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Koch + Partner
When it comes to architectural interest, there is no doubt that large public works such as airports are today’s stars. Terminal 2 of Munich airport, inaugurated in June 2003, brought the Munich-based Norbert Koch architect firm into the international limelight. This is a perfect example of a large project where perfectly oiled interdisciplinary work is of the essence.
Founded in 1970, from the outset, his firm has put the emphasis on productive exchanges of ideas and respect for individual points of view. This group work is based on a sense of partnership that brings the numerous assistants into the decision-making process. Norbert Koch, Wolf-Dieter Drohn, Michael Schneider, Wolfgang Voigt and other partners have successfully developed projects without falling into the dangerous though sometimes enticing trap of reducing architecture to ‘packaging”.
This is demonstrated by the library of the University of Erfurt or the sensitive renovation of the BVB Alliance building in Munich. The latest projects on the drawing board include the “Palace of Wedding” in Moscow and an urban restructuring in Qingdao in China for around 33,000 inhabitants. A combination of western and eastern cultures, the composition of this new urban landscape juxtaposes forms that have very assertive symbolic values. Whether in Germany or abroad, the firm’s aim is always to create spaces without losing sight of the human factor.
What first of all strikes visitors to the highly efficient and sophisticated Terminal 2 of Munich airport is its sheer immensity. The functional complexity of the Terminal makes it a microcosm that reflects an urban organisation with its human activities and its various traffic flows. The architecture only exists for the useful internal space, which is particularly heterogeneous. The two-level design ensures the flow of the passengers within the Terminal. With its monumental and crystalline geometric shape, the Terminal, bathed in light, plays with the transparent effects of the external husk. The orthogonal layout of the buildings creates harmony and unrestricted view. To save energy, the building has been given a double skin façade and equipped with a photovoltaic system on the roof. Translucent textile veils protect the check-in hall from the sun, thus further amplifying the roof structure. The light that reflects in its huge volumes generates an extraordinary impression of power.
But the lightness of the husk removes the oppressive side of the monumentality. This is how the architects Koch + Partner succeeded in overcoming the acute problem of how to deal architecturally with the airports of the 21st century, their essential needs of securisation and simplification.
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Exterior view
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Art meets Architecture |
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Observation platform | |
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