i am visiting my uncle and a few friends in dusseldorf and dortmund. none of them are architects or work in fields related to architecture. does anyone have any recommendations of buildings to check out in the area?
i know of the frank gehry building on the rhine in dusseldorf, and the hanging train in wuppertal both of which i plan on visiting.
there's an opera house designed by aalto (completed after his death) in essen, midway between dusseldorf and dortmund. also i think a project by sanaa (zollverein design school, maybe not yet complete) and one by oma/koolhaas in essen. i remember essen as being generally interesting, but it's been so long i can't remember what else to recommend.
steven holl and eric owen moss both have projects in dusseldorf.
didn't mies have a project in krefeld? maybe never got built. anyway, krefeld's just west of dusseldorf.
south of dortmund is a great little town called hagen which i've written about here before (name the architect/building thread). projects there by behrens, van de velde, and other premodern and jugendstil architects.
get one of the many 'modern arch of europe' guides available. you can find things you didn't know existed, little gems that will amaze you. once you're there, all this stuff is SO close and accessible. you could spend your whole visit finding things.
you don't even have to stay in that region. a day trip by train to almost anywhere in germany is a fairly painless trip. go wild!
you should go check out zeche zollverein, which i think is near essen or gelsenkirchen. it's an old complex of red-brick modernist industrial buildings that were used for coal mining. architecturally, they are cool by themselves... add on top of that the new visitors center by oma and the the design school by sanaa...also they turned one of the brick industrial buildings into a design museum which was neat too i think. they also hold events there frequently, i.e. they freeze over the old canals and turn it into an ice rink (pretty neat skating among industrial ruins.)
the whole region was part of the IBA Emscher Park (international building exhibition) throughout the 1990s where they turned a whole lot of old derelict industrial areas into fun recreation spaces. there was one complex where they turned the factories into things like climbing walls and amphitheaters, i don't remember where, it might be the landschaftspark duisburg nord.
near bottrop there's an old indoor ski hill from the 1970s...the skiing wasn't that great but it was pretty awesome to be snow skiing in the summer. also on a hill nearby there's this big pyramidal thing called the Tetraeder where you get a beautiful view of the surrounding areas.
oh yeah the Zollhafen is the area in Duesseldorf with the gehry buildings. They are actually my favorite Gehry buildings I've ever seen (way cooler than bilbao or disney, imo) and there's a bunch of other neat contemporary buildings there too.
Don't forget to stroll through Duesseldorf's quant old downtown, it's pretty nice.
Go the the Wallfahrtskirche Maria Koenigen des Friedens in Neviges by Gottfried Boehm. Boehm won the Pritzker Prize in 1986 - this is probably his most important work.
I'll second the K20 and K21 art galleries. Gerhard Richter featured large, Mondrian, Klee (long time resident), Gursky. K2 looked to be interesting but was derelict.
There's some big Gehry site that I missed.
Photography is allowed. The nationally funded galleries consider their works are your works. Fill in the photography disclaimer form when you pay for entrance and they'll give you a sticker.
Koln has the new Richter stained-glass window in the Cathedral, the Ludwig Museum (or the other one, I forget) has a huge collection of Picasso, Richter, Malevich.
Be absolutely certain to go to Insel Hombroich. 20-ish Euros in a cab from Dusseldorf. It's a shallow watery valley set with sculpture, studios and a handful of one/two/three room galleries. The joys are unnumbered. The collection ranges from chinese lead-glaze pottery through gerrit rietveld, alexander calder, francis picabia, peter eisenmann, fontana, Japanese furniture... It is truly a day's worth of treasures. Remember to book a taxi for the return journey.
what to see in dusseldorf, dortmund & surrounding areas?
i am visiting my uncle and a few friends in dusseldorf and dortmund. none of them are architects or work in fields related to architecture. does anyone have any recommendations of buildings to check out in the area?
i know of the frank gehry building on the rhine in dusseldorf, and the hanging train in wuppertal both of which i plan on visiting.
any recommendations would be great. thanks!
in Düsseldorf is impressive ...
there's an opera house designed by aalto (completed after his death) in essen, midway between dusseldorf and dortmund. also i think a project by sanaa (zollverein design school, maybe not yet complete) and one by oma/koolhaas in essen. i remember essen as being generally interesting, but it's been so long i can't remember what else to recommend.
steven holl and eric owen moss both have projects in dusseldorf.
didn't mies have a project in krefeld? maybe never got built. anyway, krefeld's just west of dusseldorf.
south of dortmund is a great little town called hagen which i've written about here before (name the architect/building thread). projects there by behrens, van de velde, and other premodern and jugendstil architects.
get one of the many 'modern arch of europe' guides available. you can find things you didn't know existed, little gems that will amaze you. once you're there, all this stuff is SO close and accessible. you could spend your whole visit finding things.
you don't even have to stay in that region. a day trip by train to almost anywhere in germany is a fairly painless trip. go wild!
you should go check out zeche zollverein, which i think is near essen or gelsenkirchen. it's an old complex of red-brick modernist industrial buildings that were used for coal mining. architecturally, they are cool by themselves... add on top of that the new visitors center by oma and the the design school by sanaa...also they turned one of the brick industrial buildings into a design museum which was neat too i think. they also hold events there frequently, i.e. they freeze over the old canals and turn it into an ice rink (pretty neat skating among industrial ruins.)
the whole region was part of the IBA Emscher Park (international building exhibition) throughout the 1990s where they turned a whole lot of old derelict industrial areas into fun recreation spaces. there was one complex where they turned the factories into things like climbing walls and amphitheaters, i don't remember where, it might be the landschaftspark duisburg nord.
near bottrop there's an old indoor ski hill from the 1970s...the skiing wasn't that great but it was pretty awesome to be snow skiing in the summer. also on a hill nearby there's this big pyramidal thing called the Tetraeder where you get a beautiful view of the surrounding areas.
oh yeah the Zollhafen is the area in Duesseldorf with the gehry buildings. They are actually my favorite Gehry buildings I've ever seen (way cooler than bilbao or disney, imo) and there's a bunch of other neat contemporary buildings there too.
Don't forget to stroll through Duesseldorf's quant old downtown, it's pretty nice.
Go the the Wallfahrtskirche Maria Koenigen des Friedens in Neviges by Gottfried Boehm. Boehm won the Pritzker Prize in 1986 - this is probably his most important work.
(Church of the Pilgrimage)
I'll second the K20 and K21 art galleries. Gerhard Richter featured large, Mondrian, Klee (long time resident), Gursky. K2 looked to be interesting but was derelict.
There's some big Gehry site that I missed.
Photography is allowed. The nationally funded galleries consider their works are your works. Fill in the photography disclaimer form when you pay for entrance and they'll give you a sticker.
Koln has the new Richter stained-glass window in the Cathedral, the Ludwig Museum (or the other one, I forget) has a huge collection of Picasso, Richter, Malevich.
Be absolutely certain to go to Insel Hombroich. 20-ish Euros in a cab from Dusseldorf. It's a shallow watery valley set with sculpture, studios and a handful of one/two/three room galleries. The joys are unnumbered. The collection ranges from chinese lead-glaze pottery through gerrit rietveld, alexander calder, francis picabia, peter eisenmann, fontana, Japanese furniture... It is truly a day's worth of treasures. Remember to book a taxi for the return journey.
koln also has zumthor's kolumba museum and renzo piano's p&c department store
throw out what i know. several mid sized towns within easy reach by rail.
agree you should take the trip to insel hombroich (it's near neuss) a decomissioned missle base. great little buildings all over the place.
Dortmund:
library, mario botta, Königswall 18
apartment, archifactory - Wellinghoferstraße 175
KAP am suedkai - KSP engel + zimmerman - Agrippinawerft 26-30
ebeling haus, archifactory -
Duisburg
Kueppersmuehle, h&dem - Philosophenweg 55
Jewish center, zvi hecker
Community center w/ church, jutta heinze architektin, Wildstr. 31
Essen
Zollverein, sanaa
Dusseldorf
Feuerwehr Düsseldorf, Michael van Ooyen - Hüttenstraße 68
Koeln
kolumba
and several art galleries. see what i can find in my archives...
the steven holl project (not referenced on his home page) is @ kaistrasse 16.
2 buildings over @ kaistrasse 18 is a chipperfield
also @ insel hombroich is the langen foundation, tadao ando.
Neanderthal Museum, Günter Zamp Kelp - talstrasse 300, mettmann
maybe we should make a google map of these sites for spaceghost
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.