Center for Product Design

Solingen 

competition 2002
 

An ambitious aim: a building conceived as a visiting card for the Solingen Design Centre!

The disorderly accumulation of extremely different types of building has to be sorted out and rationalised. The back courtyard is to be cleared of buildings. The entire complex, together with the old building, reception hall, parcel-dispatch and exhibition bridge, is to be converted into an urban ensemble.

In terms of landmark-architecture, the precise metallic roof-cube and the filigree tower scaffold of the sun-shaft are of particular significance. The entrance foyer, located between the old building and the exhibition hall, will function as the main distributor for the flow of pedestrian traffic. All public areas in the old building as well as the exhibition hall are accessible from here. Furthermore, the entrance foyer becomes a public passageway during the day for pedestrians coming from the southern city districts to the railway station square and vice-versa.