Mädler-Haus:
on the Use of Geometrically Flexible Design in Architectural Reconstruction
Projects
Cristiano Ceccato, AA Dipl
MSc(CS) DIC MIEEE
Assistant
Professor, School of Design
The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University
Hong Kong,
China
Abstract
This
paper illustrates the usage of flexible design techniques in order to overcome
geometrical problems in architectural construction and reconstruction projects.
The ideas expressed were borne both from the author’s ongoing research in the
field of Generative Design, and experience gained on a critical reconstruction
project in Berlin, Germany, in 1998-99.
Generative and rule-based design methods argue the power of rule-based
and parameter-driven design techniques; however, much of the research in this
field is still in its infancy, and the opportunities for application are still
few and of minor consequence. The reconstruction project for the Mädler-Haus in
Berlin therefore represented an excellent opportunity to develop a simple, yet
effective design system, which, by using single parameter flexibility, was able
to harmonise a seriously fragmented building.
The Mädler-Haus is an early modernist building from 1908 which, after
serious destruction and neglect, had been eroded down to its shell of façade
and wall structure when it was targeted for high-end reconstruction in 1998.
The extents of the damage were such that in the main staircase, no two flights
had any longer the same angle of climb; in such circumstances, the only way of
resolving stair construction is to custom-engineer each banister to the
geometrical state at each location. This paper illustrates how this
inefficiency in design and manufacturing was eliminated in the Mädler-Haus by
producing a geometrically flexible banister which relied on the flexibility of
the angle of climb in order to overcome the constraints of geometrical errors
in such structures.
1. Mädler-Haus – Historical Notes
The Mädler-Haus is a very important building in the context of Berlin’s
20th Century history, as well as in its relationship to the
emergence of the modern movement. Historically, the building has been witness
to the many tumultuous events in Berlin’s history and their resulting impacts
on its urban structure, both of which were symbolic of the events throughout
Europe at the time. Architecturally, the building is a good example of the type
of turn-of-the-century North German design that combined Schinkelian purity
with new construction ideas and techniques to produce a distinctly
proto-modernist architecture (Balfour 1990).
The Mädler-Haus was originally erected in 1908
as a department store for the textile and clothing magnate, Moritz Mädler. The
building cost the “imperial” sum of 550,000 Gold Reichsmark, a fortune in those
days, in particular in view of the buildings limited size, about 3500m² over
six floors. The high cost was not only due to the fact that the building made
extensive use of expensive stone such as the Weiberner Tuff façade with its delicate
mouldings and statuettes, but mainly because the architect Robert Leibniz
introduced new construction techniques and architectural principles which set
the Mädler-Haus apart from its contemporaries. Leibniz had made a name for
himself as a church architect, and he also designed the famous Hotel Adlon on
Berlin’s Pariser Platz. Through the construction of churches, with their lofty
proportions and high windows, Leibniz had acquired and aesthetic for generous,
uplifting spaces. In the Mädler-Haus, the architect produced a generous
building with a revolutionary functionality: the requirements for flexibility
and open spaces in the department store were fulfilled by using a table
construction principle of floors and columns, a novelty in 1908 and almost
twenty years before Le Corbusier publicised the idea.
The Mädler-Haus was largely destroyed during
World War II (see Balfour 1990), burning out completely to its shell and with
grave devastation to its façade. After serious destruction and further neglect,
the structure had been eroded down to its shell of façade and wall structure.
The East Berlin government did little to the building except “patch up” the
lower floors in order for some shops and offices to open. The building was
further reconstructed through the 1980s, when it housed both the East German
Arts Trade commission and a Chinese restaurant for Communist Party members.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a first refurbishment attempt was aborted
when the developer declared bankruptcy. The Mädler-Haus remained in its
unfinished state until its status was finally resolved in 1998, when it was
targeted for high-end reconstruction.
Mädler-Haus in 1920
Mädler-Haus in 1946
2. Geometrical Problems
The Mädler-Haus presented serious challenges to
the reconstruction team in 1998. The World War II bombardments had shifted and
misaligned the entire building geometry, and the subsequent patchwork
refurbishments had only been executed as low-cost, tactical operations. This
layering of deconstructing orders onto the building resulted in a tangle of
conflicting geometries and a haphazard patchwork of materials. Given that there
were no traces of the original 1908 interiors, it would have been preferable to
preserve the original façade while removing the rest of the building structure
(Entkernung) and replacing it with a new one. However, this was ruled out due
to financial limitations of the project, and it was opted to work with the
existing core, and resolve the major geometrical problems.
The extents of the structural damage and
misalignment in the Mädler-Haus were such that in the main staircase, no two
flights had any longer the same angle of climb; in such circumstances, the only
way of resolving stair construction is to custom-engineer each banister to the
geometrical condition present at each location. This paper illustrates how this
inefficiency in design and manufacturing was eliminated in the Mädler-Haus by
producing a geometrically flexible banister which relied on the flexibility of
the angle of climb in order to overcome the constraints of geometrical errors
in such structures.
Mädler-Haus Stairs, during reconstruction Entrance, 1997
3. Rule-based Design
The detailed discussion of Generative design methods and techniques is
beyond the scope of this paper, and are described elsewhere (Dawkins 1986,
Frazer 1995, Ceccato 1998, 1999). Generative and rule-based design methods
argue the power of rule-based and parameter-driven design techniques; however,
much of the research in this field is still in its infancy, and the
opportunities for application are still few and of minor consequence. In the
rule-based design, determinant parameters are sought which establish rules that generate designs (Frazer
1995). In this sense, the reconstruction project for the Mädler-Haus in Berlin
permitted the development of a simple, yet effective design system, which, by
using single parameter flexibility, was able to harmonise a seriously
fragmented building.
4. Variable Geometry: Pivot and Shear
The problem of the geometric misalignments in
the Mädler-Haus staircase consisted primarily in variations in slope angle and
location of turning points on each landing. This was the primary determinant
factor in the staircase’s banister design. Normally in such cases, an overall
banister design is developed for the entire staircase, but its details must be
adapted for every flight in order to accommodate geometric differences. In the
case of the Mädler-Haus , this would have effectively resulted in twelve
different detailed banister designs over six double-flight floors.
It should be noted here that the architectural
ambition of the Mädler-Haus reconstruction project was to recast a severely
fragmented, disjointed building as a new architectural structure, legible as a
single entity. Whether this was in fact achieved is left for others to decide;
however, it was clear that the fragmented execution of multiple geometric
variations of a staircase banister design would not have contributed to binding
the house together, as well as weakening the design itself.
The problem of the staircase geometry and
banister execution was examined carefully, in order to establish which, if any,
guiding principles, or rules (Frazer
1995), were inherent in the problem. These were quickly revealed, as a
combination of variable and constraint:
(1)
Since
the slope varied on each flight, the changes in angle were those which
determined the banister’s geometry. This angle was set to be freely determined
by the slope as a variable.
(2)
German
construction law determines that the banister height in public buildings above
15 meters in height must be of 1100 mm. The Mädler-Haus’s façade elevation
height is the traditional Berlin 22 meters (Balfour 1990), thus necessitating
the 1.1 meter railing level, which was fixed as a constraint.
Consequently, the following system rules are
determined:
Variable: Slope angle φ (1)
Constant: Banister height h = 1100 mm (2)
In architectural terms, this requires a system capable of maintaining a
constant height (banister height, constraint)
while being able to tackle any slope (staircase angle, variable). The geometrical implication of this rule is the
principle of shear:
φ =
60˚ φ
= 45˚ φ
= 30˚
h = const. h = const. h = const.
This simple solution permitted the efficient design of a stainless steel
banister system which consisted of a fixed-height (1100 mm) vertical frame
(‘sword’) which contained a set of vertically placed pivoting elements. Through
these pivots a round-section steel rod would be threaded to provide banister
railing; the spacing of the railing was at 120 mm, again a German construction
law safety requirement. The final architectural design reflects many of the
aesthetic elements in the new Mädler-Haus design, including extensive play with
geometry and angles.
In order to implement this precise steel design, a specialist contractor
was sought who was able to directly produce the original CAD-based design into
CAM manufacturing; in this case, the required precision and complexity of the
pivot system required CNC laser-cutting of steel for the veritcal ‘swords’ and
CNC lathing of the pivots themselves. However, the design’s efficiency was
manifested by the fact that the contractor only had to produce a single
vertical element design as opposed to twelve, as it adapted (Frazer 1995) itself to the geometric conditions at each
location. Assembly then just consisted of installing the vertical elements and
threading the railing rod through the pivot slots.
Shearing
pivot in vertical ‘sword’ Variable Geometry banister system Variable Geometry vertical element
5. Conclusion
The Mädler-Haus presented an excellent opportunity in which to map the
theories of rule-based design, however simple, to geometrical constructions as
executed through CAD/CAM, thus resulting in an early application of an emerging
approach to architecture. Of course, the pivot & shear solution implemented
in the Mädler-Haus cannot be solely attributed to the application of rule-based
design theory, nor does it represent a watershed design of far-reaching
consequences. It does, however, prove that a design approach based on simple,
clear rules, which exploits the power of a selected degree of freedom within a
design (in this case, shear), can lead to elegant and efficient architectural
solutions, both in functional and economic terms.
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