House of Knowledge, Bochum

The New Living Room for the City of Bochum

The former main post office is becoming an inner-city hub that provides a variety of stimuli for the urban community.
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Client
Stadt Bochum
Status
Under construction
Progress
2019-2026
Size
23.220
m2

Creating new spaces for possibilities and (re)activating the urban space are primary requirements when designing public buildings that bring together various usage conditions and needs under one roof.

The House of Knowledge is such a place, which will offer a shared space in the heart of Bochum’s centre for the city library, adult education centre, UniverCity, market hall and rooftop garden. The vision? A house for everyone. . Learning, experiencing, experimenting and indulging happen here in an open, permeable space in both analogue and digitalized experience rooms.

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The transformation of the former post office building from 1931 into an “incubator for urban development” that can also respond to future requirements is crucial. The urban planning objective is to achieve maximum connection with the urban space. Through the generous opening of the façades and the spatial interweaving of the open space and market hall, insights and vistas emerge on each floor. This creates permeability between different areas, encouraging exploration of all the offerings and services in the building. At the same time, structural flexibility of the floor plans is achieved — allowing the house to breathe.

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Through its dynamic architecture, the House of Knowledge enables synergies and new relationships between different educational programmes and the market hall, which probably would not arise in this form without this shared space.

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The House of Knowledge is designed so that it can adapt to constantly changing media requirements, ensuring it is always evolving. A permanently “unfinished house”— this request was part of the brief. With the ambitious goal of planning the house to be visionary and future-proof, the design was developed with a consultant specialising in digitalisation.

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Markus Sporer
Founding partner of CROSS Architecture
“The greatest benefit in terms of sustainability and climate protection for both the building and the city? The publicly accessible rooftop garden, which we are realising in collaboration with our partners from Greenbox Landschaftsarchitekten. It reduces heat build up in the city centre, retains water, enhances biodiversity and becomes a fantastic oasis in the middle of the city — we are sure of that.”
Client

Stadt Bochum

Acquisition

Realisierungswettbewerb, 1. Preis

Comission

Leistungsphase 1-8

Team

M. Sporer, C. Wens, M. Engelen, J. Kranenburg, M. Benovska, P. Kropmanns, V. van der Graft, C. Lobo Rodrigues, L. Faßler, K. Heinze, Z. Mou, S. Stupp, P. Dörrwächter, Y. Ölcer

Landscape Architects

GREENBOX Landschaftsarchitekten

Interior

Kinzo Berlin

Structural engineering

ZPP Ingenieure AG

Technical engineering

ZWP Ingenieur-AG

Fire safety

Kempen Krause Ingenieure

Building physics

Müller BBM

Lighting design

ENVUE HOMBURG LICHT GMBH

Digitalisation consulting

Christoph Deeg

Accessibility consulting

Dietel Barrierefrei Bauen

Project Management

Convis Baumanagement & Projektsteuerung GmbH

Tendering, awarding and construction management

Höhler + Partner Architekten und Beratende Ingenieure

Visualisation

rendertaxi