Hasta La Ideas

This new metro station in Leipzig, Germany, by Swiss architect Max Dudler comprises a 140 metre-long tunnel made up of illuminated glass blocks.

The Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz S-Bahn station is one of four stops along the new Leipzig City Tunnel railway line that has been under construction for over ten years and is set to open next month, creating a new link between some of the city’s major stations.

Swiss architect Max Dudler, whose previous projects include a glowing library and a castle visitor centre, won a competition to design the station in 1997 with his proposal for a glowing tunnel with a gently curved concourse and raw concrete details.

Back-lit glass blocks are arranged in groups within a concrete framework to create large glowing squares across the entire length of the walls and ceiling.

“The seemingly endless repetition of the same element in the course of the slightly curved, light-filled hall increases the sensation of the dimensions of this already large structure,” said the studio.

The station platform is covered in pale terrazzo and interspersed with concrete volumes that form seating areas and signage boards.

“All station furnishings of the station are arranged as geometric concrete sculptures,” added the studio.

Entrances are positioned at the north and south ends of the platform, where solid concrete staircases are sandwiched between escalators. At street level, these entrances are contained within rectilinear structures that were also constructed using glass blocks.

Photography is by Stefan Müller.

Here’s a project description from the design team:

Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz Station

S-Bahn trains will cross beneath the centre of Leipzig from December 2013. This is when the 
5.3 kilometre long city tunnel Leipzig, a joint development of Deutsche Bahn AG and the Free State of Saxony, will be completed. Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz / Platz der Friedlichen revolution station on the southern end of the historic city centre is one of four stations of the major project that is currently one of the largest inner-city infrastructure projects in Europe.

The design of the station is based on architect Max Dudler’s successful competition entry from 1997. The Swiss architect’s impressive 140 metre long and 20 metre wide station concourse has just recently been awarded the city of Leipzig’s architecture award.

The station concourse, with a rectangular section and a slight longitudinal curve, is situated 20 metres below ground. Walls and ceilings of the elongated, column-free hall are clad with large, backlit prefabricated glass blocks set into a framework of fair-faced precast concrete. This gives the station concourse a bright and spacious feel. Extreme repetition of one and the same motif makes its actual dimensions almost intangible for passengers.

The light-coloured, jointless terrazzo flooring of the insular platform acts as a quiet counterpoint to the seemingly endless pattern of the walls. All necessary station furniture is arranged on the platform in the shape of geometrical concrete sculptures, all functions such as seating, timetables and ticket machines having in a sense been subtracted from or carved out of the concrete cubes.

The station concourse’s supporting structure of precast reinforced concrete is not visible behind the glass block cladding. The wall elements of the glass block envelope are anchored to a steel substructure on the tunnel wall. The ceiling elements are suspended from the building shell.

Passengers access the station through the entrances on the north and south ends of the station that are fitted with solid staircases, escalators and elevators. The architectural design of the two entrances is in deliberate contrast to the filigree, seemingly transparent station concourse. As soon as they dip beneath the surface of the square, the staircases and their inner casings are made entirely of fair-faced concrete. The minimalist, almost coarse design conveys an impression of descending towards the interior of the earth, as if it was tunnelled directly into the rock.

The stairs and the platform combine seamlessly into a monolithic ribbon. Similar to the station concourse, the aboveground entrance buildings have also been fitted with glass block components. They will help bring the square to life when illuminated at night.

Wilhelm Leuschner was a social democrat politician and part of the resistance against National Socialism. Formerly known as Königsplatz, this square in Leipzig was renamed Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz in his honour in 1945. In 2013 it was finally renamed “Platz der Friedlichen Revolution” to honour the important role it played during German reunification.

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Windows are set within two-metre-deep recesses in the stone walls of this castle visitor centre in southwest Germany by Swiss architect Max Dudler.

Positioned at the entrance to the historic Heidelberg Castle ruins, the two-storey visitor’s centre borders the retaining walls of the sloping grounds, alongside a seventeenth century saddle-store.

The roughly cut stone blocks that comprise the exterior walls are made from local sandstone.

Inside the building, the windows sit flush against the white-plastered walls, while the floor is finished in terrazzo.

If you’re a fan of castles, see more stories about them here.

Photography is by Stefan Müller.

Here’s some more information from Max Dudler:

Heidelberg Castle Visitor Centre

The first new building to be constructed at Heidelberg Castle for more than four hundred years – a visitor centre designed by architect Max Dudler – is now open to the public.

Heidelberg Castle ranks as one of the most important Renaissance buildings north of the Alps. Having been partially destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War, and on many occasions since, the castle was abandoned altogether in the eighteenth century. Today the famous ruin serves as a museum. Receiving more than one million visitors a year, it is one of the country’s top tourist destinations and makes a lasting impression on international tourists visiting Germany.

The purpose of the visitor centre is to familiarize guests with the castle before they proceed to the castle proper. The visitor centre showcases the castle’s history as well as orientating guests so as to ensure a trouble-free visit. In May 2009, Max Dudler’s design prevailed in the architectural selection procedure. The visitor centre’s foundation stone was laid in summer 2010, making it the first new building to be constructed at Heidelberg Castle for more than four hundred years. This building shows how the contemporary architecture of Max Dudler is rooted in history. At the same time, its abstract form underscores both the grandeur and actuality of this German cultural monument.

The new building is situated outside the old defensive ring wall, at the entrance gate to the castle and garden (Hortus Palatinus). The narrow strip of land chosen for the new structure lies between a small garden house and a saddle store built in the reign of Frederick V. The building backs onto a seventeenth century retaining wall which shores up the park terraces above. With its building lines following those of its neighbours, the sculpturally designed visitor centre structurally completes this small ensemble of buildings in the forecourt area.

In architectural terms, the building blends in with the surrounding historical fortifications through its re-interpretation of elements of the existing site’s architecture. The window embrasures, for example, are set more than two metres into its walls, echoing the large-sized apertures that can be seen in the neighbouring saddle store. The windows of the visitor centre are positioned according to the building’s interior requirements and also offer visitors new visual relationships with the entry building and garden outside. The popular Elisabeth Gate in particular can be seen from many parts of the interior. The façade’s deeply-set embrasures are made possible because of the special layout of the building: the broad expanse of its exterior walls hide a number of small side rooms and a stairwell. Like pockets (French: poches), these interior recesses offer space for display cabinets, shelves and seating areas, while the centre of the narrow building remains open.

For the façade, local Neckar Valley sandstone has been machine-cut to form a monolithic wall of roughly-cut blocks with joins that are barely visible. This masonry detailing is a contemporary re-interpretation of the historical retaining wall, with its hand-cut, undressed stonework. Unlike the heavy relief of the building’s exterior, the surfaces of its interior are smooth. The large window panes are fitted flush with the white plastered walls, as are the lighting panels set into the white plastered ceilings. The floor consists of a light blue polished terrazzo. All the fixtures and fittings in the recesses, as well as the doors and other furnishings are made of cherry wood.

Ensuring a smooth flow of large numbers of visitors was a particular challenge posed by the architectural brief. Dudler’s design solves this with its ingenious ‘architectural promenade’ through the building: visitors proceed from the entry hall through to the educational room, then up onto the roof terrace with its elevated views of the castle before exiting via the exterior stairs at the rear of the building to begin a tour of the castle proper. In this way, the full potential of this small building is realised, ensuring it has both multi-purpose usage and allows the maximum throughput of visitors.

Building Name: Besucherzentrum Schloss Heidelberg
Location: Heidelberger Schloss, Schlosshof 1, D-69117 Heidelberg
Client: Land Baden-Württemberg represented by Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg, Mannheim Office
User: Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg

Building Volumes: 490 m² usable floor area, 770 m² gross surface area, 3450 m³ gross building volume
Total building cost: 3 million Euros

Design and Construction Period:
Design commenced: April 2009
Construction commenced: 2010
Building Completion: December 2011

Architect: Max Dudler
Project Manager: Simone Boldrin
Co-workers: Patrick Gründel, Julia Werner