towards which Pawson has been quietly edging.

Edwin Heathcote is an Architectural critic, Author and Architectural correspondent for the London Financial Times.

It is natural then that the enormous leap to the next scale, the major public commissions in Austria and Ireland, constitute a seamless transition from an intimate typology of metropolitan and suburban intervention to one on a scale of major public urbanism. Both schemes, the Linz Opera House and the Carlow Art Centre aim to reposition provincial towns in small nations onto the world cultural stage. Both projects were won in competition and the success of both perhaps underline the profoundly European nature of Pawson’s work.

The Carlow Art Centre appears as an almost neo-classical structure. Its scale, massing, its formality and its relationship to the landscape recall a European tradition of enlightenment classicism encompassing Schinkel to Mies. The building revolves around a central art gallery, one of the biggest in the country and one with the capacity to receive art works which are capable of radically changing the nature of the space. In accommodating the unpredictability of future display, the architects have made this a simple but urbane space which acts as a kind of town square around which the building’s other elements - the George Bernard Shaw Theatre and the surrounding galleries spiral into smaller structures. Thus the building sets up a kind of internalised language of skyline which communicates the hierarchy of spaces. The result is a set of interlocking volumes wrapped in a cladding of translucent glass which subtly changes its expression as it folds around to embrace the different internal functions. Set in a quadrangle formed by the cathedral and the college this is a collegiate urbanism, but one which looks to the public realm rather than the enclosed world of the traditional college court. It is a building which, in its massing, expression and will is determinedly urban, a structure around which to build an expanding city centre.

The plans for the Opera House in Linz similarly confront a situation of a small city attempting to redefine itself as a cultural destination. Linz, once a Central European hub long surpassed by Vienna and Prague has successfully engineered a position as a music capital, centred around the Brucknerhaus by Finnish architects Heikki and Kaija Siren. The opera house, an ambitious scheme won by Pawson in international competition has been conceived as the building which terminates the city, the last cultural stop with a series of awkward edgeland conditions. It marks a departure in its form from earlier projects, a willingness to smoothly follow the boundaries of an awkwardly-shaped site backing onto busy rail and road conditions. Rather than the familiar accumulations of interlocking forms, in Linz the architects wrap a sheath around the internal functions, a coherent single curtain-like wall which then opens out towards the parkland outside and the city beyond in a vast covered outdoor plaza, a memory of the classical porte-cochere. It is a space which invites the activity of the city into the building, embracing it. The continuous wall, expressed as a system of vertical fins beyond which the functions, the windows, the changing nature of the building within appear as if through a gauze. It is a stage set device for a theatrical structure which needs to accommodate everything from the bourgeois urbane requirements of reception and gathering, of appearance and social manifestation to the semi-industrial spaces of a theatre’s backstage facilities, its workshops and changing rooms.

Reflections on a developing architectureby Terry Pawson

Simplicity and scale Over the past seven years, there seems to have been a certain inevitability to the upward progression in the scale of work that the practice has undertaken. In addition to this straightforward progression in size, the architectural aspirations have become more ambitious and the product more refined through a process of constant design exploration enabled by the range and complexity of the design challenges we are undertaking.

Rather than generate ever more complex architectural solutions, they have instead led to a search for simplicity and clarity – perhaps with an occasional twist of the unexpected. The larger and more complex the building, the more important it becomes to unite the disparate elements within a unifying architectural concept. Equally, using a restricted range of materials, able to span the many pragmatic and aesthetic requirements of the programme, also helps to unify and control the end result. The first completed building, the Tall House, which was finished in 2002, fragmented a rather modest structure and expressed each functional element of the brief into a distinct entity: the timber tower contained all of the bedrooms: the main hallway and stair were expressed as a brick box, and the living areas were identified by the vaulted roof that faced onto the garden. Whilst this breakdown into elements was an appropriate response for the scale of a domestic brief, other buildings designed for public use in this manner seem to be less apt.

Through a number of projects and competition entries, we have explored the idea of having a simple overarching concept that creates a structure of refined civic scale.

One of the projects used as a ‘stepping stone’ between the architecture of the house and the later commissions, is the church hall at St Mary’s. This project took a modestly scaled building and, using a simple combination of rough and smooth stone, produced a simple building form that abstracts scale in such a way that the building can feel both large and small at the same time.

Also crucial to how we have approached all of the design tasks over the past few years has been the search for an appropriate way to deal with context and how to root the building within its broader environment. In this sense, context is not just about the immediate physical surroundings but includes the wider geographical location as well as the historical and ideological framework that defines the building.

Our competition proposal for the concert hall at Grafenegg Concert Castle, which lies about an hour drive west of Vienna, takes the constructional and programmatic constraints and uses them as the basis for developing a pragmatic architectural response. The brief required a high quality concert venue to be built within a period of only 18 months, connected to a series of historically protected farm buildings located around Grafenegg Castle. In order to address the issues of time and practicality, we proposed to relocate the building away from the constraints of the listed buildings into the adjacent field of strawberries; with a remote entrance and access underground from the historic buildings that would simplify both design and construction.

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Museum Berggruen Berlin, GermanyCompetition 2008

Concert Hall Grafenegg, AustriaCompetition 2004

The main hall was a simple concrete box covered with a random pattern of bronze strips and the foyer a bronze bar’ running down one side. The formal simplicity and scale of the structure would refer to the agricultural nature of the setting and give a robust sense of materiality appropriate to the broad sweep of the farming landscape.

On a smaller scale, the proposal to connect two separate listed museum buildings that face onto the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin looked to unite the buildings with the garden, rather than with each other. The brief required the creation of a covered link at ground level between the Berggruen Gallery and the adjacent building. The garden was also to become a sculpture court. Our design was conceived as an extension to the garden railings that were proposed to enclose the garden space. This amalgamation between garden element and building element served to diffuse the perception of the built connection and allowed both buildings to read as discrete structures linked by the garden rather than another building.

Time and NarrativeArchitects often quote the idea of ‘narrative’ in architecture. To me the idea of narrative seems to be at its most potent when it is about a progression or timeline that involves moving through a building. Thus, the sequence of spaces, their order, scale, material and quality begins to tell an emotional story that may have a beginning, a middle, and an end. However, an architectural narrative in this sense must be able to work whilst not starting at the beginning – as buildings are rarely a sequence that can be experienced in only one direction. Parallels that might be drawn between architecture and the narrative in a film or a book, can only be circumstantial, as these have a linear progression that is set by the author. In particular a film, like time itself, has a fundamental rhythm and pace that structures the complete picture – the experience of architecture (rather than architecture itself), is more random and subject to how and at what pace the individual wishes to engage with the space.

Designing structures that form a meaningful sequence and at the same time can also surprise and delight, is something that influences our architecture and our preferred building typologies.

Whilst living in Rome in the early 80’s, a number of buildings particularly struck me as creating an intense spatial narrative: The church of Il Jesú (by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola), and the Villa Lante (by architects including Vignola, Bartolomeo Ammanati, Giorgio Vasari, and Michelangelo), both relate fascinating and endlessly surprising sequences of spaces and relationships that are only revealed through movement and time.

From amongst current architects, the buildings of Alvaro Siza and Tadao Ando seem to particularly understand the importance to the individual of being inside a rich and complex structure, where the forces that have influenced the interior organisation have engaged with and influenced the external envelope to find an overall resolution in the building form.

I find that a building is rather disappointing when designed as an object influenced principally by its exterior shape. Indeed, if a client asks me whether we would also design the interior of the building, the question represents a significant misunderstanding of how we perceive design and begins to subvert the very substance of what architecture can be. The inside and the outside of a building are two seamless faces of the same thing and cannot be separated without losing the essence of architectural experience.

With the proliferation of visual media being so pervasive, architecture tends to be known only by its exterior form captured and marketed as selected images. Indeed, even for architects, more buildings are inevitably experienced through the lens of a photographer than by visiting them and thereby understanding the more complex qualities that can only be appreciated by being there - context, smell, temperature, tactile qualities and the experience of time spent moving through the space are all lost to pages of a magazine or book.

Understanding and consciously avoiding the seductive temptation of designing solely for an iconic photograph, we continue to strive to develop buildings that are refined, calm and understated. Our Architecture is designed to appeal to the user by virtue of its internal three-dimensional quality and the subtle use of light, colour and texture. In addition to addressing the problems of location and brief, architecture, like art, should also stir the spirit and create a sense of engagement with space and time – as the American writer John Updike once stated “What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit”.

In Praise of ShadowsI must first acknowledge my gratitude for this title to the Japanese writer Jun’ichiro Tanizaki and his delightful book written in 1933, “In Praise of Shadows”. This book contains an inspirational and poetic text about the benefits that come from a considered respect for the more natural condition, whether this is the aforementioned shadow, or the complex patina acquired through the aging of a pewter bowel.

As in Tanizaki’s book, there has been within the last few years, a reaction against the total acceptance of modernity and technology being applied to every aspect of architectural development. It is no longer seen as the only way in which to reflect our current social attitudes; for architectural progress to be simply about making things appear ever more streamlined as a demonstration of our technological mastery over nature.

This change in attitude from the optimistic outlook of the 1950’s and 60’s seems to stem from our less certain attitude that science and technology provides a failsafe answer to our problems. Society at large seems to have recognised that life is to complex to put only into the hands of science and that the scientific failures and unexpected side affects of what appeared to be answers have left many with a sense of scepticism about so called ‘clean solutions’.

In architecture, the cultural uncertainty in looking for a purely technological solution can also be seen in the renewed interest in using materials where the process of weathering is accepted as a benefit rather than as a sign of degradation. The use of timber and brick, of weathering steel and ‘as struck’ in-situ concrete, are all becoming accepted as part of the current language of public buildings. This change of focus is not however a result of a technological contest between the materials but seems to result from a more subconscious desire to identify with a softer and less aggressive approach. The use of these alternative materials in buildings such as art galleries, museums, theatres, concert halls and libraries is highly significant, as these buildings both inform and reflect our cultural aspirations.

None of this is to imply that modern architecture should take a step backward toward some idyllic past, indeed I fervently believe that architecture is an art that must go forward and work with emerging technology. However, I also believe it should be recognised that architecture is a creative process full of choices. There are no absolute answers and there is always another way of considering each issue – nevertheless, it is important that choices are made and that these choices are informed by a process of creative exploration and informed debate.

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Projects 2001 - 2008 | Projekte

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Vernon Street OfficesLondon, UK 2001 - 2006

Building commissions often come from unexpected sources, and the approach by the owner of an international soft-toy company to design his London headquarters was no exception. The new building would be set within a west London conservation area amongst predominantly two storey brick-built housing and adds a substantial independent extension to the 1913 grade II listed former Magistrates Courthouse designed by the Edwardian architect, John Dixon Butler.

Bauaufträge entspringen oft unerwarteten Quellen, und so bildete die Anfrage eines internationalen Herstellers von Plüschtieren, seinen Londoner Hauptsitz zu entwerfen, keine Ausnahme. Der Neubau sollte in einem denkmalgeschützten Bereich des Londoner Westens inmitten überwiegend zweistöckiger Backsteinhäuser entstehen, und zwar als eine wesentliche und unabhängige Erweiterung zu dem denkmalgeschützten (Grade II listed) Magistrates Courthouse (Amtsgericht) von 1913, das von John Dixon Butler, dem führenden Architekten zur Zeit Edwards VII, entworfen wurde.

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elevation | Ansicht

Working within such a sensitive context required a confident architectural approach that would respect the existing environment and would also produce a building that had its own identity.

The finished building is made from white cast stone, and the sculptural form of the new building makes a strikingly modern composition at the end of the Edwardian terrace. However, as the design evolved from the tectonic form of the old courthouse, the prevailing urban scale and rhythm of the street has been maintained.

The façade directly facing the street has been designed with flush translucent glass and is further accentuated with an asymmetrical arrangement of deep openings that accentuates the impression of building mass. On the western aspect, an external sunscreen is made from bronzed steel, whilst cubic roof-lights in translucent structural glass make a direct reference to the earlier Edwardian leaded lanterns on the Old Magistrates Court.

Working closely with the owner, each of the office spaces were designed as discrete rooms relating to one of the three, planted courtyards that punctuate the plan creating an introspective, private working landscape. The spatial fluidity between internal and external spaces gives the internal organisation of the building a scale and specificity more usual in domestic architecture than that of the usual modern office space.

As part of the same building contract, the former Magistrates Court was carefully adapted and restored to work as a separate office building. In addition to the main courtrooms and offices, and as a poignant reminder of the building’s history, six of the Court’s original cells were retained and integrated into the layout of the new construction, complete with their heavy iron doors, locks and rather ‘colourful’ inmate’s graffiti.

Die Arbeit in einem derart sensiblen Kontext erforderte einen sicheren architektonischen Ansatz, der dem vorhandenen Umfeld Respekt zollen, dabei jedoch ein Gebäude eigener Identität hervorbringen würde.

Der Bau besteht aus weißem Kunststein, sein skulpturaler Charakter schließt die Edwardische Häuserzeile mit einer überraschend modernen Komposition ab. Dabei wurde aus der tektonischen Form des alten Gerichtsgebäudes ein Entwurf entwickelt, der den bestehenden urbanen Maßstab und Rhythmus der Straße bewahrt.

Die zur Strasse gelegenen Öffnungen wurden flächenbündig mit opakem Glas gestaltet. Zusätzlich wird die Baumasse durch die asymmetrische Anordnung tiefliegender Öffnungen und Einschnitte betont. Auf der Westseite befindet sich ein externer Sonnenschutz aus bronziertem Stahl, während Lichtkuben aus opakem Glas einen direkten Bezug zu den frühen Edwardschen Bleiglaslaternen des Alten Magistrates Court herstellen.

In enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Auftraggeber wurden alle Büroflächen als diskrete Einzelräume gestaltet, die jeweils auf einen der drei begrünten Innenhöfe ausgerichtet sind. So entsteht ein introvertiertes, privates Arbeitsumfeld. Das Ineinanderfließen von Innen- und Außenräumen gibt dem Gebäude eine Dimension und Prägung, die eher aus der Wohnarchitektur herrührt als aus dem herkömmlichen modernen Bürobau.

Als Teil desselben Bauauftrags wurde der frühere Magistrates Court sorgfältig, seiner Funktion als separates Bürogebäude entsprechend adaptiert und restauriert. Zusätzlich zu den Haupt-Gerichtssälen und Büros und als einprägsame Erinnerung an die geschichtliche Bestimmung des Gebäudes wurden sechs der ursprünglichen Gerichtszellen mit ihren schweren Eisentüren, Schlössern und den recht ‘ausdrucksstarken’ Graffiti der Insassen erhalten und in das Konzept des neuen Gebäudes integriert.

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long section | Längsschnitt short section | Querschnitt

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facade section | Fassadenschnitt

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1 frameless structural glazing | Rahmenlose selbsttragende Verglasung2 roof construction | Dachaufbau3 structural glazed rooflight | selbsttragende Oberlichtverglasung4 reconstituted stone parapet block | Kunststein Attika Block5 reconstituted ashlar stone | Kunststeinfassade6 stainless steel cavity wall support | Edelstahlaufhängung für Kunststeinfassade7 reconstituted stone soffit panel | Kunststein Fenstersturz Panel8 reconstituted stone cill panel | Kunststein Fensterbank Panel9 basement construction | Kellerwandaufbau

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St Mary’s Garden HallWimbledon, UK 2001 - 2003

Wimbledon Village is no longer the isolated and idyllic English countryside location it once was, but now resides firmly within the intensely developed and wealthy suburban outskirts of London. In this milieu of conservative English architecture lies the Grade II listed Church of St Mary’s where we were asked to design a new public hall for use by the local community.

The present church was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1843, and completes a continuous line of ecclesiastical buildings that have occupied this site since 1086. As with many village church’s, the surrounding land contains a fascinating concentration of local history including a disused artesian well that has been converted into a house and the stone tomb of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, engineer of the London sewer system. The new hall is a rare but significant contemporary addition to this preserved village-like context.

Wimbledon ist nicht mehr das abgelegene und idyllische englische Landörtchen von damals. Das Dorf ist inzwischen Kernstück der dicht besiedelten und wohlhabenden Londoner Randbezirke. In diesem Milieu konservativer englischer Architektur liegt die denkmalgeschützte Kirche St. Mary, für welche ein neues Gemeindezentrum entworfen werden sollte.

Die bestehende Kirche wurde 1843 von Sir George Gilbert Scott als letztes einer Reihe von Gotteshäusern entworfen, die an diesem Ort seit 1086 erbaut wurden. Wie bei vielen Dorfkirchen konzentriert sich um sie in faszinierender Weise die lokale Geschichte. Im Falle von St. Mary gehört dazu auch ein stillgelegter artesischer Brunnen, der zu einem Haus und zu einem steinernen Grabmal für Sir Joseph Bazalgette, dem Baumeister des Londoner Abwassersystems, umfunktioniert wurde. Diese neue Halle ist eine der seltenen, aber visuell prägenden zeitgenössischen Ergänzungen dieses denkmalgeschützten dörflichen Kontexts.

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site plan | Lageplan

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section | Schnitt


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In order to emphasise the status of the new building within its context, our design deliberately uses an abstraction of scale to create a powerful architectonic presence, reminiscent of the exaggerated architectural language of Bazalgette’s mausoleum.

The quality and substance of the materials used in the construction was one of the most significant influences for the final design, involving the re-interpretation of materials used in the existing church. White limestone ashlar with a contrasting rough, blue/brown dry-stone wall on the street elevation defines the main enclosure, whilst a translucent glazed roof light or ‘light-bar’ provides a glowing counterpoint to the more massive stonework.

Overall, the building has fitted sympathetically into its context, creating a valuable community resource as well as reinforcing the presence of the church to the community.

Um den Status des neuen Baus innerhalb dieses Umfelds hervorzuheben, bedient sich der Entwurf einer Abstraktion der Maßstäblichkeit, um eine ausdrückliche architektonische Präsenz auch ohne Verwendung reiner Baumasse zu schaffen, und knüpft damit an die überhöhte Archtitektursprache des Bazalgette-Mausoleums an.

Weiße Kalksteinquader, die mit einer rauen, blau/braunen, der Strasse folgenden Trockensteinmauer kontrastieren, definieren den Hauptkomplex, während ein opak verglastes Oberlicht einen leuchtenden Kontrast zum massiven Mauerwerk schafft.

Insgesamt konnte das Gebäude als eigenständiges Element in seinen Kontext eingebettet werden und wird damit zu einem wertvollen Gemeinschaftsgut, das gleichzeitig die Repräsentanz der Kirche verstärkt.

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Set on a narrow sloping site overlooking the leafy suburbs of South-West London, the house is a measured reaction to the traditional and conservative suburban context, whilst its internal organisation is inspired by the spatial intricacy and architectural density of the house in Lincolns Inn Fields by the architect Sir John Soane.

Built adjacent to a mature oak tree, the house is made predominantly of timber and brick, deliberately reflecting the traditional materials of the area. However, the way in which these materials are used within the building creates a new architectural language that is contemporary and does not resort to pastiche in order to parody the other near-by houses.

Dieses Privathaus, gebaut auf einem sehr engen, am Hang gelegenen Grundstück, bietet eine fantastische Aussicht über die grünen Vororte in Londons Südwesten. Seine Gliederung ist inspiriert von der komplexen Raumstruktur und architektonischen Dichte des Lincoln Inn Fields Hauses, welches vom englischen Architekt Sir John Soane geplant wurde.

Das „Tall House“ ist vorwiegend aus Holz und Ziegeln gebaut und reflektiert bewusst die traditionell verwendeten Baustoffe der Gegend. Allerdings entsteht durch die Art, wie die Materialien eingesetzt werden, eine neue zeitgemäße Architektursprache, die sich nicht damit behilft, die umgebenden Häuser zu parodieren.

The Tall HouseLondon, UK 2001 - 2002

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elevation | Ansicht

section A | Schnitt A


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102mm thick engineering brick tied to timber studwork using stainless steel wall ties

ventilated air gap

breather membrane stapled to plywood sheathing

timber studwork inner leaf:-15mm wbp plywood sheathing-150 x 50 sw. studs at 400 centres-150mm insulation-vapour barrier-15mm plasterboard with plaster skim finish

weep hole

2no. 114 x 114 SHS welded together. 10mm steel plate supports brickwork

150 x 75mm parallel flanged channel cut to form shadow detail and fixing for window head. Micaceous oxide finish.

acid etched double glazed unit silicone bonded to stainless steel angles

stainless steel drip

150 x 75mm parallel flanged channel [MIO finish]

50mm insulation [full cavity fill]

150mm thermal blockwork

15mm hard plaster finish

150mm thick in-situ RC spine wall to stairs

clear double glazed roof light

Brickwork head detail to permit differential movement of brickwork and timber stud

waxed, brushed mild steel handrails and balustrades. 20 x44mm ms flat.

225mm thick, in-situ, waterproof concrete retaining structure

127 x 76mm stainless steel masonry support angle fixed to RC

lead flashing dressed beneath soldier course and over glazing bar

dark, riven slate floor and stair finish

slate floor finish

underfloor heating in screed on polythene sheet

50mm rigid insulation

stainless steel angle built into brickwork

64 x 51mm ss.angle supporting window framing. 10mm nylon packers iused for thermal isolation

cavity tray dressed from inner blockwork to underside of channel

20 x 44 brushed mild steel rail fixed into RC

20 x 44 brushed mild steel rail fixed into RC using resin bonded anchors

external ground level.

no protruding fixings on steelwork

18mm thk MDF cill [white]

detail section | Detailschnitt

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section B | Schnitt B

The main organizing element of the house is the principal stair that sits centrally in the plan, becoming both conduit and separator between the living spaces that face the garden and the more private bedroom spaces that are contained in the oak clad tower.

Internally, the simplicity of the plan combined with an interlocking three-dimensional geometry, has produced a rich internal spatial sequence where sunlight penetrates into every corner of the building. Unexpected vistas, hidden voids and the use of two staircases, create a route through that gives a sense of surprise and delight. Places have been carefully designed for sculpture and paintings to be displayed without the whole feeling like an art gallery; the house resolutely remains a private domestic space.

Wesentliches Strukturelement des Hauses ist die Haupttreppe. Sie nimmt die Mitte des Grundrisses ein und dient gleichzeitig als Verbindung und Trennung zwischen den auf den Garten ausgerichteten Wohnbereichen und den eher privaten Schlafräumen im Eichenholz-verschalten Turm.

Im Inneren ergibt sich durch die Einfachheit des Grundrisses eine weitläufige Raumsequenz, in der das Sonnenlicht jeden Winkel erreicht. Überraschende Ausblicke und versteckte Freiräume lassen beim Durchqueren des Hauses unterschiedliche überraschende Momente und Situationen entstehen. Die Standorte für Skulpturen und Bilder wurden sorgfältig gestaltet, damit nicht die Atmosphäre einer Kunstgalerie aufkommt. Das Haus bleibt nachdrücklich ein privater Wohnort.

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axonometric | Axonometrie

section model | Schnittmodell

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Cheltenham Art Gallery & MuseumCheltenham, UK 2001 - 2002

In 2002, as part of the ongoing national ‘Lottery’ funded program of arts investment, Cheltenham Borough Council planned to enlarge the existing Art Gallery and accommodate the expanding Arts and Crafts collection of the Museum. The scheme we developed looked to improve the otherwise labyrinthine circulation of the existing agglomeration of buildings, first inaugurated as a gallery in 1899 and subsequently added to and adapted in a piecemeal fashion over the next 100 years.

Partly in recognition of its nationally important collection, and partly as a response to the substantial architecture of the adjoining listed building; the spirit of Arts and Crafts became a theme for the architectural development, with the expressive use of natural materials proposed for the new building revealing the process and craft of the construction. The facade and roof are in Corten steel and the concrete structure is expressed internally with exposed coffered ceilings and smooth cast concrete walls.

2002 plante der Stadtrat von Cheltenham einen Teil der Mittel aus dem durch die nationale Lotterie’ finanzierten laufenden Kunstförderungsprogramm, zur Erweiterung der bestehenden Kunstgalerie zu verwenden, in der die stetig wachsenden Kunst- und Kunsthandwerk-Sammlungen des Museums untergebracht werden konnte. Der von uns entwickelte Ansatz bemüht sich um eine Verbesserung der labyrinthartigen Besucherführung in der derzeit bestehenden Gebäude-Agglomeration, die 1899 als Galerie eröffnet und in den folgenden 100 Jahren immer wieder stückweise erweitert und angepasst wurde.

In Würdigung der Sammlung von nationaler Bedeutung einerseits und als Antwort auf die substantielle Architektur des benachbarten denkmalgeschützten Bauwerks andererseits wurde der Geist dieses Museums für Kunst und Kunsthandwerk zum Gestaltungsthema. So wurden für den Neubau ausdruckstarke natürliche Materialien vorgeschlagen, die den Vorgang und das Handwerk des Erbauens sichtbar machen. Fassade und Dach sind in Corten Stahl ausgeführt. Im Inneren ist die Betonkonstruktion in Form der offenen Kassettendecken und den Wänden aus glattem Gussbeton sichtbar.

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In order to rationalize the public route through the building, the connection between the entrance and the main gallery level on the top floor is clarified by introducing a wide stair that rises up within a full height volume. The stair and the entrance lobby are lit from above by a series of tall north-lights that also span across the full width of the main gallery.

At the head of the stair is a five-meter high window that faces across the churchyard toward St Mary’s, the medieval Grade I listed parish church of Cheltenham, and an apposite reference to local context.


first floor | 1.Obergeschoss

second floor | 2.Obergeschoss

model photograph of front elevation | Modellfoto der Vorderansicht

Um den Besucherstrom im Gebäude sinnvoll zu lenken, wird die Verbindung zwischen Eingang und der Hauptebene der Galerie im oberen Stockwerk durch eine großzügige Treppenhalle verdeutlicht. Das Licht für Treppe und Eingangsbereich fällt durch eine Reihe großer Nord-Oberlichter ein, die die volle Breite der Hauptgalerie einnehmen.

Am Treppenkopf gibt ein fünf Meter hohes Fenster den Blick über den Kirchhof auf die mittelalterliche Pfarrkirche von Cheltenham frei, wodurch ein angemessener Bezug zum lokalen Kontext geschaffen wird.

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VISUAL Centre for Contemporary ArtCarlow, Republic of Ireland 2004 - 2008

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Won as the result of an open architectural design competition, the Arts Centre is set within the grounds of St Patrick’s College in the centre of Carlow. Together with the existing College and the City Cathedral, they front onto a generous lawned quadrangle that opens out toward the City centre.

The building contains a series of galleries, including a large twelve meter high space that will enable the display of large contemporary artworks, not currently able to be shown anywhere else in Ireland. In addition to the gallery, the building also has a restaurant and a 350-seat end-on, proscenium theatre.

The architectural language of the building has been developed as an intersecting assembly of opaque glass volumes that transforms subtly throughout the day as light passing through the building skin reflects within the deep wall zone in a ever changing ways. As the evening comes and the daylight fades, the building also mutates between the more contemplative and introspective daytime use as an Art Gallery, to the more exuberant night time activity of theatre and performance space.

Mit diesem Entwurf gewannen wir einen internationalen offenen Wettbewerb für ein neues Kunstzentrum, das auf dem Gelände des St Patrick’s College im Zentrum von Carlow errichtet werden sollte. Der gesamte Komplex mit dem College und der Kathedrale von Carlow orientiert sich hin zu einem großzügigen Rasenplatz, der sich zum Stadtzentrum hin öffnet.

Das Gebäude besteht aus mehreren Galerien und gliedert sich um einen großzügigen zwölf Meter hohen Innenraum, der erlaubt, großformatige, zeitgenössische Kunstwerke auszustellen. Neben den Galerien bietet das neue Kulturzentrum auch ein Restaurant und ein klassisches Proszeniumtheater mit 350 Sitzen.

Das Gebäude wird von sich kreuzenden opaken Oberlichtern durchzogen, die im Laufe des Tages die Atmosphäre im Inneren des Gebäudes durch das einfallende Licht immer wieder verwandeln. Mit dem Schwinden des Tageslichts wechselt das Gebäude aus seiner eher kontemplativen und introvertierten Rolle als Kunstgalerie in die abendliche Festlichkeit eines Theater- und Aufführungsortes.

visualisation | Visualisierung

first floor | 1. Obergeschoss


lower ground floor | Untergeschoss

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elevation | Ansicht

visualisation | Visualisierung

Carlow Town and the county to which it gives its name are situated in a part of Ireland that has been urbanised since the Norman invasion of the 12th century. Here the towns are more elaborate than elsewhere in the country. Rather than following the model of the sraidbhaile, the “street-town”, located on an ancient trade route and widened where necessary into a rough rectangle or triangle to form a market place, the towns of south-east Ireland display more complex patterns of organisation, reminiscent of those on the European mainland, though this is not to say they are exact facsimiles.

While streets may be laid out as crossroads and in grid patterns, the shapes made are approximate; while there may be defined routes and public squares, these urban gestures are executed modestly rather than grandly. So an axis may be laid out with buildings aligned on one side only, or be focused on a church or courthouse or the house of the local grandee with a centralised porch or door case but asymmetrical wings; or a public square will be trapezoidal in plan, or will have only three sides, the fourth perhaps consisting of a line of trees or a river bank.

Such economy in plan is often paralleled by a restrained palette of materials in elevation. In Carlow the beautiful, pale grey, hard local limestone is everywhere: not just as cut blocks but also ground into cement for renders, which historically were then washed with the same lime in whites and pinks. The inherent austerity of these approaches, which speaks to a frugality in the Irish character that foreigners often miss, is mitigated by the picturesque effects that arise when these are overlaid on differing topographies, sometimes natural but often man-made.

Carlow Town exhibits these features in abundance, and it is in this context that Terry Pawson Architects’ Visual Arts Centre and George Bernard Shaw Theatre must sit. Pawson won the commission in competition in 2005, and construction recently started. But the project occupies a larger footprint than the practice’s original proposal, owing to the dropping of a stipulation within the competition brief that a ruined stone wall should be retained.

The site is right in the centre of town on one side of a green space dominated by a large 19th century seminary, and is overlooked by the side of Carlow’s miniature Roman Catholic cathedral. It was occupied by a group of agricultural sheds painted green. The urban context of the projects displays the characteristic mixture of formally loose planning and topographically picturesque composition.

Terry Pawson Architects has observed this context with an accurate eye and responded to it with subtlety and skill. The main gallery is a simple rectangular box which asserts itself externally as the tallest form in the composition, and is entered centrally on its long axis. This straightforward gesture ties the new building not only to its forceful neighbours but also to a dominant aspect of the town plan. The other major spaces of the building — the theatre and the lesser galleries — spiral around the main room, descending and ascending as the topography, partly natural and partly manmade, dictates. Again, a striking characteristic of the town is recalled in miniature. Acute observations continue around the main entrance — a feature of the design that enjoyed significant elaboration once the site was expanded.

An elongated limestone wall echoes those in the town and speaks “boundary” to a local mind familiar with such structures, while also providing a tidy way to organise the inevitable clutter of signage that public buildings attract. This wall signals the start of a switchback sequence of entry that is deeply reminiscent of Irish public buildings where the pomposity of entering on axis is immediately deflated into a sociable swirling movement. The evocation of the memorable and the familiar also informs the palette of materials in the interior. The combination of stone, concrete and wood in the entrance hall reminds the visitor of the strategy often used in Ireland when restoring ruined medieval buildings; the simple plastered walls of the galleries make these rooms recede politely so that the art contained within them can dominate.

Outside, the hierarchy of the interior spaces is reflected in the topographical massing of their volumes. They are clad in a greenish glass, which nods towards the green-painted agricultural sheds that formerly occupied the site.

Terry Pawson Architects is to be commended for avoiding the contemporary temptation to offer Carlow an “iconic” building. Its considered engagement with the existing urban context, which requires study to uncover, will make a building that embeds itself in the town from the start. This is not to argue that the practice has proposed something timid and self-effacing. On the contrary, its manipulation of the interior volumes and its restrained proposals for construction, particularly in the gallery that can accept large art works, will provide a vital springboard for art of the future, most certainly in Ireland, and probably also in the wider world. The opening of this building in December will be signature enough.

This article was originally published in BD on 11 January 2008 and reproduced with their kind permission.

Engaging art | by Robert Payne

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cast face to link gallery wall | Sichtbetonwand der Foyergalerie visualisation main gallery | Visualisierung der Hauptgalerie

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Opera House | Neues Musiktheater - Linz, Austria 2006 - 2012 The City of Linz sits on the banks of the Danube, some 250 kilometres west of Vienna and our winning proposal for the new Opera House is the result of the open international design competition I 2006. Construction of the building is scheduled to run from 2009, the year in which Linz shares the status of European Capital of Culture with Vilnius, through to 2012 when the Opera House is scheduled to open for public for performances.

Our design has a major influence on the character of the city and has required moving a busy inner city duel carriageway in order to allow the building to sit as a solitaire building on the corner of the Volksgarden, or ‘Peoples Park. Together with the park, the building creates a cultural focus at the end of the main avenue through the City linking to the Hauptplatz and the River Danube.

Die Stadt Linz liegt an den Ufern der Donau – etwa 250 Kilometer westlich von Wien. Mit unserem Vorschlag für das neue Opernhaus sind wir 2006 als Gewinner eines internationalen offenen Wettbewerbs hervorgegangen. Mit dem Bau des neuen Hauses soll 2009 begonnen werden, dem Jahr, in dem Linz zusammen mit Vilnius Europäische Kulturhauptstadt sein wird. Bis 2012 soll die Oper fertig gestellt und eröffnet werden.

Der Neubau wird großen Einfluss auf den Charakter der Stadt nehmen, indem eine stark befahrene vierspurige Innenstadtstraße verlegt wird, damit das Gebäude als Einzelbauwerk den geplanten Standort an der Ecke des Volksgartens einnehmen kann. Zusammen mit dem Park bildet der Bau einen kulturellen Brennpunkt an der Mündung der Hauptdurchgangsstraße der Stadt Linz, die zum Hauptplatz und zur Donau führt.

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section | Schnitt

plan | Grundriss

The façade is formed from deeply modulated weathering steel, introducing a consistent vertical element that wraps the building like a curtain, the curtain then being drawn open as it faces the park. The strong vertical rhythm unifies the façade and echoes the idea of an enfilade of classical columns, making reference to both the traditional grandeur of Viennese theatres such as the Burgtheater and the Staatsoper in Vienna as well as the modernism of rationalist architects such as Terragni and Moretti.

This theme is developed further in the interior, with vertical screens of ever increasing fineness being used to define and unify the public areas, and leading ultimately to the main performance space that is wrapped in a veil from slender timber louvres.

The building plan organises the complex programme of an opera house into a simple diagram. Public spaces are organised next to the park, with workshops and ancillary service spaces pushed to the rear. Along the north side of the building are placed the dressing rooms and practice areas, set along an internal street which is punctuated by a series of light wells, each one dedicated to the separate disciplines of Ballet, Orchestra, and Choir.

Die Fassade wird durch stark modulierten Verwitterungsstahl gebildet. Es wird ein durchgehendes vertikales Element geschaffen, das das Gebäude wie ein Vorhang umhüllt – ein Vorhang allerdings, der auf der Seite aufgezogen wird, auf der sich der Bau zum Park hinwendet. Der starke vertikale Rhythmus vereinheitlicht die Fassade und lässt die Vorstellung einer klassischen Säulenflucht erkennen, wodurch ein Bezug sowohl zum traditionellen Glanz der Wiener Theater, wie dem Burgtheater und der Staatsoper, als auch zum Modernismus der rationalistischen Architektur etwa von Terragni und Moretti entsteht.

Im Innenraum werden vertikale Holzlamellen eingesetzt um die öffentlichen Bereiche zu definieren. Der Hauptaufführungssaal ist in einen Schleier filigraner Naturholzjalousien gehüllt.

Der Bauplan ordnet das komplexe Programm eines Opernhauses in einem einfachen Diagramm an. Die öffentlichen Räume befinden sich in der Nähe des Parks, die Werkstätten und Servicebereiche in dem vom Park abgewandten Gebäudeteil. Auf der Nordseite liegen die Garderoben und Übungsräume quasi entlang einer innen liegenden Straße, die durch eine Reihe von Lichthöfen unterteilt wird, wobei jeder dieser Abschnitte den einzelnen Disziplinen, dem Ballet, dem Orchester und dem Chor, zugeordnet ist.

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model studies | Modellstudien

facade studies | Fassadenstudien

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entrance foyer | Eingangsfoyer

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auditorium | Auditorium

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Twin Houses - Kingston upon Thames, UK 2007 - 2009

short section | Querschnitt

Diese beiden großen Einfamilienhäuser befinden sich in einer ruhigen Vorortstraße eines Londoner Außenbezirks. Eines der Häuser wurde für den Auftraggeber selbst entworfen, das andere soll verkauft werden.

Die Häuser werden unterschiedlich ausgerichtet und versetzt angeordnet, sind jedoch ansonsten identisch. Durch die Versetzung wird der Effekt einer visuellen Trennung der beiden Bauten erzielt. Dieser Effekt wird verstärkt durch die Erdgeschossmauern, die die Innenhöfe umgeben, jedoch nach außen wirken, als seien sie bloße Gartenmauern, ohne jede sichtbare Fensteröffnung.

Beide Häuser sind über drei Stockwerke um einen zentralen Innenhof angeordnet. Von diesem Innenhof aus erreicht man den Hauptgarten. Von der Straße erscheinen die Gebäude lediglich zweistöckig. Durch direkten Tageslichteinfall über den abgesenkten Innenhof lässt sich im Souterrain hochqualitativer Wohnraum schaffen und darüber hinaus eine interessante Raumanordnung gestalten.

siteplan | Lageplan

These two large family houses designed in white stone are located on a quiet suburban road on the outskirts of London. One house has been designed for the owner of the site and the other is for sale and will be built at the same time.

The houses are handed and displaced in plan, but are otherwise identical. This displacement makes a positive visual separation between the two structures, which is then further reinforced by making the single storey walls enclosing the courtyards appear to be merely garden walls with no apparent fenestration.

Each house is arranged over three floors and organised around a central courtyard that connects through to the main garden and brings daylight into the basement level. From the street, the buildings appear to be on only two floors, but the sunken courtyard creates an opportunity to make viable quality living space in the basement as well as developing a more interesting spatial arrangement.

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basement | Untergeschoss

first floor | 1.Obergeschoss

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American ChurchLondon, UK 2001 - 2007

Der schlicht gestaltete Ziegelbau der Amerikanischen Kirche aus den 1950er Jahren befindet sich unmittelbar neben einem kleinen städtischen Platz. Die Front des Gebäudes schaut auf die Tottenham Court Road, eine der belebtesten Straßen des Londoner West End. An der Stelle des jetzigen Baus stand früher eine wesentlich größere viktorianische Kirche, die in den letzten Tagen des Zweiten Weltkriegs zerstört wurde.

Gebetsraum und Vorhalle der heutigen Kirche liegen erhöht, was den Zugang für ältere und behinderte Menschen problematisch macht. Dies sowie der Mangel an Platz für andere kirchliche Aktivitäten waren die Motivation für die geplanten Veränderungen. Von gleichrangiger Bedeutung war jedoch die Notwendigkeit, die Präsenz der Kirche zu stärken, da der Blick auf den Kirchenbau fast völlig durch hohe Platanen versperrt ist, welche diesen Abschnitt der Tottenham Court Road säumen.

Der Entwurf ist sowohl eine Erweiterung des Innenraums als auch eine Bereicherung der Komposition des bestehenden symmetrischen Gebäudes, um eine ausgewogene und logisch zusammenhängende architektonische Struktur zu schaffen.

Der Entwurf sieht auf der Südseite der Kirche eine einstöckige Erweiterung vor, die den Lichtschacht einnimmt, der von der großen Krypta des früheren Gebäudes gebildet wird, und tritt zur Hauptstraße hin mit einem schlanken Steinturm aus dem Blätterbaldachin der Bäume heraus. Am Sockel des Turms und neben dem neuen Eingang befindet sich eine winzige “Straßenkapelle” mit einer gegliederten Steinmauer, die dem oberen Teil der bestehenden Mauer der Krypta entspringt und dazu beiträgt, die Grenze zum öffentlichen Platz neu und angemessen zu definieren.

elevation | Ansicht

Occupying a simply detailed 1950’s brick building, the American Church sits next to a small urban park and faces Tottenham Court Road, one of London’s busiest West End streets. The current building was built on the site of a much larger Victorian church that was destroyed during the final days of the Second World War.

The current Church has its Sanctuary and Narthex on the first floor and this creates problems of access for the old and disabled that, together with the lack of space for other church activities, was the pragmatic motivation behind the planned changes. However, of equal importance was the church’s need to increase its presence on the street, as views of the existing building are all but obscured by a line of mature London Plane trees that run along this section of Tottenham Court Road.

Using tectonic elements that are common to many London churches, our scheme extends and rationalises the internal space and adds to the composition of the existing symmetrical building in order to create a balanced and coherent architectural syntax.

The proposed design places a single storey extension to the south of the church, filling in the light-well formed by the large crypt of the previous building, and steps forward through the canopy of trees toward the main street with a slender stone tower. At the bottom of the tower and next to the new entrance, is a tiny ‘street chapel’, with an articulated masonry wall that springs from the top of the existing crypt wall, helps to re-define an appropriate boundary to the public park.

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model studies | Modellstudien


elevation | Ansicht

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Concert Hall, Library & Art GalleryLuleå, Sweden 2004

Our competition proposal for a new cultural centre sits in front of the main body of the town on a key site overlooking the natural harbour. The proposed building uses this unique location to respond to the scale of the landscape and the grand sweep of the Bay.

The remote town of Luleå is located on the Northern edge of the Baltic Sea, just outside the Arctic Circle. The town feels like an isolated outpost of civilization, with an atmosphere dominated by endless swathes of pine forest and an environment, which in summer provides twenty-four hours of daylight and in winter, deep snow with only a brief period of daily twilight.

Unser Wettbewerbsentwurf platziert das neue Kulturzentrum vor dem eigentlichen Stadtkörper an einen Schlüsselstandort mit Blick über die nahe gelegene Bucht. Das geplante Gebäude korrespondiert in dieser einzigartigen Lage mit der Dimension und der Kontur der grandiosen Landschaft.

Die entlegene Stadt Luleå liegt am Nordrand des Bottnischen Meerbusens knapp unter dem Polarkreis. Eingetaucht in endlose Nadelwälder vermittelt die Stadt den Eindruck eines isolierten Außenpostens der Zivilisation in einer Gegend, in der es im Sommer 24 Stunden taghell ist und die im Winter tiefen Schnee und nur kurze Dämmerlichtphasen zu bieten hat.

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long section | Längsschnitt

short section | Querschnitt

Vertical timber slats on the outside of the façade make an allusion to the abstract pattern of light and shade in the forest; rather like looking through a dense stand of trees. The untreated timber louvres will weather naturally with age turning silver grey, and the double skinned main façade is tied together by a steel sub-structure with timber both internally and externally.

The new Culture Centre is conceived as a building with its functions layered vertically. The Library and Art Gallery are located on the ground and first floor. These levels also contain foyer spaces and a café, ensuring a pluralistic and lively mix of uses on the entry level. The upper levels are dedicated to the main Concert Hall and the smaller flat floored Congress Hall.

The cultural density of the proposed project, together with its prominent location in the town, give this building immense significance for the remote Arctic town of Luleå.

Vertikale Holzplanken an der Außenfassade spielen mit dem abstrakten Motiv von Licht und Schatten in den Wäldern. Das unbehandelte Holz wird sich mit den Jahren durch den natürlichen Verwitterungsprozess silbergrau färben. Die Innen- und Außenverkleidung der doppelschaligen Hauptfassade sind durch eine Stahl-Unterkonstruktion hinterlegt.

Das neue Kulturzentrum ist als Gebäude konzipiert, dessen Funktionsbereiche vertikal geschichtet sind. Bibliothek und Kunstgalerie befinden sich im Erdgeschoss und im ersten Stock. Auf diesen Ebenen finden sich auch Foyer-Bereiche und ein Café. So ist ein vielseitiger und lebhafter Nutzungsmix in Nähe des Eingangsbereichs gewährleistet. In den oberen Geschossen sind die Konzerthalle und die kleinere Kongresshalle vorgesehen.

Aufgrund der Dichte des kulturellen Angebots des Projekts und seines herausragenden Standorts kommt diesem Bau eine immense Bedeutung für die Stadt Luleå zu.

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fourth floor | 4. Obergeschoss

third floor | 3. Obergeschoss


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German National Maritime MuseumBremerhaven, Germany 2008

Our competition proposal to extend the Museum focused on a desire to see the existing Museum become connected to the water and the historic boats that form an important part of the collection.

The Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum, (German National Maritime Museum), was founded in the German port of Bremerhaven in 1971 as a replacement for the Museum of Marine Science in Berlin, which had been destroyed during World War II. The building designed by Hans Scharoun was first opened to the public in 1975. Constructed from light coloured brick and with his characteristically fragmented roofline, the Scharoun building was extended in 2000 by Dietrich Bangert.

The two existing linked buildings sit within the heart of the old dock area; pressed between, yet somehow remote from the historic stone dock basin and the grass banked sea defences that line the mouth of the River Weser. This lack of engagement between the existing buildings and the historic dock seems at odds with the obvious practical connection and seems to undermine its role as a centre for Maritime research and conservation.

Bestimmend für unseren Wettbewerbsentwurf zur Erweiterung des Museums ist der Wunsch, eine Verbindung zwischen dem bestehenden Museumskomplex und dem Hafenbecken zu schaffen, dessen historische Schiffe wichtige Ausstellungsstücke sind.

Das Deutsche Schiffahrtsmuseum wurde 1971 in der norddeutschen Hafenstadt Bremerhaven gegründet und sollte das im II. Weltkrieg zerstörte Berliner Museum für Meereskunde ersetzen. Das von Hans Scharoun entworfene Museumsgebäude öffnete 1975 seine Tore für die Öffentlichkeit. Der Scharoun-Bau mit seiner hellen Ziegelfassade und der charakteristischen, gebrochenen Dachlinie wurde im Jahr 2000 von Dietrich Bangert erweitert.

Das bestehende Gebäudeensemble befindet sich im Herzen der alten Hafenanlagen. Eingekeilt zwischen dem historischen steinernen Hafenbecken und dem grasbewachsenen Weserdeich, scheint es dennoch davon entfernt zu liegen. Diese fehlende Bezugnahme zwischen den bestehenden Bauten und dem alten Hafengelände steht im Konflikt mit der Offensichtlichkeit der Verbindung und der Rolle des Museums als Zentrum für maritime Forschung und der Konservierung bedeutsamer Exponate.

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elevation | Ansicht

short section B | Querschnitt B

concept sketch | Konzept Skizze

entrance hall | Eingangshalle

Organised as a series of three buildings, the proposed extension is linked by a new timber boardwalk running along the edge of the historic dock. An entrance pavilion sits between the old and the new, and is entered by wide ramps that descend like slipways into the building from the northern and southern approaches. This new entrance level connects all elements of the Museum and leads directly to the water’s edge in the dock basin with its floating pontoon for the historic boats.

Other key public functions of the Museum are accessed directly from the entrance hall; the café and the temporary exhibition hall both sit alongside the dock and the workshops are on the corner of the basin.

A public route is maintained through the site by the boardwalk, linking the southern parts of the City with the new commercial centres to the north. In addition, the architectonic references within the new architecture to the form, scale and materiality of a boatyard are both conscious and overt – thus simultaneously identifying the extension as being different to the existing listed buildings, whilst also making a new physical and conceptual link between the existing structures and the maritime tradition inherent within the site.

Der Entwurf sieht die Anordnung dreier nebeneinander stehender Gebäude vor, welche von einem, der Wasserkante folgenden, Holzplankensteg verbunden werden. In zentraler Position befindet sich ein Eingangspavillon, der über zwei weite, leicht abfallende Rampen betreten wird. Diese neue Eingangsebene verbindet alle bestehenden und neuen Gebäudeteile des Museums und öffnet sich zum Hafenbecken und den Museumsschiffen.

Von der Eingangshalle aus sind auch die weiteren Schlüsselbereiche des Museums direkt zugänglich. Das Café und die Halle für Sonderausstellungen erstrecken sich beide entlang des Docks, die Werkstätten befinden sich an der Ecke des Hafenbeckens.

Durch das Holzdeck bleibt ein öffentlicher Verkehrsweg über das Gelände erhalten. Darüber hinaus verweisen die neuen Baukörper durch architektonische Bezugnahme bewusst und offenkundig auf die Form, Dimensionen und Materialität einer Schiffswerft. Es wird dadurch die Andersartigkeit des Erweiterungsbaus gegenüber den bestehenden denkmalgeschützten Bauten akzentuiert, während gleichzeitig eine neue physische und eine begriffliche Verbindung zwischen den bestehenden Strukturen und der maritimen Tradition hergestellt wird.

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changing exhibition | Wechselausstellungsbereich

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Appendix | Anhang

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Biography Terry Pawson | Biographie

Born 1957

Education:Kingston School of Architecture 1976 – 1982Registered Chartered Architect (ARB) 1982Membership of RIBA 1982

Work experience as an Architect includes:Reconstruction projects in Southern Italy 1983 – 1984Terry Farrell Architects 1984 – 1986Established Pawson Williams Architects 1986 – 2000Established Terry Pawson Architects 2001 – to date

Competitions include:2006 - Linz Opera House, Austria (winner)2005 - Kristiansand Performing Arts Centre (prize winner)2004 - Centre for Contemporary Art & Theatre Carlow (winner)2003 - Sligo Masterplan, Library and Museum (second prize)

Architectural Assessor / advisor:RIBA nominated chief assessor for the followingArchitectural Competitions:Concert hall, Corpus Christi College, OxfordWakefield Art GalleryNorthern Architecture Centre in NewcastleArts in Perpetuity Trust, Deptford

Other:Orleans House Gallery, Richmond-upon-Thames (member ofadvisory board)

Academic Teaching includes:Unit teacher at:University of East London 1988 – 1991Greenwich University 1989 – 1991Kingston University 1992 – 1996

Visiting critic and open lectures include:2008 Dundee School of Architecture2007 Open Lecture at Arch + Ing. Austria2004 Open lecture at the Bauhaus School of Architecture, Germany2003 Patterson Memorial Lecture, Cheltenham

Professional Architect member of the external University coursevalidation committee for the architectural degree and diplomacourses at:

Kingston University 2002Kent Institute of Art & Design 2004

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Projects and competitions 2001-2008Projekte und Wettbewerbe

2001Tall House, Private House Wimbledon, UKCommission (Built)

Vernon Street Offices, Former West London Magistrates Court,London, UKCommission (Built)

St Mary’s Garden Hall, Wimbledon, UKCommission (Built)

Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Cheltenham, UKCommission (Unbuilt)

Hessen Regional Parliament Building, Wiesbaden, GermanyInvited competition

The German National Literature Archive & Schiller MuseumInvited competition

Beulah Road Studios, Office Building, Wimbledon, UKCommission (Unbuilt)

American Church in London, UKCommission (Unbuilt)

Polka Theatre for Children, Wimbledon, UKCommission (Unbuilt)

Hastings Castle Visitors Centre, Hastings, UKCommission (Unbuilt)

2002National Museum of Switzerland, ZurichInvited competition

New Gallery for the Brandhorst Collection, Munich, GermanyInvited competition

New Centre for Arts and Craft, Pocklington School, YorkInvited competition

2003Kingstown Street, Private House Remodelling, London, UKCommission (Built)

Sligo Library, Museum and Masterplan, Republic of IrelandOpen competition (2nd prize)

Performing Arts Centre, Lincoln, UKInvited competition

St Joseph’s Church Hall, Kingston upon ThamesCompetition Winner (Unbuilt)

2004New British Embassy, Algiers, AlgeriaInvited competition

Admark House, Graphic Design Studio, Ewell, UKCommission (Built)

Luleå Culture Centre, SwedenInvited competition

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, IrelandOpen competition (Winner)

Rochester and Upnor Castles, Visitor Centres, Kent, UKFeasibility Study

2005Home Park Road, 2 Private Houses, Wimbledon, UKCommission (Unbuilt)

Limerick Arts Village, Republic of IrelandOpen competition

Cesis Castle Visitor Centre, LatviaFeasibility Study

Folk Music Centre, Västervik, SwedenOpen competition

Riverside Quarters, Restaurant & Bar, London, UKCommission

Neubrandenburg Housing Masterplan, GermanyInvited competition

Folkestone Performing Arts Centre, UKInvited competition

Art Gallery, Bremen, GermanyInvited competition

Library & Museum, Castleford, UKInvited competition

Giant’s Causeway Visitors Centree, Northern IrelandOpen competition

Concert Hall, Grafenegg Castle, AustriaInvited competition

Lant Street, Residential Development, London, UKScheme Design

2006St Thomas’s Church Hall, London, UK Invited competition

Runcorn Old Town, Housing Development, Runcorn, UK Invited competition

KHM Wien, Museum Redevelopment, Vienna, AustriaOpen competition

Northern Quarter, Department Store, Portsmouth, UKInvited competition

Bombshelter Conversion, Sauna/Spa, Wimbledon, UKCommission (Built)

Opera House, Linz, AustriaOpen competition (Winner)

2007New British Embassy, T’bilisi, GeorgiaInvited competition

Science Centre, Heilbronn, GermanyInvited competition

Leventis Art Gallery, Nicosia, CyprusInvited competition

Twin Houses, Private Houses, Kingston upon Thames, UKCommission

2008Museum Berggruen, Gallery Redevelopment, Berlin, GermanyInvited competition

Opera House, Redevlopement, Cologne, GermanyInvited competition

German National Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven, GermanyInvited competition (Mention)

Wickersley Road, Residential Development, London, UKCommission

NOSPR Concert Hall, Katowice, PolandInvited competition

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TPA Staff 2001-2008 | TPA Mitarbeiter

Terry PawsonJeremy BrowneGustav AderNick FlemingRuth EdwardsGareth HunterGilly PawsonAntje UlrichNick McGoughRaoul KunzTom StemmerAsako NishimuraNatalie GallandTina BaxterAndy GowingSebastian ReinehrAndy SummersJoanna MalitzkiNigel BaileyChris MilanMaria ReinehrBernadett BabusTobias StillerStefan OhlerPierre ThielenEdith SteinerPatrick HaymannWolfgang MalzerJohanna WiesingerAndreas WeberJustyna PollakKristian Foster

Acknowledgement | DanksagungMany people have contributed to this book, not least of which are all the staff members who through their commitment and hard work over the past seven years have helped to design the buildings.

Photographs | FotografienVernon Street by Nick Guttridge except page 14/15 and 20 by Terry Pawson ArchitectsSt Mary’s Garden Hall by Tom ScottTall House by Richard BryantCheltenham and Tall House models by Eamonn O’MahonyAll other photographs, images and renderings by Terry Pawson Architects

Models | ModelleTall House and Cheltenham by Jackie HandsLinz facade by Gary Kugele of Abbit models

Printing | DruckPaul Green Printing of Hackney

Graphic design | Grafische GestaltungTobias Stiller

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Terry Pawson Architects

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