Architecture

“Who would voluntarily build for lawyers?” was what we were asked at the beginning.

But this building project then developed into an especially rewarding and exciting one for us. At Staab Architekten, we begin every project with intensive consultations with the users. To plan as closely as possible to actual needs, we first have to understand the users’ wishes and requirements. The Institute summed this up in the phrase “discursive intimacy”:

an atmosphere of both/and — “discursive” and at the same time “intimate,” open to communication yet also conducive to concentration.

Urban design concept:

From the outset, in developing the urban design concept, we were concerned with clarifying questions of public presence and accessibility. During our first inspection of the existing Institute building in 2010, we found a rather indistinct urban address: the main entrance was hidden away in a shady corner.

Improving this problematic sense of address was our central urban-design objective, which we were able to achieve through simple and clear measures. By placing the new building as a freestanding structure opposite the existing building, an inviting central forecourt is created as the Institute’s new urban address. The generously glazed foyer zone on the ground floor acts as a connecting link between the old and new buildings and serves as the Institute’s central entrance.

Extension building, “external public sphere”:

The brief involved not only additional floor space, but also a reorganisation of the Institute as a whole. Here too, we followed the broader guiding idea of organising different forms of publicness. Put simply, one can speak of an “external” and an “internal” public sphere.

In the new building, we organised the “external, formal public sphere” around the large event hall, the conference room that can be connected to it, and the foyer zone. The foyer functions as a flexible filter. Depending on need, it allows large events to run largely independently, but it can also incorporate areas of the existing building and the entrance courtyard.

The façades of the new building are clad in dark bronze anodised aluminium. This choice of material sets the extension in a striking contrast to the existing building and signals the new architectural address.

The restrained, abstract design of the new building places the new entrance courtyard and entrance foyer at the centre of the composition.

Inside, too, the design and material palette follow functional considerations.

Visitors are received by bright interiors with warm-toned ceramic and timber finishes, creating a welcoming yet formal atmosphere. Key points of orientation such as the reception, the entrances to the event hall and conference room, and the circulation desk are designed as furniture-like timber fittings. Timber serves as a guiding material for orientation.

Existing building, “internal public sphere”:

In the existing building, around the library and the rotunda, we grouped the areas of scholarly work as an “internal public sphere.”

Following an intensive analysis of the existing building by AS Plan, we developed a concept of architectural interventions and technical upgrading. The previously space-consuming existing staircase was integrated into the rotunda in order to calm the spatial situation. This created a more generous foyer space that can be used in multiple ways.

Around the rotunda, we created differentiated places for concentrated scholarly exchange — places of “discursive intimacy.”

Seating niches, a reading lounge, a reading gallery, and an espresso bar surround the newly reorganised rotunda. New meeting rooms, kitchenettes, and a roof terrace provide invigorating places of communication in the office wings of the existing building.

Address delivered on the occasion of the ceremonial opening of the new building of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law on 26 April 2019.