Sauerbruch Hutton is a practice founded by Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton with its main offices in Berlin and London. Active as an independent concern for upwards of twenty years, they have developed a personal language that is essentially characterised by two evident features: the free, sinuous forms of some of their buildings and a bold, emphatic use of colour.
Subtending these obvious characteristics are other no less important ones that are in some way derived from the first ones. We are referring to their wish to create a sense of place, whatever the situation, be it in an urban centre or in a rundown industrial area on the outskirts. Their buildings are gestures on an urban scale that resolve the programme of needs defined by the client and establish a dialogue with the location.
Likewise, it is worth highlighting the strong backing they give to an architectural approach based on sustainability. Sauerbruch Hutton defend and construct a holistic idea of the sustainable that incorporates the aesthetic and sensual pleasure the users of the buildings experience as well as an energy-based analysis of the constructional process or passive and active energy systems. In short, theirs is a defence of sustainability that acts in a resolute way, without artifice or pretentiousness.
The introductory texts at the beginning of the volume, written by Barry Bergdoll and Philip Ursprung, analyse all these issues and provide us with clues to understanding and contextualising the work of Sauerbruch Hutton. Barry Berdoll (currently Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the MoMA in New York) offers a panoramic vision of their work. Bergdoll plots an historical route that begins with their famous GSW Building in Berlin (1991-1999), an icon of urban acupuncture, sited in the recently configured territory of East Germany, which served as a boost to revitalising the area. His essay contextualises the recent work of the architects presented later in the magazine.
In his essay Philip Ursprung, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at Universität Zürich, defends the iconic value of Sauerbruch Hutton's work, not as something negative but the opposite, rather: the ability of the architects to work with what they find in the location, city centre or rundown periphery, and to reveal through their intervention characteristics that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Presented in the central part of the magazine are recent works and projects that illustrate the features and ambitions of Sauerbruch Hutton's oeuvre at different scales, from urban projects to university and corporate buildings. Among the former, we publish the study for the Masséna Bruneseau area (Paris), the urban plan for the entrance to Tilburg (The Netherlands), a proposal for the city of Doha (Qatar), and a housing competition for a rapidly expanding area of the city of Helsinki, which the architects won in 2009.
Among the latter, it is worth highlighting the Federal Environmental Agency (Dessau), a building finished in 2005 that we have revisited and re-photographed in order to show its evolution. Also the building for the Municipal Savings Bank (Oberhausen), the Jessop West building for the University of Sheffield, the recently completed office buildings beside the Rhine in Cologne, and the high-rise building for the KfW Bankengruppe (Frankfurt). The sustainable energy analysis in these works is illustrated by means of numerous schemas and building details. Similarly, we might emphasise the Museum Brandhorst, a museum for a private collection opened in 2009 in the museums area of Munich, which is notable for its facade and spatial concept.
Lastly, and coinciding with the studio's twentieth anniversary, in the nexus section Sauerbruch Hutton offer us a personal reflection on the evolution of their professional practice and their more relevant preoccupations, such as sustainability, art, and the relationship between the physical and the visual world.
Since its foundation in 2006, the work done by Abalos+Sentkiewicz, one of the two offices into which the former Abalos&Herreros studio split, has stood out on the Spanish and international architecture scene for its original synthesis of technical rigour, formal richness and its integrating of architecture, landscape and environment.
nature as a work of art | juan calduch
teams
001 dimitri xenakis. aubervilliers. france
002 NIPPaysage. montreal. canada
003 GORA art&lanscape. malmö. sweden
004 mary miss studio. new york. usa
005 robert bowen. new york. usa
006 maya lin studio. new york. usa
007 jim denevan. california. usa
projects
008 flexfence. lincoln. massachusetts. usa mikyoungkim
009 cementerio hörnli. riehen. switzerland vetschpartner landschaftsarchitekten ag
010 potemkin. park for post-industrial meditation. kuramata. japan casagrande & rintala
011 give peace a chance. montreal. canada linda covit & marie-claude séguin. cardinal hardy
012 circolare. ecole del rusco. bolonia. italy ciclostile architettura
article
solar artworks | nacho zamora
past projects
maria lai and her sardinia: playing with the art of landscape building cesarina siddi
article
beyond colours | grace mallea, soledad pinedo, pietro giannini and luna costantini
contests
001 land art generator initiative 2010. masdar. abu dabi. united arab emirates
002 transmission lines desing. landsnet. reikiavik. iceland
university projects
001 in situ. reading and writing space. the story of an artistic experiment in the landscape. parís la villette
cult landscape
burning man
green section
azuma makoto
the corporate garden. more than just a welcome geranium | daniel nebot and elisabet quintana
built projects
001 yagotoyama koushou-ji temple garden. japan masahiko kobayashi. keiko nishida. ohtori consultants environmental design institute
002 a re-narrated mediterranean landscape. american heart institute. nicosia. chipre paolo bürgi
003 mandarin oriental hotel. mimosa garden. barcelona. spain bet figueras. carlos ferrater. juan trias de bes. patricia urquiola
004 würth museum garden. la rioja. spain pablo serrano elorduy
005 hotel wiehberg. arrive in the moment. hannover. germany wes international landscape architects
006 reclining monoliths. evolution square. roche diagnostics vogt landschaftsarchiteken ag
007 functhe city dune. seb bank. copenhagen. denmark SLA
008 the california endowment. los ángeles. usa rios clementi hale studios
009 the green cloud project. herzliya. israel tema urban landscape design
article
isamu noguchi | ana maría torres
unbuilt projects
010 tour carpe diem garden mutabilis
011 izuran hotel resort. marrakech. marruecos atelier girot
article
the fertile city | alex puig. vivers ter s.a.
past projects
thomson factory. guyancourt. france christine dalnoky & michel desvigne
contests
001 santa cole barcelona. spain
academic works
001 from corporate culture to corporate gardens nicole uhrig
cult landscape
001 whitehead institute for biomedical research. cambridge. massachusetts. usa. martha schwartz partners, landscape architect. hok architects
002 barclays bank headquarter. london. united kingdom martha schwartz partners, landscape architect. hok architects
green section
indoor plants versus exotic plants mariano sánchez garcía