German practice J. Mayer H. has replaced the gridded facade of a 1950s office building with organically curved glass and white render.
"We tried to design a facade that would be a bit more free, something less strict and linear" explained Wilko Hoffmann of J. Mayer H.
Located above the Schlump underground station in west Hamburg, Schlump One is a seven storey building and the architects have extended it to accommodate more offices and the facilities for a private university.
The curved forms continue inside the building, where partitions have rounded openings that form surfaces beside the corridors.
Combined with the extension, the building has a U-shaped plan that wraps around a courtyard at the rear.
We've published a few stories about J. Mayer H. over the last year, including a round-up of projects in Georgia and proposals for a building made from scaffolding.
See more stories about J. Mayer H. »
Exterior photography is by Jan Bitter and interior photography is by Ludger Paffrath.
Here's some more information from the architects:
Schlump ONE – Hamburg, Germany
Office Complex and University Building
The project "Schlump ONE" is located directly at the underground station Schlump in Eimsbüttel district in Hamburg.
The original administration building from the 1950s and 90s was gutted, renovated and expanded, and has now been converted into an office building with four possible rental units per floor.
The existing data processing center in the courtyard has been transformed into a private university and expanded to include a new building.
The building’s facade has been completely renovated and redesigned to form a single unit that freely interprets the original building’s 1950s linear design.
The organic formal language of the facade is continued in the design of interiors.
Above: original office building
The project is embedded in a sophisticated, open space planning design with oversized tree sculptures.
Site plan - click above for larger image
Project Team: Juergen Mayer H., Christoph Emenlauer, Mehrdad Mashaie, Ana Alonso de la Varga
Project Architect: Hans Schneider
Ground floor plan - click above for larger image
Project: 2010 - 2012
Completion: Summer 2012
Client: Cogiton, Projekt Eimsbuettel GmbH, Hamburg
Typical floor plan - click above for larger image
Architect on Site: Architekturbuero Franke, Hamburg
Structural Engineers: WTM Engineers
Building Services: Energiehaus Ingenieure, Sineplan, Hamburg
Landscape Architects: Breimann Bruun Simons, Hamburg
God, the previous façade was so much better. Sustainability updates are a real pity.
Tell me how it was better. Don’t just make wishy-washy statements.
I guess it’s only a matter of taste. I’d clearly go for the “travertine and cyan grid” instead of the “noodles and sunglasses”.
Really? Whatever crimes J Mayer have committed in the past, I can’t help but think they’ve improved this building by making it a place somewhere that people might feel more motivated to go and work.
It’s so easy to associate your generic office job with a hideously generic building – so I believe this is for the better.
I don’t exactly like the facade but I like the interior.
Jurgen Mayer buildings are so whimsical aren’t they? A sprinkle of Dr. Seuss charm on Hoth.
For real though-the-window details are as precise as antique eyewear. It’s obviously out of the ordinary but the attention to detail at least shows the thought that went into this facelift.
This is the third facade in 20 years. You haven’t published the original 1960s facade made of yellow brick and horizontal windows. That one was nice. The nineties facade was bulls**t and this one is just a very bad copy of the building they have done in 2010 in hamburg… <a href="http:// .http://www.ada1.info“ target=”_blank”> <a href="http://.http://www.ada1.info” target=”_blank”>.http://www.ada1.info
Exactly! I live around here and have to see this building often. I think the details are very bad. In my opinion Mayer is the new Colani – too much “look of design”, not enough clever design. I don’t like any of his buildings.
Apart from the fantastic Metropol Parasol project which showed some true imagination and design, other projects by J Mayer H seem to be bad 60s dreams – faddish buildings that are instantly outdated, seemingly inspired by acid trips whilst staring at Wes Wilson posters or the fonts created by Heinz Edelman for the Beatles Yellow Submarine, but not as good as either.