Nuremberg Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Behles & Jochimsen

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66 6669
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A location steeped in history

The site in Nurem­berg where the ‘House of Busi­ness’ now stands after being com­pletely ren­o­vated and ex­tended in 2020 was home to the rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of Nurem­berg’s trades­peo­ple and mer­chants in as early as the year 1560. There could not be a more central lo­ca­tion for it: the ‘House of Busi­ness’, where the Nurem­berg Chamber of Com­merce and In­dus­try is based, is sit­u­ated on the city’s main market square, under the Im­pe­r­ial Castle and di­rectly next to the city hall and St Se­bal­dus Church. In ar­chae­o­log­i­cal ex­ca­va­tions con­ducted during con­struc­tion, frag­ments were un­cov­ered on site that date back as far as the year 850, pro­vid­ing ev­i­dence that Nurem­berg is 100 years older than pre­vi­ously thought.

Berlin ar­chi­tec­tural firm Behles & Jochim­sen won the con­tract for the general ren­o­va­tion and ex­ten­sion of the build­ing. They de­signed a co­her­ent struc­ture that har­mo­niously unified the old build­ing with its new ad­di­tions. The build­ings not listed on the pro­tected his­tor­i­cal reg­is­ter were com­pletely torn down for the project. New com­po­nents were added to house what had pre­vi­ously been an open inner court­yard. Large, con­nected mul­ti­pur­pose rooms make up the in­te­rior. While the site is steeped in history, all of the listed build­ings up to the facade on the corner of the main market square were only erected in the 1950s and 1960s. Rel­a­tively young, they still had to be stripped back to the skele­ton struc­ture and re­in­forced.

New com­po­nents have been added to them, with a sand­stone facade that dis­creetly con­nects them to the ex­ist­ing build­ing. The steep roofs of the new build blend in with those of the old build­ing to create a unified cityscape.

Architect and object

Photo: ©Annette Koroll

"The new build only looks like a de­cid­edly modern build­ing at second glance. It pays homage to the ar­chi­tec­ture of the re­con­struc­tion that shapes the cityscape with fine details. The feel and vari­a­tion of the sand­stone enter into an ex­cit­ing di­a­logue with the smooth­ness and tech­ni­cal pre­ci­sion of the over­sized double windows", Behles & Jochim­sen say of their project.

Spacious rooms flooded with light

At the heart of the new Chamber of Com­merce and In­dus­try build­ing lies an atrium that extends up to the eaves, with a glass ceiling that floods the space with light. It op­er­ates as a cus­tomer service counter fall, but also offers space for ex­hi­bi­tions and events for up to 400 guests. The office areas on the upper floors are sit­u­ated around the former inner court­yard, al­low­ing them to benefit from the natural light and making them feel open and spa­cious. A rooftop terrace sur­round­ing the atrium’s glass ceiling pro­vides an at­trac­tive outdoor space for breaks and re­cep­tions.

The re­in­forced con­crete skele­ton of the struc­ture is com­pletely clad in oak in the atrium, lending the space a warm at­mos­phere. Mi­cro-per­fo­ra­tion im­proves the room’s acoustics. The oak cladding is rem­i­nis­cent of the wooden access bal­conies typical of the inner court­yards in Nurem­berg’s his­toric old town. The special rooms on the upper floors are es­pe­cially eye-catch­ing, like the dou­ble-storey lounge, painted in punchy blue, with large windows that frame the view of the St Se­bal­dus Church. The ar­chi­tects were able to use a spe­cially de­signed handle col­lec­tion from FSB.

‘Door handles are always a high­light, as in­te­gral parts of a build­ing that you take in your hand. We were looking for time­less, cleanly de­signed prod­ucts that still had that some­thing special,’ they explain. The FSB 1097 model are both new and es­tab­lished at the same time. The in­te­rior rooms of the build­ing are ac­cented by dif­fer­ent metal­lic el­e­ments, so the door and window handles were in­stalled in an­odised alu­minium.

Building details

Photos: Marcus Bredt

Location

Nuremberg Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Haupt­markt 25/27,
90403 Nürnberg
Germany

Di­rec­tions