Town Hall Hennigsdorf

The town hall is to function as a link between a small park on the edge of the historical linear town and the new centre which has developed on the other side of the railway. The height of the new structure mediates between the elevations of the village houses lining the main road and the neighbouring five-storey residential buildings. Soft geometry and visual permeability in the town hall‘s ground floor result in its effortless integration into the flowing space of the new park.

The building is divided into two parts. In the upper floors, bands of offices surround an open inner courtyard, creating a ring-shaped volume. This ring floats above the Citizens‘ Forum on the ground floor, where the town hall‘s most important public functions are located. To the south and west, this generous space is delimited by a half-storey height socle, while to the east and north it is fully glazed and open. The Forum contains service counters in the main space, with individual offices to the rear. The Chamber of the City Council and related functions are also situated on the ground floor, as a sculptural group of pavilion-like volumes.

Supporting the idea of the open public space on the ground floor, and a 'floating' ring of offices above, the structure of the latter was conceived to enable column-free spans below of up to twentyfive metres. This has been made possible by constructing the wall to the atrium and the outer corridor wall as seven metre high beams. The floors span from seven to twelve metres, cantilevering approximately five metres to the external facade.

The facade falls into two parts: the lower pavilions and the base of the building are clad in brick (reminiscent in scale and material of the rural high street), the upper stories are combined into a glassy ring-building, featuring a double skin facade.

Given the total sqm, which were at our disposal from the client’s brief, we had to economise with the layout of the office areas to enable as much generosity as possible on the ground floor. With a limited budget we decided that money should be spent strategically both on those parts of the building which one touches - such as the benches, the service desks, the oak hand-rails, the leather cupboard handles; and on the two spaces which we felt should be more 'celebrated' – the Forum itself and the Council Chamber. In addition to various other design moves in these spaces, we encouraged the client to commission the artist Folke Hanfeld to execute ceiling paintings which would lend both the Forum and the Council Chamber particular atmospheres.

Photography: bitter +bredt

Source: Mies Arch Prize: http://www.miesarch.com/