Behnisch Architekten - Bolster Their Reputation in Europe

There’s a joyful quality to the work of Behnisch Architekten; a sense of uplift and humanity that inspires the users of their varied buildings in Germany and North America. Schools and city halls, workplaces, museums, sports facilities, and the creative adaptation of old buildings share the virtues of free-flowing space, bold colors, and abundant natural light. Stefan Behnisch established his office in Stuttgart in 1989, and he began to pursue his own course while partnering with his father, Günter Behnisch, who had earlier won acclaim for the Olympiapark in Munich, and the crystalline Bundestag in Bonn. They collaborated on the Norddeutsche Landesbank in Hannover, whose daringly cantilevered forms echo the iconoclastic designs of the Russian Constructivists and create iconic tower for that sober city.
With offices in Stuttgart, Munich, and Boston, Behnisch Architekten have already ranged far afield and built on a large scale, notably in Hamburg with Unilever (The Plan 043), Marco Polo Tower (The Plan 046), Boston, where Genzyme Center (The Plan 017) was voted the most beautiful building in the city, and Baltimore, where the University Law School (The Plan 068) is a gateway to the urban campus.  Smaller buildings in southern Germany display the same mix of rigor and exuberance, as well as fitness for purpose and site.  Always there’s a commitment to high levels of sustainability, employing active and passive strategies.
In Bad Aibling, a prosperous Bavarian spa town, Behnisch designed a new complex of public baths, and went on to recreate the civic hub.
The old city hall, built in the 1970s to replace an earlier facility that burned down, was not worth the cost of renewing. It was demolished, and Behnisch replaced it with a lightweight concrete structure that slightly extends the old footprint and retains the cellars. The upper stories are faced in stained larch panels and extend over a fully glazed ground floor that...

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