Stadtforum, Dresden | Tchoban Voss Architekten

During redevelopment of the area around the historical Ferdinandplatz in the centre of Dresden the first prize in a design competition held for Stadtforum, the city’s new administrative centre, was won by a proposal submitted by TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten and Barcode Architects. The approximately 35,000-sqm building brings together administrative services that had previously been scattered throughout the city, concentrating them in a new, centrally accessible, location. Situated opposite the historical city hall and leading in the direction of very extensive areas of greenery and transport to the east, the new building marks the edge of Dresden’s old city centre. At the same time, it serves as a pilot project for further urban development on land which has been disused since 1945.

The distribution of the building’s volume follows the course of the surrounding streets in a straight line stretching northeast and creates a new polygonal square to the south. The façade is horizontally divided into a base, a middle part, and a roof area, each of which has its own specific use. A vertical grid stretches over all floors of the building, creating vertical window formats that are typical of this region and grouping them in an offset pattern. On its north-west side the volume tapers to a point. Large excisions in the façades form ‘windows on the city’ on each of the building’s three sides. A façade opening with glazing spanning two storeys marks the building’s main entrance at its south side on Ferdinandplatz. A panoramic window on the first floor
on the north façade has a view of the city hall opposite. The planted inner courtyard has an opening from the second to the fourth floors, making a connection with the green spaces south of the city centre.

The entire facade is impressive for its plasticity: the resulting play of shadow on the light-beige Dietfurt limestone is especially effective on the building’s base and middle parts. The graphically homogeneous coloration of the material was chosen in reference to the sandstone facades of the surrounding principal buildings. On both the ground floor and the central section, the city coat of arms is depicted as a sculpted relief on natural stone lintels and window shutters. These emphasise the variation in the façade’s rhythm, signify the building’s public function and are in keeping with Dresden’s tradition of richly decorated façades on public buildings. Above the area of natural stone with its diagonally arranged reveal panels, the fifth and sixth floors are distinguished by an orthogonally oriented metallic façade in which alternating glazed and non-glazed panels are framed by bronze-brown coated aluminium pilaster strips. Only when looking from the front is it possible to see into the spaces inside the building. As your view of the building becomes more oblique or when you move through the urban space, these storeys merge into a continuous roof zone at precisely the height of the striking roofscape of the historical city hall opposite.

The ground floor contains publicly accessible areas including a foyer with an information desk, a restaurant, the city’s lost-and-found office, and rooms where citizens can receive advice. These public uses are supplemented on the first floor by exhibition spaces showing exhibits from local archaeological excavations, a model of the city, and a conference centre. The first floor also has a wood-clad central volume containing meeting rooms for office use. The public and semi-public uses of the two first floors are interwoven in a ring shape by open and spiral sets of steps, forming an informal recreation area – the ‘Agora’ – with additional café, lounge, and exhibition spaces. This has room for up to 1200 people.

The foyer areas with their individual bronze-coloured elements and homogeneous grey flooring pick up on the materiality of the façade and outside amenities. This space takes its character from the silver-fur slats covering the walls. Their light and cheerful appearance is boosted by the abundance of natural light and makes an exciting contrast with the dark-blue front walls, the passageways, and niches. The passage leading from the foyer to the Agora and the tip of the building contains a 100-sqm planted wall stretching the full height of this space. This has an automatic watering system.

The five office floors above are for purely business uses and are organized around two green inner courtyards, which provide natural light and a pleasant working environment. A transverse supply and connection zone helps provide efficient paths and flexible-use zones for more than 1000 workplaces. The new work world created in the Stadtforum follows the ‘shared-desk principle’: there are no personal workplaces. Extensive digitalization of administration processes allows users to choose a work environment specific to the task at hand through the booking system. In addition to the standard group office areas there are interactive zones such as work islands and chat-pods as well as thinking spaces for concentrated working on one’s own, telephone boxes for online meetings, and meeting rooms of various sizes for teamwork. Particular attention has been paid to spatial acoustics. The highly absorbent ceilings, designed to have an ideal reverberation
time, and a special acoustic carpet are supplemented by a textile table absorber, enabling attainment of the highest acoustic standards. The two underground storeys contain a public garage, an area for the city’s official vehicles, and a large room for employees’ bicycles, as well as changing rooms and storage and technical areas.

The building meets Germany’s KfW-55 energy standard and received the BNB Silver sustainability certificate. The building’s operational efficiency derives from its highly insulated envelope but also from, among other things, a special heat supply that uses the return flow of the district heating system and from a smart ventilation system for night-time cooling that makes use of parts of the building. The green roof, which incorporates 376 photovoltaic modules oriented east-west, delays the flow of rainfall into the underground infiltration trenches, benefitting microclimate and drainage. All public areas in the Stadtforum are barrier-free. A visual and tactile navigation system guides users of the building through the multi-storey space of the foyer and the Agora. All floors are barrier-free.

Building-security provisions include the installation of graduated security zones, access controls, and surveillance equipment, among other things, to meet specifications issued by the regional criminal investigation authority (LKA); these measures are supported by a 24-hour security service. A comprehensive sprinkler system has enabled removal of the firewalls between the units on individual floors. Some areas can be supplied with emergency power by means of a back-up generator.