Sauerbruch Hutton
Encyclopedia
Sauerbruch Hutton is an architecture practice based in Berlin, Germany. It was founded by Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton in 1989, and since then has grown to a team of around 100 people.
Sauerbruch Hutton is concerned with the creation of functional, sensual and conscientious architecture with individuality and personality. The practice is noted for its synthesis of colour in the design process, and for the use of fluid curvilinear forms. The firm’s architecture is also known for its dedication to technical innovation and its implications for environmental sustainability, particularly pioneering double-skin facades on tall buildings, with the GSW Headquarters in Berlin (1991) and KfW Westarkade (2010) in Frankfurt representing new evolutionary steps for the technology.
Today the practice is led by Matthias Sauerbruch, Louisa Hutton and Juan Lucas Young.
) and at the Architectural Association in London, graduating in 1984. He has worked at Rem Koolhaas
’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture
in London, leading the House at Checkpoint Charlie project. He has maintained an involvement in teaching throughout his profesional career, having held professorships at the University of Virginia, the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart and Berlin Technical University. In 2005 he was appointed Kenzo Tange
Visiting Design Critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Louisa Hutton completed her undergraduate degree at Bristol University, and later graduated from the Architectural Association. She gained professional experience at the offices of Alison and Peter Smithson
, and has held numerous teaching roles including at the AA
, the University of Virginia
and Harvard University
.
This period is also marked by highly intellectualised explorations of the prevalent antagonism between successful public spaces and commercial interests in urban environments – notably competition entries for Paternoster Square in London (1989), Tokyo International Forum (1989) and the Junction Building in Birmingham (1989). These schemes all offered socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable alternatives to the conventions in architecture and planning at the time.
Conscientiously manipulating Berlin’s history into sympathetic but assertive interventions became one of the studio’s defining traits, perhaps most famously at the GSW Headquarters. Situated just 250m from Checkpoint Charlie the 22 storey scheme was a bold, brash beacon of optimism in one of the most heterogeneous (both physically and symbolically) parts of Berlin’s urban landscape.
The GSW Headquarters was the first tall building to rise in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall
. The winning competition proposal by Sauerbruch Hutton was a critique of the "Critical reconstruction
" established by Hans Stimmann, Berlin's building director from 1991 to 2006. Sauerbruch Hutton's addition to the GSW complex brought a different vision of urban vitality to the streetscape, and has since become a landmark and a symbol of reunified Berlin with its iconic multicoloured sunshades.
The GSW Headquarters was equally significant in the technology it employs. Double-skin facades were not well established at the time, not least on tall buildings. The system of blinds on the west facade, perhaps the scheme’s defining feature, plays an important role in controlling solar gains and thereby reducing the use of artificial heating and cooling.
Polychromy was a key feature of these blinds. Intended to act as an intermediary between the private interior and its urban setting, the use of colour transforms a functional aspect of the facade into a universally accessible painting on an urban scale. This design gesture provides a thoroughly democratic unifying element for a city looking forward to its future.
An inventive spirit pervades all of the practice’s work, resulting in a portfolio of prototypical and thoroughly original architecture. Printed glass emerged as one of the practice’s main research interests, with their Pharmacological Research Laboratories (2002) and Jessop West (2008) testing new potential for the material. In 2008, with the Brandhorst Museum
, Sauerbruch Hutton also began exploring the applications of glazed ceramic as a construction material.
The KfW Westarkade tower, which opened in Spring 2010, incorporates numerous highly sophisticated design and technology solutions which address the problems of sustainability in tall buildings. A pressure ring facade, the first of its kind, negates the effects of varying pressure around the building and thereby allows it to be ventilated naturally. A complex computer-controlled system of flaps in the outer facade equalises pressure throughout, and means that windows in the inner facade can be opened without adversely effecting internal comfort. This system dramatically reduces the building’s primary energy demand - to under 100 kilowatt-hours of primary energy per square meter per year; approximately half of the current European average, and one third of the American. It is a very important step towards a practical, sustainable all-glass tower.
In the last decade the practice has worked increasingly outside of Germany, including projects currently underway in England, Finland, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The studio’s contribution to Maciachini, a large urban renewal scheme in Milan, opened in May 2010.
Headquarters was nominated for a Stirling Prize
in 2000, and the practice is a three-time nominee for the Mies Van Der Rohe Award
, most recently for the KfW
Westarkade in Frankfurt am Main, which has been nominated for the 2011 prize.
For their work, Louisa Hutton and Matthias Sauerbruch were awarded the Erich Schelling Prize for Architecture 1998 . Among the most prestigious in Germany, this award recognised the pair's exemplary work in historically sensitive contexts.
The practice's work has been further recognised with the Fritz Schumacher Prize in 2003, as well as numerous awards for individual buildings.
Sauerbruch Hutton is concerned with the creation of functional, sensual and conscientious architecture with individuality and personality. The practice is noted for its synthesis of colour in the design process, and for the use of fluid curvilinear forms. The firm’s architecture is also known for its dedication to technical innovation and its implications for environmental sustainability, particularly pioneering double-skin facades on tall buildings, with the GSW Headquarters in Berlin (1991) and KfW Westarkade (2010) in Frankfurt representing new evolutionary steps for the technology.
Today the practice is led by Matthias Sauerbruch, Louisa Hutton and Juan Lucas Young.
Beginnings
Matthias Sauerbruch studied architecture at Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste (now Berlin University of the ArtsBerlin University of the Arts
The Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK is a public art school in Berlin, Germany, one of the four universities in the city...
) and at the Architectural Association in London, graduating in 1984. He has worked at Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...
’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA , is a Rotterdam based architecture firm of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.The firm was founded in 1975 by Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis.-History:...
in London, leading the House at Checkpoint Charlie project. He has maintained an involvement in teaching throughout his profesional career, having held professorships at the University of Virginia, the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart and Berlin Technical University. In 2005 he was appointed Kenzo Tange
Kenzo Tange
was a Japanese architect, and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five continents. Tange was also an influential protagonist of...
Visiting Design Critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Louisa Hutton completed her undergraduate degree at Bristol University, and later graduated from the Architectural Association. She gained professional experience at the offices of Alison and Peter Smithson
Alison and Peter Smithson
English architects Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson together formed an architectural partnership, and are often associated with the New Brutalism .Peter was born in Stockton-on-Tees in north-east England, and Alison was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire...
, and has held numerous teaching roles including at the AA
Architectural Association School of Architecture
The Architectural Association School of Architecture, more usually known as the AA, is an architectural school in London, United Kingdom...
, the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Early work
The firm’s first offices were located in London, where both founders were engaged in teaching roles. Many of their first commissions were in relatively confined urban areas, such as L House in London. A typical Victorian terrace, this was the practice’s first essay in applied colour. The architects realised that a considered use of colour could visually expand the cramped spaces.This period is also marked by highly intellectualised explorations of the prevalent antagonism between successful public spaces and commercial interests in urban environments – notably competition entries for Paternoster Square in London (1989), Tokyo International Forum (1989) and the Junction Building in Birmingham (1989). These schemes all offered socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable alternatives to the conventions in architecture and planning at the time.
The move to Berlin and the GSW Headquarters
The disparity between the optimism of the newly reunified city’s inhabitants and the downtrodden built fabric presented an apt setting for Sauerbruch Hutton’s sensuous and generous architecture.Conscientiously manipulating Berlin’s history into sympathetic but assertive interventions became one of the studio’s defining traits, perhaps most famously at the GSW Headquarters. Situated just 250m from Checkpoint Charlie the 22 storey scheme was a bold, brash beacon of optimism in one of the most heterogeneous (both physically and symbolically) parts of Berlin’s urban landscape.
The GSW Headquarters was the first tall building to rise in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
. The winning competition proposal by Sauerbruch Hutton was a critique of the "Critical reconstruction
Critical reconstruction
Critical reconstruction is a theory regarding the reconstruction of Berlin following the fall of the Berlin Wall; it aims to define the “central role of the city” and “invent the contemporary equivalent”....
" established by Hans Stimmann, Berlin's building director from 1991 to 2006. Sauerbruch Hutton's addition to the GSW complex brought a different vision of urban vitality to the streetscape, and has since become a landmark and a symbol of reunified Berlin with its iconic multicoloured sunshades.
The GSW Headquarters was equally significant in the technology it employs. Double-skin facades were not well established at the time, not least on tall buildings. The system of blinds on the west facade, perhaps the scheme’s defining feature, plays an important role in controlling solar gains and thereby reducing the use of artificial heating and cooling.
Polychromy was a key feature of these blinds. Intended to act as an intermediary between the private interior and its urban setting, the use of colour transforms a functional aspect of the facade into a universally accessible painting on an urban scale. This design gesture provides a thoroughly democratic unifying element for a city looking forward to its future.
Recent works
Their work for GSW gained Sauerbruch Hutton considerable renown and established their worldwide reputation. In the works that followed, they continued to develop their use of colour as a building material on projects throughout Europe. The Federal Environmental Agency in Dessau (2005), among their largest projects to date, uses coloured panels which pick out colours from surrounding buildings to help root the massive scheme. A serpentine plan fosters a personal, corporeal perception of the building as one walks along its length – an uncommonly sensuous gesture for an office building .An inventive spirit pervades all of the practice’s work, resulting in a portfolio of prototypical and thoroughly original architecture. Printed glass emerged as one of the practice’s main research interests, with their Pharmacological Research Laboratories (2002) and Jessop West (2008) testing new potential for the material. In 2008, with the Brandhorst Museum
Museum Brandhorst
The Brandhorst Museum was opened in Munich on May 21, 2009. It displays about 200 exhibits from collection of modern art of the heirs of the Henkel trust Udo and Anette Brandhorst...
, Sauerbruch Hutton also began exploring the applications of glazed ceramic as a construction material.
The KfW Westarkade tower, which opened in Spring 2010, incorporates numerous highly sophisticated design and technology solutions which address the problems of sustainability in tall buildings. A pressure ring facade, the first of its kind, negates the effects of varying pressure around the building and thereby allows it to be ventilated naturally. A complex computer-controlled system of flaps in the outer facade equalises pressure throughout, and means that windows in the inner facade can be opened without adversely effecting internal comfort. This system dramatically reduces the building’s primary energy demand - to under 100 kilowatt-hours of primary energy per square meter per year; approximately half of the current European average, and one third of the American. It is a very important step towards a practical, sustainable all-glass tower.
In the last decade the practice has worked increasingly outside of Germany, including projects currently underway in England, Finland, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The studio’s contribution to Maciachini, a large urban renewal scheme in Milan, opened in May 2010.
Recognition
Sauerbruch Hutton's work is widely published in the international press, and is regularly considered for architectural awards . The firm's GSWGSW Immobilien
GSW Immobilien AG, formerly Gemeinnützige Siedlungs- und Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Berlin mbH, is a German real-estate company in Berlin. The company invests in residential property and also manages residential and commercial property on behalf of third parties.Originally a company founded and owned...
Headquarters was nominated for a Stirling Prize
Stirling Prize
The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects...
in 2000, and the practice is a three-time nominee for the Mies Van Der Rohe Award
European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture
The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture or Mies van der Rohe award is a prize given biennially by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, 'to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Europe'...
, most recently for the KfW
KFW
KFW may refer to:*Keith Fullerton Whitman , an American musician*KfW or Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, a German public-sector financial institution...
Westarkade in Frankfurt am Main, which has been nominated for the 2011 prize.
For their work, Louisa Hutton and Matthias Sauerbruch were awarded the Erich Schelling Prize for Architecture 1998 . Among the most prestigious in Germany, this award recognised the pair's exemplary work in historically sensitive contexts.
The practice's work has been further recognised with the Fritz Schumacher Prize in 2003, as well as numerous awards for individual buildings.
Projects
- L-House, London (1991)
- H-House, London (1995)
- Photonic Centre, BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
(1998) - Zumtobel Staff Showroom, Berlin (1999)
- N-House, London (1999)
- GSW Headquarters, Berlin (1999)
- British Council, Berlin (2000)
- BMW Event & Delivery Centre, Olympic Park, Munich (2001 competition, 1st Prize)
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2001 competition, 1st Prize; project cancelled)
- Experimental Factory, Magdeburg (2001)
- Pharmacological Research Laboratories, Biberach (2002)
- Town Hall, HennigsdorfHennigsdorfHennigsdorf is a town in the district of Oberhavel, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north-west of Berlin, just across the city border, which is formed mainly by the Havel river.-History:...
(2003) - High-bay Warehouse for SedusSedusSedus Stoll AG is a German company specialising in the manufacture and sale of office furniture. The Sedus Stoll head office is located in Waldshut-Tiengen, at the edge of the Black Forest....
Stoll AG, Dogern(2003) - Fire and Police Station for the Government district, Berlin (2004)
- Federal Environmental Agency, Dessau (2005)
- Municipal Savings Bank, Oberhausen (2008)
- Museum BrandhorstMuseum BrandhorstThe Brandhorst Museum was opened in Munich on May 21, 2009. It displays about 200 exhibits from collection of modern art of the heirs of the Henkel trust Udo and Anette Brandhorst...
, Munich (2008) - Jessop WestJessop HospitalThe Jessop Hospital for Women was opened in 1878 with funds from Thomas Jessop, a wealthy steelworks-owner. The architect was John Dodsley Webster. It was built to replace the old Sheffield Hospital for Women, which had only nine beds. The building cost £26,000 - a lot of money at the time - all...
, Sheffield (2008) - Cologne Oval Offices, Cologne (2009)
- Maciachini, Milan (2010)
- TürkentorTürkentor (Munich)The Türkentor is a gatehouse in Munich. It is the only surviving part of the Türkenkaserne barracks, built in 1826 for the Royal Bavarian Infantry Lifeguards Regiment...
, Munich (2010) - KfWKFWKFW may refer to:*Keith Fullerton Whitman , an American musician*KfW or Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, a German public-sector financial institution...
Westarkade, FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
(2010) - ADACADACThe ADAC is Germany's and Europe's largest automobile club, with more than 17 million members in June 2010. It was founded on May 24, 1903 as "Deutsche Motorradfahrer-Vereinigung" and was renamed in 1911...
Headquarters, Munich (2012) - Saint-Georges Centre, Geneva (2011)
- Zac Claude Bernard, Paris (2011)
- University Building, Potsdam (2011)
- Brückenschlag Parish Church, Cologne (2011)
- Offices for Munich ReMunich ReMunich Re Group is a reinsurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is one of the world’s leading reinsurers. ERGO, a Munich Re subsidiary, is the Group’s primary insurance arm....
, Munich (2013) - Ministry of Urban Development and the Environment, Hamburg (2013)
- M9 Museum of the XXth Century, Venice-Mestre (2013)
External links
- Official website http://www.sauerbruchhutton.com
- Awards and exhibitions http://www.sauerbruchhutton.de/pdf/sh_awards_exhibitions.pdf
- Flickr photo pool http://www.flickr.com/groups/sauerbruchhutton/
- Exhibition at Harvard University http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/events/exhibitions/Sauerbruch%20Hutton/sauerbruch_hutton.htm