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Creative, but pragmatic architecture
Léon Wohlhage Wernik - Germany
A mere ten years ago, Berlin was a Mecca for international architects, and it still boasts the highest concentration of building designers of any German city. But business is scarce for most of them nowadays, yet this is not the case at the Léon Wohlhage Wernik studio which still views Berlin as its inspiration, despite the dearth of new buildings going up.
"Berlin is Europe's most attractive city," says Hilde Léon. "It's different from many West German cities that were reconstructed after the Second World War, and made functional, practical, and tailored to the car. Even after the fall of the Wall, and despite all the homogenization measures that were needed when the city's historic partitioning ended, a great diversity of buildings has been built here over the past decade. This results in an unparalleled urban force. It is so much more interesting to work in a complex, multi-faceted environment." Principals Léon and Konrad Wohlhage began their careers there in 1987 with design successes following their very first architectural competition.
SchwabenGalerie near Stuttgart
Léon studied in Berlin and Venice; Wohlhage in Munich and Delft. Their cooperation with Siegfried Wernik was sparked when they planned the VTG residential and office building in Hamburg. Wernik, a graduate of RWTH in Aachen, had worked with Stirling, Wilford & Associates for many years before joining Léon and Wohlhage as the third partner.
Berlin reborn
The Léon Wohlhage Wernik studio contributed to the renewal of Berlin with a number of famous and award-winning structures, including their elliptical office building in Halensee, the Indian embassy, the offices of the State of Bremen in the federal capital, and an office and residential complex built on the site of the former Borsig factory. And the Berlin-based studio develops projects in other German cities as well, using the ArchiCAD's Virtual BuildingTM as its core model.
Léon Wohlhage Wernik has a staff of some 40 architects - most of them young - who work near Kurfürstendamm in the western city center in a former transformer substation, called MetaHaus. This converted industrial building, dating from 1928, is a perfect example of the studio's expertise in creating a synthesis of historic structure and modern usage. The atmosphere of serenity that permeates the studio loft may stem from a Far Eastern orientation: Léon Wohlhage Wernik recently participated in a competition for a TV tower in Guangzhou (Canton).
The studio has also developed a master plan for a large residential complex in Wuhan, and has proposed a new residential building in Nanjing. China is increasingly being viewed as the next great prize: "We are facing new tasks and new challenges. It is immensely exciting, especially since the scales we are talking about in China make your head spin. Naturally, we intend to continue to work mainly on German projects, " explains Wernik.
Urban regeneration
The SchwabenGalerie built recently in Vaihingen, a suburban town near Stuttgart in southwest Germany, confirms this commitment. The building is part of an urban planning concept developed by Léon Wohlhage Wernik. Vaihingen was not laid out like most German towns centered on the church, the town hall or the marketplace, but rather its focus was a monstrous brewery that dominated the urban fabric. No public space was available in the town centre other than a fenced industrial site. The local authorities therefore organized an architectural competition for the construction of a 30,000-sqm complex to include a shopping mall, a "Mercedes-Benz restaurant" and a citizens' forum. Léon Wohlhage Wernik won the competition with a conversion project aimed at giving a new identity to the town centre.
Unlike the American-style shopping malls, which are ubiquitous around in the world and function as autonomous units, the mall developed in Vaihingen integrates the key traditions of any European city within the shopping arcade. A glass atrium over an underground car park forms the mall's centre. Several buildings enclose the atrium and integrate with the traditional structures of the surroundings, including the old town hall, the fire station and the marketplace. This urban ensemble in the town centre also includes various public spaces, such as squares and monumental steps.
All of the commercial units at the SchwabenGalerie - including shops, restaurants, a hotel and music school -are already leased out, and the businesses opened in summer of 2004. This shopping mall exemplifies one of the features that guarantees the success of so many projects developed by Léon Wohlhage Wernik: providing quality architectural solutions at a reasonable price.
Ensuring price advantage
But the architects do not lament about clients' increasing inclination to reduce building costs, as Siegfried Wernik explains: "We try to make the best of the situation, and to improve the aesthetics. The cultural dimension of architecture is decisive for us, even if few clients also formulate such a need. For them, the main factors are costs and deadlines: in other words, primarily economic and pragmatic considerations. It is useless to bemoan the situation, so instead we take it into account.
"After all," he continues, "economy, deadlines and cost control are integral parts of high-quality architecture. We don't pass off our responsibility to other players in the building industry - that generally results in increased costs and poor quality. Instead, we offer our clients full service."
Indian Embassy, Berlin
 Complex built in the old Berlin |
A comprehensive approach
The studio's internal structure reflects this comprehensive approach. Hilde Léon and Konrad Wohlhage lead a small team that exclusively develops ideas and concepts for competitions, while Siegfried Wernik is in charge of organization and coordination between clients and building engineers. Hilde Léon, who feels that young architects must be able to draw, teaches design at Hanover University, and starts every project with a freehand drawing. The architects then process the design with ArchiCAD®, and use the software throughout all subsequent planning phases.
Léon Wohlhage Wernik has been using ArchiCAD since 1995, and has acquired a total of thirty-five licences. The partners appreciate the software not only for planning, but also for facility management, which is part of the studio's range of services. The files generated with ArchiCAD can be processed for a variety of tasks, including planning and cost optimization. The studio has acquired an ArchiFM® license for this purpose.
Photography: Christian Richters, Münster
