München, Germany

Departmentstore, Benetton

Competition facade: 1. Price

Photo: Florian Holzherr - Images courtesy of Hierl Architekten

The building at Kaufingerstraße 15, takes up an hybrid part in the pedestrian precinct: the buildings in the west of the premises are urban houses on parcels with an store front between two firewalls, the buildings in the east are large full-scale perimeter blocks with a continuing facade. The departmentstore between Fürstenfelder Straße and Färbergraben frames the transit between both structures. As a consequence, its facade has been developed from this hybrid part and according to this, built of several layers:

Photo: Florian Holzherr - Images courtesy of Hierl Architekten

A neutral reinforced-concrete-frame-skeleton is filled with different elements. Therewith the building as an urban house is defined by the basic elements window and wall. The facade facing Kaufingerstraße is elaborated as a store-front with generous vitrification in the ground level and showcases -shop windows coming out the facade – in the first floor. Above, a regular hole-facade develops, with changing printed half-opaque and transparent glass-sheets, which absorb the dimensions of the granulation of the surrounding facades.

Photo: Florian Holzherr - Images courtesy of Hierl Architekten

The half-opaque window elements are silk-screen printed, by whichs textile texture the usage is referenced. Those window-elements lie deep in the reveals of the frames, veiling an revealing at the same time, while clear, transparent showcases come out the reveals and on one hand allowing visibility to the pedestrian precinct, on the other hand allowing the usage of decoration and shop

Photo: Florian Holzherr - Images courtesy of Hierl Architekten

window. The frontal aligned store-front becomes a spacially structure, which is an architectural reaction of the motion fluency on the pedestrian precinct.

Photo: Florian Holzherr - Images courtesy of Hierl Architekten

The choice of the materials corresponds the elegance of the usage: the reinforced-concrete-frame-skeleton is disguised with light grounded natural stone and refers in material and colour to the continousness of the light urban facades of the pedestrian precinct; the window-elements and the reveal-clothing are made of bronze the material of the residetial cities. Caused by the very tight dimensioned profiles, the facade appears light and elegant, and non the less because of their outrages behavior concerning patina, the materials are predestined for going further in history at this historical place.