MVRDV has designed a playful, mixed-use apartment building shaped like the letter O. Located in the German city of Mannheim’s Franklin Mitte neighborhood, the building is one of four letter-shaped apartment complexes that together spell out the word HOME.
The 15-story building mixes 120 apartments with ground-level commercial units and a bar and terrace. Its distinct form also makes it a local landmark for the neighborhood. This project is part of a larger revitalization of the Benjamin Franklin U.S. military barracks in Franklin Mitte, which includes other works, such as the “Europa Axis” that cuts a straight path through the district and the walkable “Green Hill” that provides a viewpoint at the heart of the neighborhood.
The “O” sits next to the Green Hill and consists of a high-rise and a number of adjacent low-rise buildings. The “O” stands out through its blue brick façade and the bright, multi-colored balconies. At the center of the apartment building is a public terrace. It is accessed by a public stairway, serving as a “living room” for the area by offering views over the neighborhood and providing an entrance route to the bar in the building’s fourth floor.
At ground level, the complex is surrounded on all sides by plazas, in which the shape of the building and its gridded façade is visible in its layout.
The low-rise buildings next to the “O” are based on the long, four-story residential buildings on the site that were part of the former military barracks. MVRDV’s design rebuilds these volumes, while cutting into their forms. One block is cut into three parts by the staircase that leads to the 4th-floor terrace. A nearby second block is cut into two pieces by the masterplan’s Europa Axis. Glass walls are featured where the buildings have been divided, revealing their interior spaces.
The balconies ensure that all of the apartment units in the “O” are provided with ample natural ventilation. The windows are positioned deep within the façade to reduce excess solar heating. Additionally, a “forest plaza,” positioned alongside the second barracks block, was added to contrast the urban nature of the plazas surrounding the complex, adding further greenery and biodiversity to the neighborhood.
“By itself, the ‘O’ is an exciting and friendly building at the heart of Franklin Mitte, with terraces and plazas that embrace the liveliness that is coming to this area,” says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “But it is even more exciting in how it becomes a part of the city. Working with the H, M, and E buildings, it will give Franklin Mitte a strong, unique identity: Welcome!”
Expected to complete in 2025, the first apartment sales have recently been closed for the “O.”
12 Comments
literally made of lego, ugly
Didn't OMA or Ole Scheeren have the exact same parti?
honest version:
double thumbs up for the SC2K reference
Looks like a Q to me:
Hmmmmm. . . .
Actually, I rather like the project, considering what it is, everything but those stairs, which look excessive and are functionally bizarre.
they just have a thing or two for stairs...
Minecraft is the new Revit.
Missed opportunity to do two more buildings...as the German word for HOME is HEIMAT.
Or simply HEIM, the residence or dwelling someone calls HOME. (HEIMAT is more for a region.) But that "I" would result in a very skinny building...
Feels like the Superdutch firms have become parodies of themselves. They used to be trailblazers doing tongue-in-cheek work back in the 90s but are now using the same formal language un-ironically.
post post post modernism
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