The free-form shapes and autumn-colored louvers of two sibling office buildings are studies in contrast to the surrounding business district, proving that chart-topping efficiency can be sleek and comfortable, too.
The German-born American painter Josef Albers saw color as pivotal in differentiating between 'optical and physical perception' on canvas. In three-dimensional architecture, color also changes mood, alters perception, and liberates or reduces volume. The Berlin-based firm Sauerbruch Hutton, founded in 1989, has used color intuitively in all of its projects, from the 1999 expansion and renovation of the GSW Headquarters in Berlin to the prizewinning Brandhorst Museum in Munich, completed in 2008. Early on, principals Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton realized that simple and relatively inexpensive applications of color could help transcend the confines of the site. And they discovered that 'color families,' which they often refer to, could be used as another design tool. The Oval Offices in Cologne are no exception to their portfolio.
The offices — two distinct, amoeba-shaped buildings — sit on four acres of parklike land beside the Rhine River and are wrapped in 5,000 red and green glass louvers. The six-story Festland House and the seven-story Ufer House complement the surrounding leafy landscape. The louvers appear to subtly change color depending on their angle and the weather. Over the last 20 years Cologne’s business district has developed outward from the city center around its Gothic cathedral to form a string of unspectacular business headquarters along both banks of the Rhine. The Oval Offices are a contrast here, in aesthetics and energy conservation.
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