Review ABC Architects' Day 2018

Presentation: Dipl.-Ing. Arch. Axel Steudel / Axel Steudel Architekten

„Houses are built to live in, not to look on", a quote from Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is the motto of Mr. Axel Steudel.

The office of Axel Steudel Architekten, founded in Cologne in 1998, is a supra-regional architecture firm whose main focus is the planning and implementation of predominantly private residential buildings. Since 2017 it has been operating under the name Axel Steudel Architekten as a partnership company with limited professional liability.

What fascinates him about his profession is giving houses and things a shape for people. The various possibilities within the architectural canon and its development.

Mr. Axel Steudel does not have a specific project that he considers to be his greatest success - for him it is rather the sum of the different houses that stand for an architectural attitude. His office has won awards for many of these buildings.

Axel Steudel Architekten

Presentation: Dipl.-Des. Patrick Voigt / 22quadrat

22quadrat is an interdisciplinary studio that combines the potential of storytelling with that of architecture.

Mr. Patrick Voigt is fascinated by the fact that very few things are repeated in his everyday life. Every project is as different as its clients and project partners. Therefore, he can draw from his interdisciplinary approach and put together the appropriate forms of expression individually - whether it is an artistic position, an interior design or an orientation system. Everything is connected through the stories that 22quadrat tells about forms of expression. This is another point that fascinates and makes him happy: that he writes stories and is allowed to share them with people.

And as a third point, he loves the variety that his work offers. Sometimes he writes, sometimes he draws, sometimes he constructs. 22quadrat implements most of its projects itself, which means that the company is sometimes a construction company and sometimes a site manager. He and his employees go out to dinner with the board of directors as well as with the guys from the construction site. They simply take part in life and are allowed to enjoy their diversity every day.

One of the largest projects that 22quadrat has implemented so far is the "adaption" project for Union Investment. It includes an orientation system that extends over 21 floors, 17 complex spatial graphics and an exhibition design that also extends over 21 floors.

But the "impulse" project presented in the lecture at the ABC Architects' Day was also one of the most beautiful projects, as the company was able to use the architectural medium - the brick - to place a work in space that is an essential part of the architecture. Since 22quadrat always aims to merge our work with architecture, it was a wonderful feeling to see this fusion become reality for the first time.

Mr. Voigt was enthusiastic about the likeable people he met at the event and the lectures were very well coordinated: the first lecture dealt with the respectful handling of old knowledge in architecture and the study of these currents. The third lecture linked the depiction of metaphors in architecture - and right in between 22quadrat appeared as an "exotic": "We linked the two lectures together because we put the old knowledge into a new context and transferred it to architecture via metaphors. So you could say that the series of lectures dealt with the respectful handling of knowledge and the translation of it into architecture - via stories. The organizer of the ABC-Klinkergruppe succeeded in doing this very well!" commented Patrick Voigt as the crowning conclusion.

22quadrat GmbH

Presentation: Dipl. Arch. ETH-Z Thomas Weckerle / Bruck + Weckerle Architekten

„Baust du einen Weg, ein Haus, ein Quartier, dann denke immer an die Stadt“, cited by Luigi Snozzi and favourite citation of Mr. Thomas Weckerle.

Thomas Weckerle began working with Françoise in Zurich in 1993. In 1997 they founded Bruck + Weckerle Architekten in Luxembourg and employ 15 architects. The approach of Bruck + Weckerle Architects, which is both urbanistic and programmatic, aims to exploit the functional potential of a building task at a specific location and develop building structures from it. The formal reduction and the examination of typologies and materials are an expression of their architecture.

According to Mr. Weckerle, success occurs when a building, regardless of its size, triggers a positive development in its environment. Either at a road junction, in a neighbourhood, in an administration or simply in a family. Large, public buildings develop correspondingly more radiance.

He is fascinated by his profession as an architect, including urban planners, who have the opportunity to create quality of life through their personal commitment - but also to destroy it. He is driven and fascinated by this social and societal responsibility day by day.

For him, the ABC Architects' Day as such was the real highlight. Not only the elegant atmosphere, but also the interaction of the three speakers, who appeared to be strangers at the first glance and who all wanted to find the core of something (construction task) in their own way. This was achieved through interdisciplinary research and concrete materialization, regardless of the size and complexity of the task.

Bruck + Weckerle Architekten