Barkow Leibinger

Barkow Leibinger
Schillerstraße 94, D–10625 Berlin
T +49(0)30 315712 -0 F -29
info@barkowleibinger.com
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Fashion Mall, Stuttgart

Located on Stuttgart’s Killesberg, near the historical Weissenhof-siedlung from the 20’s, Barkow Leibinger have won an invited competition for a 16.000 sqm “Fashion Mall,” for Franz Fürst, a wholesale center for fashion retailing. Conceived as the first step in a master plan to replace the old Stuttgart Trade Fair the city and client look for new programs to activate this now desolate corner of Stuttgart. Constructed in the immediate context of a former stone quarry the building is an extension and completion of the “Rote Wand”, the red sandstone wall which defines the space of the old quarry. As a new building model and programmatic type  (replacing the old buildings of the Stuttgart trade fair) the building mediates between the hard edge of the street front and the soft edges of a park side. The form of the building is defined by a series of scalloped surfaces which define at three different scaled spaces adjacent to the building: the square of the Brenz Church to the east, an amphitheater/ park to the south and the Park vor der Roten Wand to the West. The scalloped forms act as a continuation of the serpentine wall of the quarry and create a series of urban park-spaces which link with Stuttgart’s “Grüne Fuge” a series of continuous urban parks. The hard-edged facade to the north aligns with the entrance street. The folded roof-form, at once regional/ vernacular is green and acts as an extension of the rim of the landscape/ quarry. It is a form both new (in the scale of a large building) and familiar to the gable-roofed houses and churches nearby.

The organization of the 3 to 4 story building on a sloping site (like a cat-walk) consists of two linear bars that are connected by a central atriums that provides light, air, and atmosphere through large openings extending to the perforated/ skylit roof. Two lobbies at either prominent street-corner offer entrances for the Premiere and Mainstream brands. At the split-level ground floor restaurants, shops and a public passage, which allows public access through the building, complement lobbies. The wholesale shops are located above and are accessed through the lobbies. The six cores of the building are complemented by six loggia/ winter gardens, which contribute to a sustainable energy concept. The interior spaces are material of fact and flexible allowing divisions of space as needed per wholesale brand. Contributing to this concept is a simple and redundant concrete pre-cast system of columns and hollow-plank floor slabs, a system built over an underground parking structure.

The slatted façade is conceived of as a soft textile wrapper, the twisted core-ten steel fins resembling threads. When seen frontally the facade is light and transparent. When seen oblique it is opaque and solid helping further to mediate between a building and a landscape.

Project Information

Architects – Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger

 

Team Design – Markus Bonauer, Martina Bauer, Philipp Heydel, Dominik Mohs, Constanze Stark, Gabriel Tamez, Jens Weßel, Adrian König

 

Program

Showrooms, Offices, Conference Rooms, Lobby with capacity for 200 people, Restaurant, Lounge, Underground Parking

 

Location

Stuttgart, Germany

 

Size

16.000 sqm

 

Competition

2007

Client

Fürst Developments

 

Structural Engineer

Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, Berlin

 

Mechanical Engineer

Erik Willner, Berlin

 

Fire Protection Consultant

Peter Stanek, Berlin

 

Cost Consultant

Gassmann + Grossmann, Stuttgart

 

Landscape Architect

Büro Kiefer, Tancredi Capatti, Berlin