Refurbishing a county court Erlangen

Paptistella Architekten

Products

1045
Door handle fitting

The FSB 1045 is based on the FSB 1015 model, which was con­ceived in the 1930s by a company called Wehag. Given the un­ceas­ing use of the FSB 1015 model in com­mer­cial build­ings, we have supple mented it with a variant fea­tur­ing a re­turn-to-door that con­forms to EN 179.

1045
Door handle fitting
1045
Door handle fitting
1045
Door handle fitting
1045
Door handle fitting
34 1015
Window handle
34 1015
Window handle

New-age redesign

The county court at Er­lan­gen con­sists of two build­ings. The large earlier struc­ture with its tra­di­tional red-tiled mansard roof was built during the Nazi dic­ta­tor­ship era. A lower “new build­ing” was added along­side it in 1980. Since 2012, the two units have been in­ter­linked by an edifice built between them. The Pap­tis­tella ar­chi­tects’ prac­tice has spent the past two years re­fur­bish­ing the 1980s’ build­ing, which, very much in keeping with the age, is notable for a black roofing skin that extends down over its façades.

The 1980s were like­wise clearly in ev­i­dence inside the build­ing – and their traces have not been com­pletely erased fol­low­ing a process of re­fur­bish­ment by the Pap­tis­tella prac­tice that was geared towards pre­serv­ing ex­ist­ing fea­tures. The granite tiles in the foyer were re­tained, for in­stance. Paved floor­ing has been laid from the fore­court to the build­ing’s in­te­rior that com­bines with wide-area glazing at the other end to lend the lengthy foyer the air of a con­sti­tu­tional walkway.

Unusual as the floor­ing may be for in­ter­nal use, it creates a sense of a con­tin­u­ous public space passing from without to within, thus also bring­ing the place closer to the city’s pop­u­la­tion. Spatial struc­tures and the build­ing’s overall at­mos­phere were both largely re­tained. Floor-to-ceil­ing windows and con­spic­u­ously geo­met­ri­cal ceiling re­flec­tors both bathe the foyer in con­ge­nial light. Pale timber has been em­ployed for the foyer ceiling, its fur­nish­ings and the en­trances to rooms leading off from it.

Architecture and Object

Bastian Gärber, Stefan Pap­tis­tella, Stefan Schröder
Photo: © Thomas Paal

“We ad­dressed our­selves in­ten­sively to the ex­ist­ing fabric when we set about sen­si­tively re­fash­ion­ing the court­rooms. It was im­per­a­tive that we subject the quality blue­prints pro­duced by the orig­i­nal plan­ners to rig­or­ous analy­sis, re­spect­ing their basic thrust whilst nev­er­the­less re-in­ter­pret­ing them in a modern, con­tem­po­rary manner.”

Sustainable timber replaces 1980s’ baize

The ar­chi­tects over­hauled all five con­fer­ence rooms in the 1980s’ build­ing. Where fur­ni­ture, walls and floors faced in grey­ish-brown baize had pre­vi­ously given the spaces a charm­ingly an­ti­quated feel, the tone is now set by nat­u­rally coloured wood that makes for a friendly, modern at­mos­phere. Issues of sus­tain­abil­ity do, of course, play a seminal role in public build­ings these days, hence the ma­te­ri­als chosen like­wise need to be eco­log­i­cally sound. Oak has been used through­out for doors, window frames and the veneer with which judges’ tables and the like are lined, and also for floors in the court and con­fer­ence rooms.

Timber si­mul­ta­ne­ously com­bines with plas­ter­board ceil­ings to deliver ex­cel­lent spatial acoustics. Rooms are rounded off vi­su­ally with bright, loam-plas­tered walls and table­tops with an an­thracite-coloured linoleum cov­er­ing. As well as having a ben­e­fi­cial optical effect on account of its texture, the loam plaster also absorbs noxious air-borne sub­stances, reg­u­lates hu­mid­ity levels and hence makes for a healthy living en­vi­ron­ment. Bur­nished brass, like­wise clas­si­fi­able as being a subdued earthy colour, was used for all visible items in metal.

The lever handle opted for by the Pap­tis­tella prac­tice was FSB’s 1045 model. The vibrant texture of the finish se­lected – Bright Pati­nated Waxed Bronze – blends in per­fectly with the other natural fin­ishes em­ployed. A number of 1045 handles were like­wise fitted in Stain­less Steel. This was in part due to the build­ing’s doors being im­ple­mented as bar­rier-free en­trances, which made readily per­ceiv­able chro­matic con­trasts es­sen­tial. “The handles can be clearly dis­tin­guished against dark-backed inlay work in bur­nished sheet brass that also in­tu­itively serves to in­di­cate the door’s slam­ming di­rec­tion,” the ar­chi­tects explain. “Thus, the handles manage to dis­creetly merge with the overall décor whilst at the same time serving as con­scious points of ac­cen­tu­a­tion.”

Object Details

Fotos: © Jürgen Krall

Location

Amtsgericht Erlangen

Mozart­straße 23,
91052 Er­lan­gen,
Deutsch­land

Anfahrt planen