MOVING THROUGH THE CITY HOTELMetropolitan Ensemble, graduation group 2011-2012

0588368H.T.C. BeelenGraduation date: 24th of August

Eindhoven University of Technology Department of Built Environment, Unit Architecture

Supervisorsdr. ir. Jos Bosmandr.ir. C.H. (Kees) Doevendansir. Sjef van Hoof

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Drawing 1 (top)Image 1 Morpological maps of

Cologne in 1957 and 2011

Drawing 2 (middle)Image 2 Analysis of the inner

city highway

Drawing 3 (bottom)Image 3 The location of the

Maritim hotel in the proximity of the Heumarkt

H.T.C. BeelenMoving through the city hotelAn urban analysis of Cologne followed by an architectural transformation of an existing hotel that is at the core of the city.

SpecializationArchitecture

Graduation Committeedr. ir. Jos Bosmandr.ir. C.H. (Kees) Doevendansir. Sjef van Hoof

Graduation date 24-augustus-2012

SummaryThe project investigates Colognes concept for a Dop-pelstadt that led the car into the city and was a radical attempt to modernize in the sixties. The project is focused on the implications that this car concept had on several places in Cologne. One of these places is the Maritim hotel that forms an ensemble with the ancient Heumarkt and the spaghetti shaped roads that surround it and move literally through the building. The goal of the transforma-tion is not to condemn the existing traffi c, nor to recreate the past exactly like it was. The attempt that is made with this project is to create a form of architecture that is of this time, that uses the past and the present to exploit missed opportunities without making a radical statement that tend to turn on itself as radical imposed ideas often do.

KeywordsUrban AnalysisArchitectural TheoryDoppelstadtMaritim HotelTransformation

The idea of a Doppelstadt (double city) was a concept by Rudolf Schwarz for Cologne to modernize the city. The name Doppelstadt was created by Schwarz in 1957-1960 and it indicates a city that has two cores. Originally one core was the Heumarkt and the other core of the city was located at the northern and more industrial part of Co-logne. Where this second core was supposed to be is not entirely clear. This is because Rudolf Schwarz often had quarrels with the city council that had a modern attitude with regard to modernization. The attitude of Schwarz was more careful with regard to modernization. Schwarz wanted to preserve the historical image of the city and this was not one of the wishes of the modern members of the city council. Because of these quarrels, Schwarz fi nally left the council and his concept for a Doppelstadt was implemented by the modern council members and fi nally became the plan of ‘Das neue Koln’ in 1960. In this plan it is doubtful were the second core is exactly located. Since then the Doppelstadt concept leads a life of its own and the cores of the city have shifted in time with regard to new ideas and new developments.

The ideas that have infl uenced the concept of Rudolf Schwarz were the existential views (Romano Guardini and Martin Heidegger) that were concerned about the mod-ernistic development and on the other side the modern movement that embraced the invention of more roads and the introduction of the car within the city. The develop-ment of the car within the city seemed to develop with a certain tail. Rudolf Schwarz’s concept for the Doppelstadt was not against car traffi c but it was concerned about the historic Gestalt (historical image) of the city. The modern movement that was led by Otto Bartning wanted more cars and broader roads into the city; it was thought that the historical shape of the city was of little importance. If we compare the morphological map of Cologne in 1957 with the map of 2011 it becomes clear that some roads have moved and lots of structures have changed shape. The core at Heumarkt was one thing that was clear about the Doppelstadt; this core was visually present in the morphological map of 1957. But even this core could have changed position because of the invention of the car that changed the morphology of the city. The car was an inspiration for modernism and the modern idea of the Doppelstadt that was implemented by the Werkbund members was an urban concept based on vehicles. This is a crucial development in the city of Cologne that has lead

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Rendering 1(top)The concept for the transforma-

tion in four steps

Drawing 4 (middle)A section of the transformation

and a section of the existing situation

Rendering 2 (bottom)An impression of a Doppelstadt

architectural experience

to a new kind of architecture. A form of architecture that deals with streams of traffi c. As modernism endured this interwoven quality between buildings and roads became increasingly complex. The Maritim hotel (1988) is a post modern structure that exploits the vehicle architecture in its full extend, it stores, guides, receives and interacts with traffi c. It is also an example of a building that has become involved with confl icting politics of many different parties that are visually present in the building.

This modern version of the Doppelstadt can thus be understood by the perception of a driver. The perception of the pedestrian has been slightly discriminated by the modern version of the Doppelstadt. From a contemporary perspective the car city needs to be reduced, yet the car is like a Trojan horse, once it enters the city it will not leave very easily. Urban Planner Albert Speer (junior) wants to restore the original intentions of the Doppelstadt by recreating the ‘Gestalt der Stadt’ (shape of the city) and reducing the broadness of the roads. In a way the shape of the city will never be the same shape as it was in the time of Schwarz. The shape of the city will be a compromise for an historical shape and the dismantling of the modern car city. The interventions of Speer are subtle and they form a counterpart that is politically composed by several involved parties that carefully rejects the ruling idea of a Doppel-stadt. The radical rejection of Rudolf Schwarz’s concept by the modern movement and the subtle counterpart that Albert Speer opposes against the car city will enhance a temporal paradox that will manifest in an ever changing Doppelstadt. The paradox will be embodied by a loop that states that the romantic view towards the city, that Stadt-baumeister Josef Stubben and Fritz Schumacher shared in the end of the 19th century, was replaced by Schwarz idea of the Doppelstadt that became a radical car concept by the infl uence of the modern movement in the sixties and looped back in the time of Albert Speer (2011) to restore the historic ‘gestalt’ of the city.

Today Cologne can be entered by car from multiple sides. Con-sidering the concentric structure of the city these long car roads, that are in fact fi ve lane broad highways, will undoubtedly lead towards the city center and this center is a big spaghetti line of highways that happens to move straight through an immensely structure that has been named; the Maritim hotel. The pas-sage of the hotel exists out of dislocated city tissue and due to this effect the Maritim hotel glass arcade fi nds itself isolated

and panoptical. Panoptical because every public visitor will be watched by the hotel guests that are in their rooms and all these rooms are directed towards the ‘unwanted’ public visitor. The hotel is a mental manifestation of several post-modern problems. The structure makes visible the friction between the discrimi-nated pedestrian against the overrated driver of cars but also the rich private visitor that has grown up in a world of capitalism against the public wonderer of cities, the nomad tourist which is in the end a fl aneur and an expert in the fi eld of ‘being’. This friction has led to a design that will create an alternate entrance towards the Maritim hotel. This entrance will guide the public and private visitor towards the hotel while taking a ‘backdoor’. The backdoor will dodge every sign of panoptism and it will bring the visitor towards an urban market that can be considered an exten-sion of the Heumarkt. The urban market will honor the ancient warehouse which ounce stood in 1920 and that was in essence a market hall. This market hall has been visited vividly by all sorts of citizens of the city and it was not at all isolated like the Maritim hotel. The pedestrian anodized aluminum road that will guide the route by using light will take visitors to the beton ‘brute’ hotel wings, will make the hotel accessible for the public visitor, it will connect to the existing passage structures that were placed by architect Stefan Schmidt in 1988 and the road will sometimes fl ow outside it’s concrete structure too breath outside the hotel borders to look out upon the Rhine while endless rows of traffi c will pass underneath his feet.

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