Description

The location of the new building could not be more prominent. The site lies directly on the Domshof and is therefore part of a square framed by the separate city hall building and the cathedral church of St. Petri. The Bremische Bürgerschaft, the city state’s parliament, is also within sight of the Domshof. Also on the adjoining market square, that building was designed by Wassili Luckhardt and built from 1961 and 1966. At the time it received much criticism for its demonstratively modern architecture, though today its row of gables over the tall glazed façade is seen as a model of sensitive modern building in historical surroundings.

The building that previously stood on the site of the bank was a solid purpose-built building completed by the architects Gerhard Müller-Menckens and Heinz-Georg Rehberg in 1972. In 2011, however, the decision was made to demolish the building as part of a competition: according to the bank, it would have taken ten years to renovate, and they were keen to relegate the drab post-war architecture to the past.

For Adam Caruso and Peter St John from London, the Bremer Landesbank was their first project in Germany. The building’s retrospective appearance was the subject of much controversy and discussion, and the façade is without doubt striking. It is faced with bricks from nearby Uelzen in Lower Saxony in 64 different forms, laid meticulously on site. Only the window parapets are prefabricated concrete elements, obviating the need for metal flashing. If one looks up at the round curved pilaster strips, which become narrower towards the top, the individual brick layers appear to vibrate visually. The light-coloured bricks, on the other hand, are stacked neatly and vertically on top of each other. This frisson between the organic and the geometric is part of the façade’s attraction. Rather than presenting a tectonic assembly of prefabricated industrial products, it appeals to our appreciation of expert craftsmanship. Only the two set-back upper storeys lessen the overall impression, their light grey ceramic cladding looking a little like an unfinished drawing from an earlier planning stage.

The interior of the bank compensates for this – in an unexpected way. One’s first impression of the main hall is of well-mannered solidity. The bricks now have a white glaze and the enormous round-arched portal reveals its structure on the inside like a funnel turned inside out. White, red and green stone slabs are laid in a lattice pattern on the floor. The same red and green recurs throughout the bank, adding a dash of strong contrasting colour that one would not expect to see in a bank. To bring light into the office floors of the deep building, an elongated courtyard measuring 17 × 34 metres is placed at its centre with rounded shorter ends. Here, where the historical outer façade gives way to the modern interior, the courtyard, which is publicly accessible during the day, serves as communal space for lunch breaks and as the staff entrance. From the entrance, the path leads via elevators or an exquisitely detailed staircase to the offices with workstations for 500 people. The exposed concrete walls extend up the staircase through all office levels. As one enters, the ceiling is initially pure concrete extending into the offices where boxes with integral lighting and ventilation inlets are attached to its underside. In the corridors, however, suspended ceilings begin after a few metres, marking the transition away from the foyer zones. These are in turn characterised by exposed concrete surfaces and the colour of the red-green carpet, which echoes the contrasting colours of the lobby, this time more emphatically. The curved walls are partly a deep dark green. The interplay of dark stained oak and a suspended open metal grid ceiling creates a cave-like impression reminiscent of the 1970s. The canteen on the top floor, on the other hand, recalls the 1950s with blob-like forms moulded in plasterboard. A surprising detail are the concrete columns that taper downwards.

Originally published in Bauwelt 05.2017, pp. 44-53, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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