Description
Together with three Max Planck Institutes, the IAP constitutes a first significant scientific cluster as part of the Science and Technology Park in the community of Golm near Potsdam. The state-of-the-art technology park was established on a 20 ha site. It provides spaces for living and working, teaching, and research in closest proximity and affords sweeping views of the meadows of the Havel River.
The design proposes a plausible solution for the arrangement of the programme in terms of building typology. The main entrance is located between the linear main edifice with the attached pilot plant hall and the adjacent secondary workshop building. The spaces on each floor of the elongated three-storey main building are organised along one, and partly two, corridors. Offices are allocated to the respective laboratories in a conventional way. The highly equipped laboratories face north; the offices that do not comprise mechanical ventilation face south.
In the building part with two access corridors, the secondary spaces that do not require daylight are arranged in the middle zone. The required floor space was created by slightly rotating the southern row of rooms. This way, the sculptural qualities of the building are enhanced – an effect further increased by a drawer-like projecting volume that contains shared facilities. This wing contains the communal areas. When seen from the south, the complex appears to be one single edifice. An exterior terrace and an artificial pond – as parts of the exterior landscaping – merge the building with the surrounding landscape.
In contrast to the vivid southern façade of the institute, the solid northern façade is based on a rather strict range of materials. The contrast between the two facades is further enhanced by the complex urban context. Combined, these characteristics make for an exciting metaphor for the complex requirements of the building.
The main building is a framed reinforced concrete structure. While the laboratory façade with its flush exterior window strips appears rather solid, the more generously glazed office facade open up towards the south. The fully glazed inserted volume housing the communal areas blurs the boundaries between building and landscape.
Drawings
Site plan
Schematic sketch of building
Schematic diagrams (from top to bottom):Technikum façade | Transparent panels | Blue-enamelled panes | Green-enamelled panes
Ground floor
Upper floor
Section through foyer
Photos
Exterior view of the long linear volume with continuous strip windows and lake in front
North façade of the pilot plant hall with graphic design showing circles and lines that associates the chemical composition of substances
Originally published in: Hardo Braun, Dieter Grömling, Research and Technology Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2005.