Stadt.haus

View of the civic center amidst its urban context.

Project Details

• Project name: Townhall Scharnhauser Park
• Project type: Mixed used Civic Center, Ostfildern, Germany
  (Permanent Collection of Museum of Modern Art, NY
  Venice Biennale 2004, Arsenale and German Pavillon)
• Client: Stadt Ostfildern
• Architect: J. Mayer H.
• Project Architects: Andre Santer, Sebastian Finckh

The Building

Stadt.haus is located at the center of Scharnhauser Park, a former American military site, next to Stuttgart airport. It is a multifunctional public building unifying municipal administration, civil services, a public library, an art gallery, classrooms for music lessons and evening school, a wedding room, office space, sports facilities and a multipurpose hall.

Left: View of the interiors of the building. Right: The entire building is considered as large, open public space with inlays of certain core elements..

This combination of different public services generates synergetic effects provoking programmatic and visual transparency. Spatially the entire building is considered as large, open public space with inlays of certain core elements. Floating within a space for mutual or strategic communication, these enclosed boxes structure the interior layout of the building. From the main square to the panorama deck on the roof, the Stadt.haus interlocks with its context through cutouts and terraces. These open air spaces remain accessible beyond the main opening hours and therefore serve as spatial and programmatic extensions.

Light and water animations are an integral part of the Stadt.haus and include a subtle relationship between nature and technology.

Light and water animations are an integral part of the Stadt.haus and include a subtle relationship between nature and technology. Framing the main entrance visitors have to walk through a computer animated artificial rain dripping from underneath the flat cantilevered roof.

The Stadt.haus and square construct a new public building prototype by offering simultaneity of city life in real, mediated and virtual space.

Wind.light, a light installation next to the Stadt.haus

The Installation

Wind.light is a light installation next to the Stadt.haus. Hanging glass fibre cables project points of light onto the ground, animated by the movement of the wind. Built-in webcams collect all light points with a surveillance software and send a life image of its dynamic constellation into the Stadt.haus and onto the website of the City of Ostfildern.

E.Gram; laser-constructed wire-frame-model of the Stadt.haus, J. Mayer H. with Sebastian Finckh

Credits

• Text: Courtesy, the architect
• Photographs by David Franck, Courtesy of the architect
• Compiled and edited by Mitesh Saraf