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Architecture
Openness lived
Windows offer perspective and insight, stand for openness and transparency, for an invitation to dialogue. Precisely like the extensive campus of the ThyssenKrupp Quarter that can be seen through the punched-out landscape window of the new headquarters location. The new headquarters of Thyssen Krupp in Essen symbolizes and expresses the lived corporate culture. The architecture and urban development concept of the quarter, in equal measure, stand for innovation and future orientation, sustainability and social responsibility. With the new quarter, a 230-hectare area that had long been undeveloped, right in the center of Essen, comes to life. The open campus as the heart of a newlydeveloped urban district embodies the dynamic interaction between historic bond to the location and lived internationality, as well as the desire for dialogue and movement. The Quarters buildings are arranged around a central water axis and like the newly constructed Krupp Park are an invitation to encounter. Read more about the background and the significance of the new Quarter development on pages 46-65.
Capital of hope
In Brasilia, Corbusier students Lcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer were able to cast a dream in steel-reinforced concrete: the utopia of a functional city. The new capital of Brazil, which shot up out of the Central Brazilian Plateau within less than four years, embodied a noble goal: a clear break from the chaotic conditions and rigid class distinctions in other Brazilian cities. The French author, Andr Malraux, called Brasilia the capital of hope. The city was laid out according to the campus principle, with separate quarters for living, working, and leisure, between which city residents were to commute on broad freeways. Viewed from the air the contours of Brasilia are similar to those of an airplane. The so-called monumental axis, where the most important buildings stand, could be considered the fuselage. The two wings are comprised of more than 100 so-called superquadras, enclosed units of 11 to 12 residential building slabs, in each of which up to 5,000 people can live. As an architectural project, today Brasilia is listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco. As urban living space it has been frequently criticized. At least the public routes and means of transport were not in line with the explosive growth of Brasilia. Since it was dedicated, 50 years ago on April 21, 1960, the city, which was originally planned for 500,000 inhabitants, has now grown to a population of 2.6 million inhabitants. However its citizens appreciate its high quality of life compared to the rest of the country and particularly its clean air that is also a consequence of the comparably low traffic volume.
Its the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
Paulo Coelho, author
The quality of cities and places can be designed on the drawing board, their beauty comes with time.
Renzo Piano, Italian architect
We wanted to generate a space that stimulates movement, promotes the exchange of knowledge, and demonstrates surprising possibilities for the use of innovative materials and technologies.
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We do almost everything in rooms created by people. The designers of buildings and cities give people room for encounters and exchange, for development and going forward. Architecture is thus particularly determined by the essence of the society in which it arises: Architects and interior designers shape the environment from our expectations. They can also inspire us with new ideas and thus alter us. In view of this challenge, no one can escape worldwide change. Today, new global developments and a new understanding of lasting architecture, city planning, and landscaping are reflected in the complex requirements on architects and interior designers. While people compete for a sustainable use of the limited spatial capacities and energy resources of our planet all over the globe, architects and city planners are working on solving the most urgent spatial challenges of our time. How will a growing population find enough room to live and work in the future? How can the population dispersal in abandoned rural areas be avoided? Can we also realize the need for life in harmony with nature in the city? Architecture must face up to the dramatic changes in demographics and the environment and develop new concepts to create space for the future, even under these conditions. At the same time, the rapid technological advances also open up unforeseen possibilities. It has long been clear that technological innovations are decisively important in overcoming the major global challenges. In architecture, as well, sensitive, innovative technologies support the striving for quality of life, efficiency, and sustainability. The new ThyssenKrupp Quarter in Essen, which our employees are in the process of moving into, deliberately points the way. With this construction project, unique for ThyssenKrupp, we have generated a space that stimulates movement, promotes the exchange of knowledge, and demonstrates surprising possibilities for the use of innovative materials and technologies. We have thus created a place for people and ideas. As the heart of our globally networked corporation, our new campus is an expression of the selfperception of our group and of the demands we place on ourselves: innovation and sustainability, openness and dialogue. It is and this particularly appeals to the engineer in me a piece of constructed technology. Philosopher Martin Heidegger once said: Our understanding of reality is reflected in the way we build and experience constructed space. The best architecture, however, finds the right balance between reality and vision, between what exists and what could be with the courage to take new paths. Some of the examples in this magazine demonstrate these qualities. We would like to extend the following invitation: Come with us and discover the living spaces of the future!
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TK Magazine | 1 | 2010
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The ThyssenKrupp Quarter in Essen is the Groups new heart and a symbol of its continued development. Its architectural and urban planning concept reflect innovation and future orientation, sustainability and social responsibility. A special section on ThyssenKrupps new headquarters.
Architecture
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30 What is your view on architecture? Views of Kazuyo Sejima and Alain Robert
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14 Money cant guarantee beauty An interview with Alain de Botton, author and philosopher 22 World in figures Global metropolises yesterday, today and tomorrow 24 Watch out for pedestrians! A stroll through Leipzig with the freelance promenadologist Bertram Weisshaar
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34 What comes before the city? Nothing works without the right infrastructure 40 Materials that dreams are made of Innovative materials help turn visions into reality 74 A new start in America ThyssenKrupp opens two new production sites in Brazil and the U.S. in 2010
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App City: Does Augmented Reality alter our perception of new spaces?
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Architects can realize their dreams with new materials.
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Promenadologist Betram Weisshaar teaches us perceptiveness.
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Cars will play an increasingly minor role in future mobility.
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Ants as master builders an expert interview that offers surprising insights into humans behavior
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46 From waste land to the new campus A brief visual history of the construction project 48 Movement and renewal An interview about the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter with Ralph Labonte, member of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG 55 Room of Tranquility A retreat from the hectic of everyday work 56 The doers Three men and their reflections on the construction project 58 Building on ones own strengths Some of the Groups most innovative products have been used to build the Quarter 60 A green stage The ThyssenKrupp Quarter has been awarded a renowned sustainable building seal 62 The city within the city Company history has been written on the site of the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter since 1818
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76 Megacities and shrinking cities How can space, traffic, energy and the quality of living conditions be safeguarded and improved in growing and shrinking cities? 80 How kids see their surroundings Students from an Essen high school took snapshots of their environment 84 Getting around in 2050 New forms of mobility in the city of the future 90 Real and virtual spaces Why the desire for real encounter remains an essay 92 Augmented Reality New technologies alter our perception of our environment 96 Fascinating buildings An interview with entomologist Bert Hlldobler
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MONEY
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CANT GUARANTEE
BEAUTY
Architecture is more than function. The design of a house says a lot about the character and aspirations of its owner. An interview with Alain de Botton, author and philosopher.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2010 | June
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Living Architecture: The In-Between House (Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects, Norway) fits seamlessly into a traditional British seaside strip of houses.
One of your books is called The Architecture of Happiness. Can a building really make you happy? Architecture isnt medicine. You can disagree with medicine, and it will still work. Architecture is different. It is an invitation to a mood, not an order that will force you into a mood. I would compare the effect of architecture to the effect of the weather. The weather means a lot to our mood and people move to countries for the weather. But if something terrible has happened, it doesnt matter that its a beautiful day, youll be upset whatever happens. Or the other way around. However, most of the time, were in a middle kind of mood. Thats when we can be pulled in one direction or the other by the weather. Similarly, I think architecture can help decide on the tilt to optimism or pessimism. Conversely, this means that an architect should be a psychologist of buildings.
So in giving shape to our buildings, architects shape us, too? Architecture affects us, but we usually dont behave as though that is true. People may praise beautiful buildings, but politicians never stand up saying I want to make the world look more beautiful. Architecture is always considered a very low-priority issue. Isnt that also due to the fact that there is no universally valid definition of beauty? Theres a perceived idea that no one can define whats attractive. The dominant view that beauty is a matter of taste is a wonderful intellectual structure for the business of property development. Actually, its no more difficult to define whats beautiful than it is to determine whats a good book. But architecture is a practical art. The art of architecture is to deliver beauty and utility.
But isnt beauty an elite concept in architecture? Again, the argument that beauty is an expensive luxury that we cant afford is very dangerous. You only have to look at the attractive peasant houses in Tuscany that are built very simply out of stone. Similarly, you can go to parts of Saudi Arabia or Moscow and quickly see that a lot of money cant guarantee beauty either. Examples like these will quickly show you that theres actually no connection between money and beauty. Money opens up the possibility of beauty, but beauty is not dependent on money and money doesnt guarantee beauty. At the end of the day, what you need is talent in an architect. Beautiful architecture for everyone should be possible. Its no more expensive to build a beautiful building than it is to build an ugly one. Why do people feel attracted to some architectural styles but not to others? We tend to need the architecture that reflects things that we are attracted to, but that are missing in our lives. For example, there are really only two great modern architectural fantasies or desires: the first is calm, the second is nature. Minimalism the idea of an empty space is the great fascination of our age. The reason is that our lives are so complicated and overloaded with things and activities that we long for calm. In a technological, industrial world, the other thing people feel attracted to is the natural. We have more exceptional, university-trained architects than ever before, and great contemporary buildings. However, everyday architecture often lacks the quality associated with beauty. Why? Part of the reason is that more and more architects have been removed from the business of designing buildings. Many building companies dont even use architects anymore. The areas of the world where things go well architecturally are often those where politically the society is quite invested. For example, to get Manhattan looking as good as it does required a huge collective effort, tons of rules regarding how tall buildings should be and where they should be located. It required political action on the part of many people. Similarly, the Netherlands boasts architecturally beautiful areas because the Dutch care a lot about their environment. Again, there are a lot of rules here about how and where you can build. Often the times when built-up areas look worst is when theres no control and things are just abandoned to the market. Architects should be accountable to the community at large because architecture is not a private business. It affects everybody. Without the influence of religion, many of the great architectural works around the world would not exist (the pyramids in Egypt and Mexico, Greek temples, Gothic cathedrals, Renaissance and Baroque buildings ). With religiously motivated building pushed to the background at least in the West , what is driving architecture today? Part of the reason why religious architecture has allowed architects freedom is that, more than other buildings, a church or a temple is free
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Alain de Botton
From the art of travel to the architecture of happiness and the pleasures and sorrows of work in his books, Alain de Botton strives to apply philosophical ideas, from Greek philosophy to modern thinking, to everyday problems and socio-political issues in simple terms. The native of Switzerland lives and works in London. 7
of some of the practical requirements normally associated with architecture. Its just a gathering space for people. In addition, religion gave architects lots of interesting forms, such as the shrine or the baptism chapel, and asked them to evoke feelings. Thats different from designing a railway station. Some people have said that art galleries and museums are the future. The big difference is that the art gallery exists to exhibit art. If the art itself is the special thing, even the nicest 3
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3 building will be no more than a box allowing you to enjoy this art. Its as though nowadays we need an excuse to build nice buildings. I think we should reinvent certain forms and allow architects to build great public spaces for nothing else than wandering around. But were not there yet. In an interview about 10 years ago, you said that cities can strangle themselves with their size. Since then, global cities have been getting bigger and bigger. How do you rate that development? I think its a real problem. Human beings are made to live in groups, but not in enormous groups. Once you get beyond a certain size of group, all sorts of things start to happen. You no longer have a connection with people. You become more antisocial than you would be in the countryside. I think there is an ideal size for a city and various people have tried
to define it: The ideal city may be a city that you can walk across in one day, a city in which you can see the surrounding hills and countryside from a high spot. The best way to handle a megacity, I suppose, is to split it up into lots of smaller cities. To some extent, some big cities like Los Angeles or Tokyo are like that. Theyre really rather a collection of neighborhoods. London has some of that quality too. Does urbanization offer a cure for loneliness? Not necessarily at all. Because there are so many people, they become a threat. When there are fewer people around each person becomes less threatening and a potential friend. You never really say hello to someone you pass in the city whereas you will in an isolated part of the countryside. Loneliness goes with the city. Sometimes that loneliness
Living Architecture: Shingle House, designed by the Glasgow practice NORD, consists of recycled material and can both open up to or close itself off from its surroundings.
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can be good because youre anonymous, and no one will gossip. But when what youre looking for is community, go to a village. Nobody can say today what our working and living environment will look like in 50 or 100 years. But most buildings constructed today will still be around then will they be able to adapt to a perhaps radically different environment? Im sure some wont. But the best buildings are flexible. Many of the industrial buildings of the 19th century, for example, started off as warehouses and then became offices, flats or art galleries. In addition,
the way that we live hasnt actually changed in quite a long time. The bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen these are stable units. At the age of 101, Oscar Niemeyer said in an interview that the architect must think that the world has to be a better place. Would you agree? Definitely. To design a building should be a positive step and you should be able to feel that youre enhancing the environment in some way. The best architects have been utopians. 7
THE INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED BY ANKE BRYSON. PHOTOS (PORTRAITS): PHIL FISK
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Bertram Weisshaar is a freelance walking scientist. He does not stroll through the countryside, but rather examines his environment. His argument: You can see more on a walk than through a windshield.
Underfoot, the grit crunches. Bertram Weisshaar ambles from parking level 10 to parking level 11 and then back to parking level 10. He is not searching for a vehicle; no, he is searching for peace. The parking garage is only a few steps away from the central station, but no one is rushing with a trundling Pullman suitcase, no one is braking with squealing tires. Weisshaar leans over the railings. He looks down onto the roofs of Leipzig, onto the blue letters of the Stadtwerke municipal utilities, the red writing of the Sparkasse bank. The wind ruffles his curls. In the distance, the express trains rattle, the streetcars jingle, the
trucks rumble. Suddenly, the parking garage seems to resemble a holiday island at least a little. Anyone who sets off on a walk from Leipzigs central station probably first heads for the Nikolaikirche church, then possibly to the Altes Rathaus (the old town hall), the Alte Brse (old stock exchange) and the Alte Waage, the former town weigh station. But not to a parking garage. Weisshaar is not your typical walker, however, but a freelance walking scientist. Leipzig is just as much his adopted home town as his field of research: There are microlandscapes everywhere.
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WATCH OUT
FOR PEDESTRIANS!
With this term, he means parks and canals, but also industrial wastelands and empty spaces. One question drives him: How do we in our own cities, not on faraway continents get new landscapes? To do this, he has to gain a new insight into the city for example, by looking at it from a parking garage. For crime author Georg Simmel, he would probably have been a flneur, for Marcel Proust a passant, for Oscar Wilde a dandy. However, Bertram Weisshaar calls himself: a promenadologist. In the early 1990s, he studied at Kassel University under Lucius Burckhardt, the founder of what is known as the promenadology movement. As a sociologist, Burckhardt researched how people discover and traverse their environment. Human perception and movement that was what city planning should cater to, he found. City development could not take only car drivers into account. Weisshaar disseminates Burckhardts theories in lectures, at congresses, in seminars. He has followed in Burckhardts footsteps. 3
TK Magazine | 1 | 2010 | June
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3 Underfoot, the thorns snap. Blackberry tendrils are overgrowing the flagstones. The only way to get to the freight station beside the parking garage is to push back a barrier. The complex is abandoned. The window panes are broken, the red-brick walls covered in graffiti. Someone has painted: See sunrise with no sleep at all in black letters on a white background. The birds twittering is growing louder, while the traffic noise is getting quieter. Have we reached the countryside already? In former times, the definition was not excessively difficult the countryside was just outside the city gates. Today, we no longer
know where the city ends and the countryside begins, says Weisshaar. There are increasingly more green spaces in the city, but at the same time there are increasingly more industrial areas in the country. In the city, the countryside sometimes remains hidden, for example, behind the freight station. Bertram Weisshaar likes to walk there along a river bank. However, to do this, he has to fight his way through blackberry bushes, balance on a wooden board and slide across a muddy area. It is only then that he reaches the Parthe, a tiny river that rises in the Glastener Forest and flows into the Weisse Elster River.
Elaborating relationships of that ilk in such a way that they are immediately apparent to every walker this is what Weisshaar regards as the task of landscape architects. The landscape comes into existence in peoples heads first. However, that was always the case. In former times, anyone who stepped beyond the gates of the city crossed over a stream, climbed up a hill, rambled through a forest. These were discrete places too. The walker was the first person to combine all these different impressions into an overall picture, that is, the landscape.
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Bertram Weisshaar researches and develops walks to heighten peoples perception of their environment.
A few beer bottles have shattered on the paving stones on the riverbank. Other walkers would possibly block out the image of the shards, preferring to turn their attention to something more beautiful, for example to the basil plant that is growing in the terracotta pot on the windowsill on the other side of the river. That fits better into the picture. However, Bertram Weisshaar does not filter his environment. How do the city planners deal with rivers? How do they deal with pedestrians, with cyclists and with car owners? Bertram Weisshaar does not just walk through Leipzig with questions like this in his head, but also through Frankfurt, Hanover or Lbeck. Frequently, the cities hire him. Then he takes groups through historic downtowns, for example from parking garage to parking garage. This allows him to show two things: On the one hand, he proves how much space cars take up, on the other hand, how much cars restrict our vision. Through a windshield, we can only perceive segments, while on a walk we can get insights. Sometimes, Bertram Weisshaar can find no countryside. When he leaves the riverbank behind him, he turns onto a main street. The cars rush past in eight lanes. A few steps farther on, three trolley cars trundle to the trolley car stop, fender to fender. A walker would not be able to cross the square. Anyone who wants to explore the city on foot has to be prepared for detours. Weisshaar often observes how pedestrians are being pushed out of the city centers. For example, a modest sidewalk runs alongside the generous main street.
Today, we no longer know where the city ends and the countryside begins.
Planners did not merely conceal the Parthe, they also straightened it; the water wends its way through a cement riverbed. Nevertheless, Weisshaar detects a characteristic of the countryside in this fact: Even in a channel like this, he can discover nature that does not allow itself be tamed completely. Strictly speaking, the freight station has nothing to do with the zoo that lies downstream from it. The only link between them is the water: Both places are on the Parthe River. Thus they belong to the same countryside.
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The uncompleted
In the history of architecture, there have always been prominent structures that have not been completed because money ran out, the client died, a plague broke out or something else unexpected intervened. Some of these structures can also be used in their rudimentary condition, others are like memorials and remain standing, unused. Thus, for example, at 330 meters, the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, which could be the tallest hotel in the world, has not yet been completed due to financial difficulties and construction errors, and currently is uninhabitable. Other buildings are in a state of permanent construction. Construction has been underway on Gauds famous Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, since the 1880s. And if the Spanish want to take an example from the Germans, completion could still be some time off: 632 years went by until the Cologne Cathedral was completed in 1880. 7
There have always been master builders: In the Roman Empire, these were primarily military engineers, in the early middle ages, clerics, in the late middle ages craftsmen, and in the Renaissance artists, sculptors or scientists. Architecture became a separate discipline only in the course of industrialization and the associated progress in building technology, and mastery of ever more complex construction tasks.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2010 | June
Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep, said the son of a watch enameller and a Architect density varies greatly around the world: Proportionally, Japan has five times as many architects as Great Britain, in Denmark there are almost twice as many architects per inhabitant as there are in Germany. An architect who is still looking for projects would still have many possibilities in countries like China or India.
music teacher, who was attracted to architecture after apprenticing as an engraver and goldsmith. As the logical consequence of the rapid technological development and associated transformation of daily routine in the early 20th century, the architect, who later frequently became the center of controversy due to his radical ideas, demanded a fundamentally new aesthetic. In his Five Points Towards a New Architecture, he declared, Just as we can get very little from the literary and historical instruction meted out at school, so nothing remains for us any more of the architecture of earlier epochs. He viewed the architects task as creating functional and economical concepts. He took the pure functionality of the machine as the model for building design and oriented himself to the shapes of airplanes, locomotives, ocean liners, and automobiles. In this process he comprehensively embraced the possibilities of the time and relied on new construction materials such as reinforced concrete and steel. He had no regard for ornamentation as an end in itself that takes a higher priority than does function. The results of his architecture theories are clear and simple bodies comprised of the basic geometric shapes of the rectangle, circle, and cube. As an urban planner, he relied on strict separation of function. In his concept of a contemporary city for three million inhabitants, people should live in gigantic skyscrapers on stilts in the middle of expansive green spaces, in other city districts they should work in office towers, and shop and amuse themselves in yet other city districts. He was able to implement his urban development ideas when in 1951 the government of the Indian State Punjab appointed him to be a consultant for the planning of the new capital city Chandigarh, which today is considered a model for Indian urban planners. 7
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Historically, architects have had to deal with various aspects of setting, but theyve always concentrated on real problems such as materials or form. I believe that almost half of our daily lives is now concentrated on the information society; and even though the information society is invisible, I believe that architecture must relate to it.
Kazuyo Sejima
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa are partners in the architectural firm SANAA in Tokyo. In May 2010, the practice was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2010, which has become known throughout the world as architectures greatest honor. In addition, Sejima has been appointed curator of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, the Biennale di Venezia. SANAAs most well-known designs include the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Zollverein School of Management and Design in Essen.
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Climbing skyscrapers with bare hands seemed impossible to me, but I have realized that the impossible remains impossible only until you make it possible.
Alain Robert, French urban climber
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THE CITY?
Where there is still desert today, a futuristic eco-city could stand tomorrow (see p. 38) but first of all it needs a viable utility supply infrastructure.
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The Romans used opus caementitium, a predecessor and eponym of todays cement, to build their aqueducts.
3 The new financial center just outside Dubai is probably one of the most impressive construction projects worldwide, but by no means the only one. Cities are growing, particularly in China and India, but also in Africa. In China, urban quarters are currently being built from scratch for 50,000 people in only three years; frequently in locations where conglomerates are setting up factories. According to Unesco estimates, 60 percent of humanity will already be living in cities in the year 2025. Supplying all these people with electricity or clean drinking water is a challenge. To achieve this, intelligent and effective infrastructure solutions are needed now more than ever. The best solution for electricity supply would be to use regenerative energies. In the medium term, however, sun and wind will only be able to supply the worlds metropolises with part of their electricity requirements. In the meantime, natural gas is an ideal alternative, as it is markedly cleaner to burn than coal and can be utilized in small power stations in the city for combined electricity and heat generation. In Germanys case, gas has to be procured from Russia and other far-away Asian regions by pipeline. For this purpose, ThyssenKrupp has developed special steels that are
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The future is a small-scale segmentation of the city into several centers, some of which are self-sufficient.
particularly durable with a wall thickness of more than 2 centimeters. Hence the gas can be pumped through the pipeline at higher pressures, enabling more gas to be transported. An additional factor makes the pipes special too. They resist high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in the natural gas which could otherwise lead to cracks and leaks.
bus routes have been launched. The Austrian city of Linz also wants to cut carbon dioxide emissions in its new solarCity district. Approximately half of the warm water is to be generated by solar collectors in the district, while the remainder will be supplied by district heating pipelines. Thus the trend in urban development and infrastructure is clear: Infrastructure supply to the metropolitan areas has to be as local as possible, and in some cases the areas even have to be selfsufficient. The days of the big sewage networks and arterial roads have gone, says Alexander Rieck, who collates pertinent research and development results and applies them to major international projects at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft research institute. The future is a small-scale segmentation of the city into several centers, some of which are self-sufficient and where people live, shop and work. For example, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft institute conducted a study into how such an area could supply its own water and disburden itself of sewage. One solution is thin vacuum pipes that can almost do without water entirely and which extract fecal matter by suction like in a train toilet. Solids can then be 3
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Rock-solid foundation
Today, the basis of every city infrastructure is comprised of one thing in particular: concrete. Roads are cast, skyscraper shells are built, railroad bridges are shaped or tunnels below the city are lined with concrete. No other building material is used worldwide as frequently as this one the classic mixture of cement, water and sand. In Germany alone, 35 million tons of cement are used in construction every year. Cement is manufactured in plants that are as tall as towers and in some cases taller than Cologne Cathedral. Many of these plants supply up to 15,000 tons of cement a day. The ThyssenKrupp subsidiary Polysius specializes in the construction of these huge works and has built several plants in the developing nations of this world. They supply the essence for new infrastructures such as railroad or underground lines that take some of the load off the congested streets or also for underground shopping malls, as are being planned by Dutch architects in Amsterdam to leave the canal and gable architecture above ground untouched. Today, thanks to special construction chemical additives, concrete and cement are truly high-performance materials. In tunnel construction, cement is mixed with accelerating admixtures. This makes the concrete harden within seconds as soon as the extruder has dashed it onto the tunnel wall. It is a well-known fact that cement factories require enormous amounts of fuel. To save precious raw materials like oil, gas or coal, the plants are therefore fitted in such a way that they can also be fired by waste materials by garbage or old tires. Environmental savings are also made in the raw materials used to make cement. Today, blast-furnace slag from iron production is frequently used. It transpires that these waste materials actually improve the properties of the cement. Types of slag are used in road construction today too, for example in sound-absorbing silent asphalts. 7 3 easily separated, dried and burned or fermented into biogas on site. Rainwater is used to flush the toilet. It is collected in gigantic underground tanks like a kind of communal cistern. Alexandra Lux from the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) in Frankfurt am Main also believes that the infrastructure of the future is more likely to be structured on a small scale. No one knows exactly how urban growth will progress in the coming decades. Instead of building big infrastructure networks, it makes more sense to develop a system that can grow with the city and that is made up of small infrastructure islands. Among other things, Lux is working on processes that can be used to forecast water demand. As for water supply itself, Australias national science agency, Csiro, recently presented an impressive solution: In the future, during the rainy season it plans to pump the water into the waterbearing strata deep in the ground known as aquifers, to cover water demand in times of drought.
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Dilapidated water pipes in the West, a lack of infrastructure in developing countries water supply remains one of the biggest global challenges.
Instead of building big infrastructure networks, it makes more sense to develop a system that can grow with the city.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2010 | June
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MATERIALS
THAT
Whether for spectacular construction projects or protecting famous monuments architects can only implement many of their ideas with the help of modern materials like newly developed types of steel, titanium and steel sandwich elements.
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Striking: The foyer of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart that was designed by Viennese architectural firm Delugan Meissl rests on three massive concrete pillars 16 meters above the ground. The corrosion-resistant stainless steel made by ThyssenKrupp that was used here spatially increases the generous entrance to the foyer and intensifies the interaction between visitors and building, as architect Roman Delugan explains.
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hen the Burj Khalifa Bin Zayed, known for short as the Burj Tower, was officially opened on January 4, 2010 in Dubai, ThyssenKrupp Nirosta also had a reason to celebrate. For the facade of the 828-meter-high tower, the constructors drew on some 400 tons of stainless steel from the Dillenburg works that was processed and delivered by German partner company Strukturmetall. However, the building, which was erected in a six-year construction period following the plans of U.S. architect Adrian Smith, is not only the tallest in the world, it is also particularly resilient stainless steel resists the environmental effects to which the Burj Tower is exposed because of its simultaneous proximity to sea and desert and the temperature fluctuations this causes. In addition, the surface was treated to economize on weight and make the facade non-reflective in order not to confuse pilots on their approach to the airport in Dubai.
impressively the extent to which steel revolutionized architecture in the metropolises of the world. At 381 meters high, the Empire State Building was the worlds highest building for more than 40 years until the World Trade Center was built.
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Stainless steel | Whether in the facade of the newly built Burj Tower in Dubai or to stabilize the Frauenkirche church in Dresden architects employ Thyssen Krupp Nirostas material for many different purposes.
Concrete | Already used to impressive effect by the Romans to build the Pantheon in Rome, this material also developed further and today enables audacious constructions like the Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge in Braslia.
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Glass | The transparent material of glass has lost nothing of its fascination for architects like here in Ieoh Ming Peis famous pyramid in front of the Louvre (photo left) or as the roof of the Grand Palais, also in Paris, that was built around 1900 (photo middle left).
Titanium | Indestructible: Titanium hardly weathers at all, even in inclement conditions, and is being increasingly used in facades. Thus the dome of the National Theater in Beijing (photo middle right) has been partially constructed from this material. Moreover, more than 20 years ago, ThyssenKrupp Titanium already supplied 30 tons of the material for the doors of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, thus protecting them perfectly against corrosion from the aggressive sea air.
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3 currently being used for the first time on a large scale by architects Ebner + Snchez to build an extension to the company headquarters of Mexican construction firm ICA. The 120-meter-long building that will rest on only a few supports is set to receive a circumferential facade with panels made of the translucent concrete.
the opportunity to counteract the decay. Normally, stainless steel is only associated with modern architecture, said Gert Wei, head of Product Service at ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. However, it can also help restore old buildings, without giving them an entirely new character. One example is Cologne Cathedral, where the old and
Whether Cologne Cathedral, the Acropolis or St. Marks Church: Steel and titanium can help restore old buildings.
Apart from steel and concrete, titanium in particular is a material that has excellent mechanical properties, is furthermore highly corrosion-resistant and enables the construction of spectacular edifices in modern architecture. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which was completed in 1997 and clad with sheets of titanium, is the best known, but by no means the only building that can gleam in this way. For example, Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa also combined titanium with aluminum for the extension to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was opened two years later, to lend more luster to the elliptic shape of the structure compared with the more austere, quadrangular main building. Apart from exclusivity and luster, titanium scores points among builders and architects in particular because of its resilience: Because contact with oxygen causes a thin, transparent oxide layer to form on its surface, which virtually does not react any more, it hardly weathers at all, even in unfavorable weather conditions. This is a factor which also moved the builders of the Glasgow Science Center to choose titanium cladding for the roof and facade of the building, including the attached IMAX cinema. However, stainless steel and titanium do not come into consideration solely for modern construction projects; they are used in totally unexpected situations too. Anywhere heat, cold and corrosion damage the fabric of ancient, medieval or other buildings from more recent epochs over the years, these modern materials offer heavily corroded iron girders of the 100-meter-high visitors gallery were replaced by stainless steel girders. The construction of the Frauenkirche church in Dresden and the equestrian statue in front of the Town Hall in Bremen were stabilized using securing elements made of Nirosta steels. In these application examples, the prominent factor is not the technical aesthetic of the material, but its functionality, Wei continued.
2007
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2009
Dreams become reality: In a time loop, 52 pictures show how the expansive campus of the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter arose from an industrial wasteland at the edge of downtown Essen in about two and a half years. In the summer of 2010, employees started moving into the new Group headquarters of Thyssen Krupp. With its large panorama windows, the prominent main building Q1, somewhat left of center of the range of vision, and the campus as a whole stand for openness and an invitation for dialogue. Read on to discover what special features the Quarter offers, how it reflects innovation and future orientation, and why the 230-hectare area is so interesting from a historical point of view.
2010
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MOVEMENT
An interview on the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter in Essen with Ralph Labonte, Director of Human Resources on the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG, who headed up the project.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2010 | June
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After two years of construction, the topping-out ceremony for the Group headquarters in the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter took place on July 17, 2009. On behalf of the Executive Board, Ralph Labonte thanked everyone who contributed with their know-how for awakening a city quarter and old industrial site to new life.
AND RENEWAL
Mr. Labonte, ThyssenKrupp started an international architect competition for the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter in 2006, and the groundbreaking ceremony took place in mid-2007. Now the Groups employees are moving into the Quarter. What does such a large project, which gathers together thousands of people in a new place, mean for ThyssenKrupp? First of all, we are happy and proud to move into a new Quarter that is such an architectural success and is tailored precisely to our requirements. It articulates how we see ourselves and what is important to us in many ways. It is thus an expression of our self-conception. With our return to the Ruhr region, we are clearly committing ourselves to the area in which ThyssenKrupp and its predecessors have their roots. In 3
TK Magazine | 1 | 2010 | June
quarter_interview
50 A Quarter for 2,000 employees
ThyssenKrupp is concentrating its administrative sites in the new Quarter in Essen in addition to the second administrative head office in Duisburg. The entire Krupp Belt comprises 230 hectares. It borders on the western part of downtown Essen and stretches 7 kilometers to the north. About 2,000 employees have been working on the campus of the ThyssenKrupp Quarter since June 2010. The Quarter was built on the basis of a design by Chaix & Morel et associs, Paris/JSWD Architekten und Planer, Cologne. The office concept was developed in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute, taking the wishes of the employees into consideration. 7
A new green Quarter: on the left, the new Krupp Belt, on the right, downtown Essen, connected by the new Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard
3 Essen, Group history started at a small cast-steel factory called Krupp in 1811 and it continues to be written here. That is something special. Just think of how other companies have moved sites, even abroad. A move also always means movement, a renewal. I think I speak for all Group employees when I say that we are conscious of this historical dimension. I am excited to see how these dynamics affect us all. How important is the site of a Group headquarters nowadays? A site is always a sign of the companys connection with a city or region. Especially in a globalized world, the place where a company settles is of great importance and high symbolic value for the company itself, for its employees, and naturally for the respective site. Even an internationally networked group like ThyssenKrupp with sites on five continents needs a centralized administration as the heart of the Group and as a symbol for its development.
Building_dimensions_1 Construction site More than 300 companies took part in the construction About 1,600 workers at peak times at the construction site Several hundred construction vehicles a day 13 cranes (max. simultaneous use) 450,000 cubic meters moved earth Approx. 3 kilometers of construction site fencing
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The urban campus concept should also at least to some extent convey openness toward the outside. Isnt it still probable, however, that the Quarter will develop into a microcosm for the people who work there? No, I dont think so the Quarter is embedded in a very comprehensive urban development. Eleven years ago, the general plan for the socalled Krupp Belt, the area of development between downtown Essen and the Altendorf district that lay empty for the most part for decades, had already been developed. With a sheer size of about 230 hectares, this is the largest downtown development area in Germany. The objective then as today is to expand the city center and link it with the Altendorf district. With the decision to concentrate the administrative units of ThyssenKrupp in the heart of this area of development, we have stimulated an urban dynamic in Essen. In parallel, the city started the first part of construction of Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard and the northern section of Krupp Park and has already handed it over to its citizens. I am confident that the general public will also discover our campus and thus start a lively exchange between the Group and its vicinity. By designing the campus so openly, we wanted to take a stand, especially at a time when security checks are almost out of control. We built neither a fence nor a wall so that this immense area is not just available to employees. The design of the forum also shows that we are serious about our invitation for dialogue: It should be a place of conversation and exchange. Which view or assessment do you hope to obtain from your guests and neighbors in Essen? Do you expect an urban development as we have seen in the last few years in Germany, for example on 3 Potsdamer Platz in Berlin or in Hamburgs HafenCity?
Underground
A lot is also going on under the green carpet of the ThyssenKrupp campus: A clever logistics system has been created underground. Generously sized underground garages connect all buildings in a sophisticated traffic system and thus make sure that the entire campus remains car-free supply and disposal, delivery and pick-up take place underground, and garbage trucks and catering vans will not be seen anywhere on campus. Visitors and employees can drive to every single building underground. This means no-one has to walk across the campus in bad weather. 7
quarter_interview
52 A strong partnership
A consortium of Paris architects Chaix & Morel et associs and Cologne architectural practice JSWD Architekten won the competition to design the ThyssenKrupp Quarter. The agencies are bound by friendship; a number of projects have already arisen from their combined drafts, including the new central train station of Luxembourg. Colognes JSWD has been in business since 2000. The four partners, Jrgen Steffens, Olaf Drehsen, and Konstantin and Frederik Jaspert, run an office with about 50 employees. JSWD sees its distinctive sense for planning in urban dimensions as one of its particular strengths. With few, but clearly defined elements, the architects create clear hierarchies of buildings and free spaces. This also characterizes the ThyssenKrupp Quarter: The building and surrounding landscape are an equal part of the spatial whole; the individual building blocks develop their full effect embedded in the green and empty spaces of the campus. Atelier darchitecture Chaix & Morel et associs, founded in 1983, currently comprises a team of eight partners (Philippe Chaix, JeanPaul Morel, Rmy Van Nieuwenhove, Walter Grasmug, Anabel Sergent, Denis Germond, Benoit Sigros, and Rmi Lichnerowicz) and 30 employees. The agencys design priorities include ecologically sustainable building and planning, the search for architectural forms of expression with strong identity, and the use of innovative technologies in the planning and development of buildings. Chaix & Morels design principles include architecture of sober elegance, a contextual language of shapes, and a subtle use of natural light. At present, the atelier is mainly engaged outside of France, not least due to intensive cooperation with other architects abroad. The Thyssen Krupp Quarter is the first project of such magnitude within such a constellation in which Chaix & Morel et associs has been involved. 7 3 That remains to be seen. Comparisons of this type always involve a certain imponderability since conditions are different in every city. In the past decades, Essen and the Ruhr region have gone through an extensive structural change this continues to this day this is also reflected in its selection as the cultural capital of Europe this year. The developmental process by means of which the future of this region should be secured has been anything but easy and has resulted in painful decisions in many areas. In this context, our decision for this site is also a signal that we believe in the future of the region. I hope that our guests and neighbors come to a similar judgement. The foundation for a lively urban development which can never be precisely controlled or predicted has been laid down with the general plan and the Thyssen Krupp Quarter. Now it depends on what we and everyone else make of it. Thats exciting. Architecture is also always a self-portrait of whoever lives there. What does the construction of the new Quarter say about ThyssenKrupp? What message should the Quarter communicate to the outside world, what trends should it set? We are primarily a technology group that lives from the ideas of highly qualified engineers who introduce our products and know-how to the
Building_dimensions_2 Building materials 90,000 cubic meters of concrete 23,000 tons of steel 28,600 square meters of carpeting 16,300 square meters of glass surfaces
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How will users experience the quarter? What kind of working and living environment will they find? Here too, the keywords are transparency and openness. The wide use of glazing communicates spaciousness: It provides the greatest possible natural incidence of light and thus a bright, friendly working ambience. The floors, ceilings, and office furniture made of bright materials reinforce the effect of light inside the buildings. The water axis, the boulevard, and the open campus structure create an inspirational working environment. The green spaces, on which people can both work and relax, contribute to this atmosphere. With a non-religious Room of Tranquility, we offer our employees a place to retreat from the hectic of everyday work. This all expresses our idea of future-oriented workplaces. The concentration of the previously separate sites will certainly lead to changes in the daily routine for some. We have, however, mastered other moves in the past and will do so this time as well. What were the greatest challenges in connection with the new construction? What surprised you the most in the project phase? As a whole, the construction project was a logistical challenge. We relaid a high-voltage line that cut across the site a unique procedure in Germany. In addition, we ploughed through the entire area with crushers to clean up the foundation of the cast steel factory and level the ground for the construction of the water axis. We have also coped with some unexpected events like the emergency landing of a small 3 airplane on our construction site.
quarter_interview
54 Panorama windows
The atrium of the main Q1 building is the heart of the ThyssenKrupp campus and whoever enters the campus can see how it beats. The 25-meter-wide and 28-meter-high windows open up the view into the interior space from the south and north. The lack of frames or sash bars on the windows creates the initial impression that the panorama windows consist of a single giant pane. How was this maximum transparency achieved? Among other things, the objective was to use as few panes as possible so that the window is interrupted by as few silicone joints as possible. The result of these considerations are insulating glass panes that are 2.15 meters wide and 3.60 meters high. In addition, the most slender support structure possible for the windows plays a decisive role so the engineers selected a vertically and horizontally pretensioned cable truss facade. The panes are supported at certain points using clamps. The panorama windows thus not only provide transparency they are also a technical masterpiece of steel and glass, as well as symbolizing the innovative force of ThyssenKrupp. 7 3 Which elements of the Quarter do you think are particularly unusual in comparison with other similar projects? On the one hand, the overall architectural presentation: Our structure is so flexible that we can react to dynamic change processes within the Group. The overall concept with one-third built-up area and two-thirds open green areas is certainly unusual as well. The 700 trees and the generously designed water axis contribute considerably to improving the microclimate of the entire grounds. What is unique is perhaps the use of our own products, some of which we especially developed for the Quarter. In this manner, we have created a corporate architecture, an identity-promoting construction culture that makes the new Group headquarters in Essen distinctive. And now your personal assessment: We have the year 2030. Will the move to the quarter have marked an epochal change for the Group? Calling it an epochal change is probably too much. The move wont turn ThyssenKrupp into a completely different company. If you put what youre familiar with to the test, however, as weve done with this construction project, new ideas always arise. With the Quarter, we have implemented the corporate identity and demands that we place on ourselves innovation and sustainability, openness and networking of knowledge in a physical form. That also creates new impetus and a feeling of renewal. To that extent, I do think that we will look back on this move as an important distance marker, maybe even as the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Group.7
Building_dimensions_3 Infrastructure 320,000 running meters of electrical lines 9,000 running meters of water pipes 29 elevators, escalators, and lifting platforms About 3 kilometers of ground loops (geothermical energy)
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Room of Tranquility
Become essential, Man! When the world fails at last, Accident falls away, but Essence, that stands fast. Angelus Silesius
3 These words could be used to describe a chapel or meditation room in the ThyssenKrupp Quarter in Essen, Germany. The company is attempting to create future-oriented, sustainable structures and open up space for its visionary foundations. At the foundation of every enterprise are the people involved: those for whom the company is there or the target group and those who make up the company the makers and doers. A Room of Tranquility and meditation should invite both groups to pause for a moment to refresh themselves for their further travels down the everyday paths in their business and personal lives. An opportunity to take a short rest in the hectic workday that has been and will continue to be the function of the roadside chapel. These small structures are visible to everyone, inviting us in, but we can also choose to pass by. Maybe that best descibes the idea of this Room of Tranquility. In the context of a corporate head office, a chapel or meditation room can only function as an optional facility and should not be seen as its main emphasis. It is, then, a room within a room a symbolic space that allows connections to resonate, but not to be articulated. Where should such a room be located in the constructed space? It must be visible and easy to find for those looking for it, but also function as a hidden retreat for those within. The words of Angelus Silesius portray humans as beings in relationship to other beings and places. People strive to move beyond that which they are. Space is given to encompass that yearning for something greater, for something or someone else. What survives Accident and remains? Sometimes this question comes up amid all of the transience of everyday business. Because a Room of Tranquility should lift
Father Abraham Fischer from the Knigsmnster Abbey consulted with ThyssenKrupp during the construction of the Room of Tranquility.
visitors up so that they can access their true abilities and power, the rooms design should emphasize upward motion and height. Considering that the searching associated with being human takes on many and various shapes, a Room of Tranquility created in a company that is active all over the world cannot provide an adequate response to everyone. The room can simply serve as a container in which questions remain open, questions a person asks him or herself and questions about the future. Such a room should be kept neutral with nothing that indicates a specific religion but should also address visitors in a very personal manner. The questions a person asks about him or herself would provide a good focus. This focus could give rise to any manner of ideas about what God is or not. The room should provide a great degree of freedom and release, but not attempt to specify the direction of a persons introspection. Likewise, the place should exhibit a sense of design but remain free of condescension. Even just the existence of such a space is meaningful and points to the builders conception of humanity. A Room of Tranquility allows people to be seen as more than just part of the economy. This perspective suggests sustainability and poses questions regarding the future of this German company. At one time, semi-finished products were manufactured from raw materials, then products, and finally, innovations and technology. Perhaps future fabrications will also include visions for the Essence, that stands fast? 7
TEXT: FATHER ABRAHAM FISCHER, OSB
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Jrgen Nageldick
Project Manager, Materials Handling
3 Jrgen Nageldick lifts people up: As a project manager, he takes care of the elevators and escalators in the ThyssenKrupp Quarter. He will have been involved in this project from beginning to end, from the first technology meeting to the final owner approval and acceptance. An engineering technician from the area around Mnster, he has worked for ThyssenKrupp Elevator since 2002. He has overseen many projects, including the installation of elevators and escalators at a software manufacturer in Walldorf, a clothing store in Mannheim and a shopping center in Essen. This time Nageldick is responsible for 22 elevators in addition to three escalators, a platform elevator and three scissors lifts. Altogether that makes 30 conveyor systems. Transporting this amount of materials is not possible in just a wink of the eye. Between 50 and 60 deliveries are necessary, estimates Jrgen Nageldick. Construction site logistics presented a great challenge. He had to obtain entrance permits and employee ID badges otherwise the transporters would not be allowed to drive through the gates. That all takes time. In addition, because the construction site is located downtown, there is hardly any storage space. You just have to coordinate everything well, says the 38-year-old manager. A so-called order processor provides support. In addition, the team includes a project assistant, a construction manager and about ten fitters. In the Quarter, they all play a part in tackling a great technical challenge. In the Q1 administration building the tallest building, with 16 floor stops ThyssenKrupp Elevator installed three panoramic elevators. Together, two of these form a TWIN system: The two elevator cabins move independently of each other in the same shaft, explains Nageldick. In this way, the owners save space and the elevator passengers save time. Jrgen Nageldick has every reason to be proud: The new Quarter will be a nice place to work. Im looking forward to seeing the finished campus. 7
THE DOERS
Constructing the Quarter employed way over 1,000 workers in some way or another. Three of them describe their everyday work at the construction site.
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Willi Dring
Head Chef
3 On Tuesdays Willi Dring sells chicken, on Thursdays pea soup and on Fridays Pangasius filet. Tuesday is poultry day, Thursday is soup and stew day and Friday is fish day, he says. Of course, Willi Dring doesnt just serve lunch at his snack stand. He also offers sausage specialties: sausage with curry sauce, Bockwurst sausage and Polish sausage. If youre health conscious, you can add a small side dish of a coleslaw type salad. Since May 2008, along with three colleagues, Willi Dring has been serving food to the construction workers at the ThyssenKrupp Quarter. In that time, about 20,000 sausages have slid across the counter. Masons, electricians, welders everyone takes their meals at the standing bistro tables or on wooden benches. Willi Dring has posted the menu in three languages: German, Polish and Turkish. Most of the construction workers come from Germany, Poland and Turkey. But Willi Dring hears a lot of Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Bulgarian as well. He estimates that people from around 20 different countries are working on the construction site. A trained chef, he wants to have something for everyones taste preferences. Those who do not eat pork can choose ground beef steak, poultry burgers or a fish filet. Willi Dring opens the stand at eight in the morning so that the first shift can enjoy hot coffee and sandwiches. He closes around 3:30 p.m. But while hes scrubbing the hotplate, latecomers can still get a pork schnitzel (breaded pork cutlet). Willi Dring, who is 55 years old and has worked 34 of those years at ThyssenKrupp, doesnt have a long trip home: He lives just two kilometers away. In his free time, he occasionally strolls along the site to see how the construction work is progressing. Thats something you dont see everyday! he says. The concrete trucks! The steel beams! And the tall cranes too! 7
Georg Lummel
Master Tinsmith
3 Wherever facades gleam in the sunlight, decorated with unusual shapes made of titanium, stainless steel or thin sheet metal, it is likely that Georg Lummel had something to do with it. And this is indeed the case with the Q1 building and the Forum building at the ThyssenKrupp Quarter: The master tinsmith and his company, Lummel GmbH & Co. KG in Karlstadt am Main, were responsible for installing the high-quality steel sheets that make a significant contribution to the buildings outer appearance, due to their color, which is reminiscent of champagne. But this isnt the first time that Georg Lummel has worked together with ThyssenKrupp: This prestigious company installed the spectacular stainless steel facades of the structures by Frank O. Gehry in the Neue Zollhof in Dsseldorf and in the entrance area of the new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. But, says Lummel, every property is unique. For example, at the ThyssenKrupp Quarter one of the challenges was that each thin metal sheet has to be able to be removed separately in case of damage. It was also difficult to get the parties involved to agree with each other. As Lummel explains: In some parts of the building, four different facade types come together at one place. That means that the facade installers must all work at the same level of quality and precision so that everyone comes together at the defined location with a maximum deviation of just 10 millimeters. And Georg Lummel is quite pleased with the result. Before, I didnt think that the thin sheet metal would look this good because for facades of this type we usually tend to use aluminum. Betraying his self-confidence, he adds, but when you do it right, this material is also quite suitable for use with prominent buildings. At times, up to 16 employees from his company worked on the facades. But now Lummel is glad that the work is nearly finished. The project was stressful, he says. And actually, thats almost always the case: The building phase is sometimes nervewracking. But after its over, youre proud and happy to hear the good feedback. 7
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A brilliant idea
The sun protection system gives the main building its face and is unique in the world.
3 The best ideas often come naturally. Nothing exemplifies this like the new sun protection system for the new Q1 building. The impetus for the innovative solution came during a meeting with architectural agencies Chaix & Morel et associs of Paris and JSWD Architekten of Cologne. As the sun shone in the meeting room, the participants automatically held a hand horizontally over their eyes to protect them from the light. This is exactly how the sun protection in Essen works: Seven-centimeter-long and twomillimeter-thick stainless steel slats lie on the right and left of a vertical center axis they are, as it were, the hand protecting ones eyes from the sun. The axis can rotate and thus align the slats according to the position of the sun in an infinitely variable manner. Added to that is another showstopper: In order to open the sun protection completely if required, the slats can be extended forward. This especially manufactured sun protection system forms the optical calling card of the building. The approximately 400,000 slats give the building a face that changes according to the incidence of sunlight on sunny summer days or during storms, for example, the facade is closed completely with a luminous silvery glow, while the glass facade peeks through again on cloudy days. The elements, manufactured by ThyssenKrupp Nirosta from a chromium-nickel-molybdenum stainless steel, were ground on one side and sandblasted on the other. The slats thus appear to be matt or glossy depending on the point of view and incidence of light and direct the incoming light indoors in such a way that the offices remain bright enough even if the sun protection is closed. The manufacturing of the innovative sun protection system was demanding. After the processing of the metal strips by ThyssenKrupp Umformtechnik, a specialist company from South Tyrol mounted 116 to 160 slats onto each axis to form electrically driven slat packages. In the process, it was important that the slats remain movable in the center axis and react precisely to the signals of the electrical drive. The programming is clear: The control system not only detects the seasonal sun position, but also knows what the current weather is like due to the data of a weather station on the roof of the new main building a prerequisite for guaranteeing an all-round excellent sun protection. Another advantage is that even when the slats are directly in front of the facade, employees can open the windows at any time. A hand in front of the eyes is no longer necessary. 7
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Affordable and stylish: the fine sheet metal facade of the new ThyssenKrupp Quarter
more affordable than a comparable facade element made of aluminum (aluminum usually has a layer thickness of 3 millimeters). Facades made of surface-coated fine sheet metals are thus affordable and stylish at the same time. 7
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A GREEN STAGE
Even before its completion, the ThyssenKrupp Quarter was awarded one of the most prestigious certificates for sustainable building.
he idea of sustainable building is becoming increasingly popular. For large international projects, competition has really flared up with regard to which building meets the most advanced energy efficiency criteria and other sustainability factors. And many real estate investors now take these aspects into consideration in their selection. Its no wonder then, that from the very beginning, the subject of sustainability was at the top of the agenda for the construction of the ThyssenKrupp Quarter in the end, with this project, the company is documenting its commitment to the area of sustainability as well as its expertise in environmental matters. This scores points in global competition. But how with regard to the concept of sustainability, which isnt always clearly defined can we measure if a structure actually takes the important benchmarks for sustainability into consideration? Certification offers one possibility. All over the world, certificates have been awarded that evaluate the companys green stages. Last year, ThyssenKrupp already received one of the most prestigious precertificates: At Expo Real, an international real estate show, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) awarded the new Quarter a Precertificate in Gold, just for the planning of the project. This award represents the intention to present the facility with the final Certificate in Gold after all of the work has been completed, as long as the required sustainability criteria set by the DGNB are met, explains Gerhard Hoffmann, Managing Director of the Institute for Applied Energy Simulation and Facility Management (ifes). Commissioned by ThyssenKrupp to audit the building, he has submitted the results to the DGNB for inspection. In addition to the ecological assessment, primarily the economic, social and functional aspects are important here, such
as the entire costs for the project, the office amenities for the employees and the many diverse uses for the building. This covers all of the main concerns of an advanced concept of sustainability, says Hoffmann.
ces and protects the environment, as does the use of construction materials with a low content of harmful substances, effective sun protection and shading technology and a special water separation system in which rainwater is collected on the roofs of the building on the campus, separated from contaminated water and then flows into the pond in the Krupp Park. Due to the multiple advantages and optimum implementation of sustainability criteria there was no question that we would be awarded the Pre-certificate in Gold, says Hoffmann. The new ThyssenKrupp Quarter is among only a few structures in Germany that have received this seal of approval. And according to Hoffmann, this approval should not be underestimated: In an international comparison, the DGNB certificate has a good reputation because it also explicitly takes the entire life cycle of a building into consideration, including its possible dismantling or demolition at a later date. 7
TEXT: JAN VOOSEN
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1819 | How it all started: Gussstahlfabrik Fried. Krupps newly built cast steel factory in Essen. The smaller building is initially used as an overseers house, and subsequently as the residence of the Krupp family.
1861 | Rapid growth after 1850: one of Gussstahlfabriks early administration buildings with a clock tower
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1910 | An aerial photograph shows the prodigious spread of the Krupp plant. The new ThyssenKrupp Quarter will be situated right at the center of this shot.
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CITY
Around 1900 | A dwarf among giants: the Krupp ancestral home on the factory premises
in producing high-quality cast steel for the first time. The new production plant comprises a small number of half-timbered buildings. There is also an overseers house, which the family later use as a residence and which becomes known as the Krupps ancestral home. The area is primarily rural. The small factory is surrounded by fields, and even neighboring Essen the largest city in the Ruhr area conurbation in 2000 has a population of only 3,500 at this time. Apart from the firms founder, Friedrich Krupp, his son Alfred, who takes over management of the company after the death of his father in 1826, turns out to be a particularly shrewd businessman. The small firm grows rapidly, especially from the 1850s onward. In this period, several key development stages for Krupp occur, like for example the invention of the seamless train tire in 1853. The workforce in the Essen plant grows
from 74 employees in 1848 to 30,000 employees shortly before the turn of the century. The factory premises expand equally quickly. New buildings are erected for administration and production, as is a dedicated transport network with rail tracks and roads. The small ancestral home disappears increasingly amid the constantly new and ever-larger production plants. Between 1861 and 1873, the total area increases twentyfold, from 18 to 360 hectares. Two years later, the roofed area alone is as large as downtown Essen.
to a forest of chimneys
This is how Krupp evolves in the course of industrialization into a city within the city incidentally, parallel to the city of Essen, which in turn registers its 100,000th resident shortly before the turn of the century. In 3
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1920 | An industrial cathedral: Krupps machinery factory 9 on a contemporary painting by Otto Bollhagen
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1930 | The nerve center of the corporation: the headquarters in Altendorfer Strasse
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3 1889 Diedrich Baedeker publishes his impressions from a visit to the factory in the book Alfred Krupp und die Entwicklung der Gussstahlfabrik zu Essen (Alfred Krupp and the Development of the Cast Steel Factory in Essen): Just the forest of chimneys that send clouds of smoke into the atmosphere incessantly, the water towers and other high-rise plants [] tell us that we are dealing with a factory of amazing spatial proportions and very unusual dimensions, a real factory city. Baedeker also documents statistical information about the plant: He lists 44 kilometers of regular-gauge and 29 kilometers of narrow-gauge industrial railroad. He records 1,195 furnaces, 286 steam generators, 21 train mills, 370 steam engines, 92 steam hammers, 361 cranes and 1,724 tooling machines for production. In addition, he wrote, there are 80 kilometers of telegraph lines and 140 kilometers of telephone lines, as well as dedicated waterworks and a 64-man professional fire brigade.
Unlike a city, however, the factory is not a public space. The factory city separates Altendorf, which is incorporated into the metropolis in 1901, from neighboring downtown Essen. Only two link roads, Frohnhauser and Altendorfer Strasse, connect the two suburbs and can be used by pedestrians, streetcars and cars surrounded by walls right and left. There are not even any points of contact with the companys own railroad network: It runs across several bridges that straddle the road.
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1950 | The impact of the War: ruins near the Krupp headquarters
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Up to 2006, the factory premises are a blind spot on the city map, an impenetrable, possibly a forgotten place.
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Around 2006 | Sleeping Beauty: The factory premises look like a vestige of a previous civilization.
Diedrich Baedeker wrote, they can only discern the sound of the secretive life and activity that is pulsating there behind the smoke-blackened walls. A kind of no-mans-land in the middle of an urban, heavily populated area this is what the Krupp factory premises remains, even when it has not been used for production for a long time. The two World Wars deliver a changeable fate to the company, oscillating between growth and losses, alterations and new buildings, civil and military production. This last turns the company increasingly into a target for Allied bombardments in World War II. After the War is over, approximately one-third of the 1.5 million square meters of developed area is completely, another one-third partially destroyed. Many of the machines that are still in working order are dismantled and shipped abroad as reparation payments.
Although firms set up business on the old factory premises again in the 1950s, the majority of the area where the old cast steel factory once stood remains idle since the end of World War II. The buildings that remain are deserted. There are only a few interim occupations or new building projects, primarily on the edges of the premises. Wild greenery recaptures the area. People tend to stay away from the place. For many, the factory premises are a blind spot on the city map, an impenetrable, possibly a forgotten place. It was not until after the turn of the millennium that the idea of a systematic new utilization of the area, the Krupp Belt, reached the public ears. In 2006, ThyssenKrupp AG decides to build the ThyssenKrupp Quarter here. The aim is that its campus concept will turn the initially forbidden and subsequently forgotten city into a new, public part of Essen. 7
TEXT: SARAH BAUTZ
2010
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2030
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www.hoesch.at
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Blue, green, and brown reflect the colors of sky and earth and help even largevolume industrial structures such as production halls to become harmonious in appearance. Friedrich Ernst v. Garnier
Color is light. Light is warmth. Warmth is energy. Energy is life. Life is color. Friedrich Ernst v. Garnier
influence of colors to increase shoppers sense of well-being and propensity to buy, and in many office buildings light color tones ensure a work environment that signals openness and promotes creativity. As a pioneer and expert in this area, the color designer Friedrich Ernst v. Garnier, who founded this profession 40 years improving the work atmosphere in ThyssenKrupp plants they provide an environment in which employees prefer to work (and work better). Most recently v. Garnier designed the color scheme of the new steel rolling mill in Alabama. Here the colors prevailing in the halls are red and various blue tones. The most important
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Historical structure with state-of-the-art functionality in Dresdens Zeitenstrmung
a military barracks, with due consideration of the requirements for preserving historical monuments. Overall 400 square meters of roof area, 300 square meters of inner walls, and 400 meters of wood joist ceilings had to be dismantled and disposed of. Only the outer shell, the massive staircase core, and two cast-iron pillars with brickwork arches, which were to remain intact as the historical basic structure of the building, remained. The basis for the renovation was an execution plan developed by Xervon engineers and adapted to subsequent use as space for an exclusive fitness studio, a companyowned apartment, and office space. Based on the approval planning, renovation experts worked out the complete detailed planning for the media routing, heating, sanitary and electrical areas, and organized the static calculation and modernization measure. Work was completed after only six months of renovation with the exterior charm of the past and new interior values. 7 www.zeitenstroemung.de
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Encounter with clear space: the architect David Chipperfield (left) and Dr. Berthold Beitz, Chairman of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, in the new exhibition hall of the Museum Folkwang
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A NEW START
IN AMERICA
In 2010, ThyssenKrupp started work at both of the new production sites in Brazil and the United States. The steelworks in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro and the processing facility near Mobile in the U.S. state of Alabama are creating many new jobs and will strengthen Thyssen Krupps position in important markets.
A great deal of progress has been made at the site in Brazil. Production start is planned for the third quarter of 2010. From here, five million tons of steel per year will be delivered as high quality slabs to the new plant in Alabama and to ThyssenKrupps German locations. There the steel will be processed further. Up to 23,000 people were employed at any given time at the Sepetiba Bay construction site. In the operation phase, 3,500 new jobs will be created, directly in steel production. In addition, the plant will indirectly ensure about four times that many jobs in other related industries. Moreover, ThyssenKrupp investments have resulted in the establishment of training facilities. In this way, this socially deprived region will profit substantially from industrialization.
he largest private investment project in South America and, for the time being, the largest private construction site in the United States: These facts alone illustrate the dimensions of both of these ThyssenKrupp projects in the Americas. By building the steelworks in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, the company is now even closer to raw materials; constructing the highly advanced plant near Mobile (Alabama), with its rolling and coating lines, strengthens the companys competitive position in important markets.
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The largest investment project in South America: Starting in the fall of 2010, about five million tons of steel per year will be produced at this location on Brazils Sepetiba Bay.
The same is also true for the new plant in Calvert near Mobile in Alabama: Here, starting in the third quarter of 2010, in the facilities constructed on green meadows, steel strips can be rolled from the slabs from Brazil. To do this, a hot strip mill, a cold rolling mill and hot dip coating lines are available here. Some of the hot rolled strips will be processed further into flat stainless steel products. This processing will take place either in specialized facilities at the same location or at the ThyssenKrupp Mexinox stainless steel plant in San Luis Potos, Mexico. The finished products will be delivered to buyers in the United States, Canada and Mexico significantly strengthening ThyssenKrupps position in the North American free trade zone, or NAFTA. Advantages of the Mobile site included its location just a few kilometers from the harbor at Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico and the fact that the Mexican stainless steel plant can be reached easily from here. After the slabs produced in Brazil have been transferred to smaller ships at the facilitys own terminal in Mobiles deep-sea harbor they can be transported by water on the Tombigbee River directly to the new location.
This is good news for Alabama, where other global companies such as Degussa, Ciba, Hyundai and Honda are also present. The governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, was most impressed by the amount ThyssenKrupp invests in the development of new products. That convinced all of us that the company establishing itself here will always be a leader in product development, said Riley. According to some researchers, the name Alabama, taken from an Indian language, means roughly, this is where I live. Thats also the case for ThyssenKrupp now. 7
TEXT: ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER
The Gulf of Mexico connects the new processing facility in Alabama with ThyssenKrupps global supply chain.
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here is a video clip on YouTube that was filmed from a moving car. For three minutes, decaying apartment blocks, derelict single-family houses and unfinished buildings can be seen. Only a few people inhabit the desolate setting, which is reminiscent of pictures from civil war zones. However, what is shown here is neither Grosny nor Baghdad, but Americas erstwhile boomtown, Detroit. Where the production facilities of the Big Three Chrysler, Ford and General Motors provided sustained economic growth until as recently as the beginning of the 1950s, today
entire neighborhoods resemble the backdrop to an apocalyptic movie. In fact, one-third of the total area of the city is waste ground. Approximately 4,000 buildings are standing empty, street signs are rusting, and grass is growing on the sidewalks. For city planners, Detroits stark decline in the wake of economic problems and social tensions serves as a classic example of shrinking cities. Of course, when cities shrink as a result of migration and population decline, this does not always have such drastic consequences as in the case of the once prospering Motor City. 3
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cannot be applied automatically to Jakarta and vice versa. Most likely, we wont be able to come to grips with the hypercities of the 21st century using central planning anyway. Klaus Tpfer is convinced that village functions will evolve within the megacities. Conversely, according to Tpfer, who is also the founding director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, urban functions must be performed in rural areas, if we are to succeed in slowing down the influx of people from rural regions into the city. Meantime, this influx is continuing unabated. Year after year, millions of people pour into the turbocities of Asia and Africa in the hope of a better life.
countryside, but have to be developed from the countryside. Their future sustainability depends to a large extent on whether fertile land in the surrounding area can be protected from building development. The United Nations Development Program has been calling for urban agriculture since as far back as the mid-1990s. But can some of our food production really be relocated to the metropolis with the exception of existing models like the Community Gardens in Chicago or the idyllic green courtyards in Berlins Kreuzberg district? If Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has his way, agriculture will soon be moving into the skyscrapers. Dragonfly is the visionarys name for the project he developed for New York City at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. His metabolic farm propagates a return to traditional agriculture in a futuristic environment. Adjoining the two towers that resemble launch pads where people are to live and work will be two gigantic wings housing the agricultural areas. Animals will be kept on two levels, one above the other, to ensure a supply of meat, milk and eggs for the residents. There will even be farmland paddy fields and orchards. Wind turbines will generate the necessary energy, while high-tech exterior shells will provide climate control. Callebaut has designed his green giant as a self-sufficient system: a living organism in which not even the smallest crumb of humus is wasted, but is fed into the eternal cycle of nature. The residents of Dragonfly will produce their own water; their waste is biodegradable. Maybe, one day, they will swap their experiences as Big Apple farmers with the people of Lilypad, the swimming city that Callebaut designed as a possible answer to the looming sea-level rise. Incidentally, pictures of it can be seen on YouTube. 7
TEXT: MARGIT UBER | ILLUSTRATIONS: MARIO WAGNER
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The adult education center in Essen at the Burgplatz square is illuminated at night in powerful colors that brighten up the downtown area. I really like this picture because the building is rather compact and doesnt attract attention during the day. Then its practically just a glass cube; thats what it looks like. You see its real face only at night: Then its lit up in colorful rainbow colors against the sky and draws attention to itself with its colorful play of lights. Franziska Sieg
C SURROUNDINGS?
TK Magazine | 1 | 2010 | June
What do young people notice in their cities? And how do they perceive and evaluate their citys architecture? ThyssenKrupp Magazine asked students in the ninth grade at the Essen-Werden high school to take pictures of their surroundings and then to comment on their photos.
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At first glance, the Essen trade fair center looks like a ship. With its clear lines and unique shape and architecture, it certainly stands out in the cityscape. Ante Schlesselmann
I am very impressed by the House of Technology across from the main Essen train station, primarily because of its domeshaped passageway. Its architecture makes it seem modern, but at the same time, the clay bricks give it an older appearance. I could look at it for hours, I find it so interesting. Annika Albertz
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This is what the steeple of the Protestant Church in Werden looks like when you look at it from our classroom window. I also really like the view of the tower of the Beatae Mariae Virginis Gymnasium. Mirjam Otten
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Essen on the move. The downtown area is also undergoing expansion right now but is the expansion problematic? New shopping centers are reshaping the city center, causing the small shops in the side streets (top) to be forgotten. Essen is making the impossible possible new streets and paths are being built (bottom). When they are completed, they will likely fulfill their purpose and reduce traffic on the streets but at the moment, exactly the opposite is true. Lea Sophie Lange
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Is nothing moving here at all? Even as a Blade Runner, Harrison Ford has to battle with congestion. But thanks to precision technology, at least he can rise up at the touch of a button and fly over such obstacles in the Los Angeles of the future.
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GETTING AROUND IN
2050
In the city of the future, we will walk and cycle more because, according to transportation experts, we have to break away from our reliance on the automobile to make cities more livable.
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The city of the future will be tailored to the needs of people and not to those of cars.
rees line a broad street on which numerous people are out and about on their bicycles or on foot. Here, in the center of the metropolis, we can hear birds twittering loudly and children making a cheerful din. Electrically powered buses and trolleys whiz past quietly. Traffic is moving in the lane for electric cars too. It is 8:30 in the morning on a sunny spring day in the year 2050 many commuters have taken their bicycle onto the trolley with them, but for most people, the journey to their workplace is not far anyway, as they live close to the city center.
Every unused area of land is allocated to agriculture. Because food production is close to the city, haulage distances are shorter. The city of the future will be tailored to the needs of people and not to those of cars, according to Kenworthys forecast. He is carrying out international comparative studies to examine how much cities depend on the automobile. The scientist is fully aware that his vision of the future is extremely optimistic, because the reality looks completely different at the moment. In almost all international metropolises, innumerable commuters cause kilometer-long tailbacks, noise and air pollution every day. Many megacities in Asia and South America are almost at gridlock point. Some inhabitants of Mexico City need to travel up to three hours a day just to get to their workplace. Businesspeople in Brazils So Paulo circumvent the traffic chaos by flying to their appointments by helicopter taxi. In Asian metropolises, a confused mix of bicycles, rickshaws, mopeds and increasingly more cars causes chaos on a daily basis. And in the metropolises of Europe and the United States too, it is almost impossible to get through at all in many places. The roads are reaching the limit of their
Now this is a real metropolis: The entire planet of Coruscant in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith is one single macropolis. The best way to get around the skyscraper canyons in this giant city is to drive elegant gliders.
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The dream of freedom: In Star Wars IV A New Hope, Luke Skywalker can explore his surroundings in a landspeeder. Traffic problems are unknown on the desert planet of Tatooine.
capacity, CO 2 emissions are substantial and the consequences extensive air pollution and looming climate change are alarming. There are no prospects for a speedy improvement to this situation, as traffic density in emerging countries will actually multiply in the future. Yet Jeff Kenworthy says he is confident. We cannot deal with problems like this in one week, but we can try to steer the system in another direction, is the scientists conviction. The automobile has been conceded increasingly more importance since World War II. Now we have to become creative and have a rethink.
Wherever possible, public transport should replace the automobile. However, we have a long way to go before we can reach this goal. The public transport systems in cities like Paris or New York are already bursting at the seams too. Crammed buses and trains, a lack of comfort and in many places long headways and poor connections make many people worldwide prefer to get in line in the daily tailback. Therefore Kenworthy demands: Local public transport has to become more attractive. However, many metropolises lack the money to develop their infrastructure. In emerging countries, the problems are frequently home-made: In some megacities like Bangkok, for instance, there is virtually no traffic planning at all. Construction is simply carried out according to the plans of those who own the most land or have the most money, according to Kenworthy. On the other hand, in many metropolises in Europe or the United States, the proponents of automotive mobility still have too strong a lobby to expedite change seriously, Kenworthy believes. There are positive signals too, however: The metro system in the Brazilian megacity of So Paulo is one of the most modern in the world. The public authorities will have invested a further 20 billion 3
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In fact, nothing much will change in the daily traffic madness in the future either, that is what Luc Besson assumes in The Fifth Element and he portrays cars hovering through the streets on all levels in the movie, with the accompanying chaotic drivers.
3 real (around 8.5 billion) over the four years until the end of 2010 to develop the public transport system. The underground system in the South Korean city of Seoul is also exemplary the metro there has the best energy efficiency worldwide. In the year 2050 most public transport systems will probably run on electricity. Furthermore, the majority of traffic experts are
would help to simplify ticketing and increase the flow of information, he says. If I travel by train or by bus in the year 2050, this will be automatically recorded by my mobile phone, is Boltzes vision of the future. And at the end of the month, my travel costs will be automatically debited from my account. Moreover, the different means of transport will be significantly better networked and easier to combine intelligently, says the scientist.
Just getting into the car and driving off without thinking about it will probably not be possible any more.
convinced that they will offer their passengers a higher level of comfort. In the year 2050, public transport will no longer be what it is today, says Manfred Boltze, for example, too. He is Professor of Transportation Planning and Traffic Engineering at Darmstadt University of Technology. It will be far more comfortable and adapted to peoples needs. Information technologies in particular
On the other hand, we will have to be prepared for restrictions in personal motorized transportation: The mobility of the future will depend on our technological capabilities, says Michael Schreckenberg. Because of the relatively small travel range of electric cars, we may no longer have the unlimited mobility that we know today in the year 2050. We will have to plan better than we do today. Just getting into the car and driving off without thinking about it will probably not be possible
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Beam me up, Scotty! a legendary sentence from movie history that encapsulates the uncomplicated transporter procedure on the Starship Enterprise (even if it was never said in exactly these words). Just press a button, and youre there. However, commuters can only dream of this kind of solution for the present.
several years ago for cyclists. Some 37 percent of commuters in the Danish capital travel to work by bicycle. To reach a share of 50 percent by the year 2015 this is the city councils declared objective the equivalent of up to EUR 13 million will be invested in new cycle paths and cycle lanes every year. In Paris, rental cycles have become a popular mode of transport within a very short space of time: For the past two years, 20,000 rental cycles have been in use in the metropolis on the Seine, increasing bicycle traffic in the city by 50 percent. Thus the motto of city traffic in the year 2050 could be Back to the Future: We will be getting around more on foot and by bicycle and (hopefully) using better public transport services. In Saudi Arabia, this development is being rephrased a little differently: My father used to ride a camel. I ride in a car, my son will fly in an airplane, his son will ride on a camel, according to native lore there. No reason to panic, in Jeff Kenworthys opinion: People will only profit from a more livable environment in our cities. 7
TEXT: CHRISTINA HHN
any more unless by then there are batteries with short charge times with which we can drive for 400 kilometers. In addition, setting aside space for the numerous recharge points required is difficult, he says. In Berlin, more than 90 percent of all cars have no home; that means, they are parked on the street and not in a garage or on a premises. Everyone also agrees that the good old trusty pushbike will see a real renaissance in the future. Even today, numerous governments are striving to make their cities more cycle- and pedestrianfriendly. In New York, several streets have already been removed to make way for cycle paths. In the long term, the city plans to build a 3,000-kilometer-long network of cycle paths. The aim is to become Americas most environmentally friendly city. But other American cities are following suit too: There are already heated parking garages for bicycles in Chicago which additionally offer cyclists shower facilities and repair shops. In Europe, too, the bicycle is now playing a bigger role in mobility concepts than it did only a few years ago. In Copenhagen, for instance, a progressive signal system was already introduced
perspectives_essay
SPACES
Global networking and digitization mean encounters between people are increasingly shifting from the physical to the virtual world. Our feeling for time and space changes through the Internet, smart phones, navigation systems, and other devices. Yet the desire for real encounters remains. Space used to be tangible. What was close was something nearby. Thats at least what we used to think. Global networks have changed our understanding of proximity. In the age of globalization and the Internet, things that are actually far away can be close by and at the same time, things that should actually be nearby can be far
away. Within only a short period, the digitization of our world has once again completely changed our experience of space and time. The world already felt smaller through cars, planes, telephones and television. The Internet has sped up this process exponentially. These days everybody can be present in different places simultaneously. As a result, the rest of the world has gotten smaller, and the meaning of concepts such as closeness and neighborhood has changed. Proximity is defined differently today: How many clicks do I
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thanks to navigation systems. Is the space of the future virtual? And if yes, what does that mean for our understanding of the world and feeling of local identity and for the quality of our relationships? Questions about the influence of the Internet on our ability to feel connected to local regions and to develop social relationships are often answered pessimistically. Were often warned that communicating over the Internet leads to superficial social relationships between people, possibly even to isolation and uprooting. In reality, these new electronic communication possibilities, which have been developed since the mid-1980s, should not isolate people but rather bring them together. The Virtual Community Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier is the name of the book with which the American Howard Rheingold globally circulated this idea in 1993. Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace, is how Rheingold defines a virtual community, which we call today online-, net-, cyber-, or e-community. need to get from my homepage to a friends homepage, and how many friends or connections separate us? Chat rooms replace conversations in cafes, team meetings are held using videoconference technology, and instead of going shopping together we visit one of the many Internet sites where almost everything can be bought. People work online from home or from some other place on the planet, the living environment of your daughters new boyfriend is examined using Google Streetview, and no-one needs a sense of direction to navigate the urban jungle anymore
Yet just because groups are no longer formed primarily in neighborhoods or within a village social communities are not becoming obsolete in the Internet age. Instead, a change is taking place in the direction of communities that orient themselves toward common interests.
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APP CITY
When youre out and about in a new city you need to find your bearings, recognize safety risks, plan efficient routes and give yourself up to leisure activities. Web 2.0, navigation systems and other applications like Augmented Reality can help you do this. But how does Augmented Reality alter how we perceive new spaces?
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94 Augmented Reality applications for business travelers
Layar | www.layar.com When users photograph their surroundings, Layar crossfades the visual with a slide containing relevant information about it. The user decides whether he wants architectural information or directions to the new bank. Web 2.0 experts can even create slides themselves. Aloqa | www.aloqa.com Aloqa provides all the information you need about evening events, dining, parties and shopping, basically everything to do with leisure. Dopplr | www.dopplr.com With just a few clicks, Dopplr allows you to see the whereabouts of your friends and colleagues. Especially frequent travelers can check if an old friend is sitting in the next compartment just by coincidence. Wikitude | www.wikitude.org The World Browser makes it possible to retrieve information from Wikipedia and diverse Web 2.0 applications and display it on your cameras visuals and maps. tagwhat | www.tagwhat.com The user tags selected locations and makes them available to other tagwhat users. Mobeedo | www.mobeedo.com Mobeedo provides a whole range of local information, from the best shopping spots to historical information and selected map sections. Ubique The program projects a transparent map onto the display. Information from Wikipedia, Panpramio and OpenStreetMap can be accessed. t is almost frightening how easy it is to visually conjure an unknown city whether Caracas, Tokyo or Beijing on the screen of a computer or smart phone. Taking a city tour via Google Streetview or searching for contacts through webbased social networks like Facebook or Xing, while applications like Aloqa recommend restaurants, bars and discos (as well as other services) based on your individual preferences. Dopplr even lets you check whether someone you are meeting has already arrived, or is perhaps even sitting on the same train as you. Web 2.0 is responsible for this revolution, which conquers new space in a completely new way. Behind this buzzword, an entire smorgasbord of small programs and platforms exists that enables Internet users to exchange information with other users, upload information to the net by themselves and retrieve individually selected information from the Internet with only one or two mouse clicks. An especially fascinating part of Web 2.0 is Augmented Reality (AR). Small programs are able to determine the exact position of the user and the direction he or she is facing via triangulation over three cell phone towers, and provide the smart phone with additional information about the users surroundings in real time. Reality is thus illustrated, explained and interpreted with information drawn from the web, from places like Wikipedia or Google. These tiny programs are clearly practical when arriving in a new city, for example, or encountering new spaces in general. There is no need to struggle with the city map to answer the question:
95 Forerunner Japan
In many countries in Asia, Augmented Reality is a well-known phenomenon. Have no fear if youre out and about in Japan. Even in the tiniest mountain village, youll likely come across a tourism pamphlet that has been lying around for years which is full of black-andwhite block patterns CR codes. These are Internet addresses in code. All you have to do is place your handset in front of them. Having been processed through mobile tagging software, all the information and maps will appear as websites on your display. 7
Where is the hotel? All it takes is a light click on your cell phones navigation program for the handset to start spitting out the exact directions. With a swirl of your finger, modern smart phones can answer the question What building is that? as long as they are equipped with GPS, a camera, and a compass. Layar and Wikitude, small browsers for cell phones, provide additional information in real time about images captured by the handsets camera. With a quick tap on the display, categories like historical background to nearby buildings or bar recommendations are superimposed on the image. In the not so distant future, it might even be possible for all these functions to be integrated directly into a persons field of vision using glasses. Even the faces of strangers could be identified using information from social networking databases like Facebook and also automatically superimpose personal information.
need more input and view the identical applications as adventure destroyers. Professor Dr. Heinrich Blthoff from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tbingen believes that the programmers of such programs have a certain responsibility: Web 2.0 and its applications are like a swimming pool for people who cant swim. You can drown in there, but you can also learn how to swim. It has to do with making intelligent information available and using this information intelligently. We need a whole new generation of developers who can format the data based on cognitive research findings and for example integrate a map so that the user does not lose sight of the whole picture when bombarded with all the instructions. Overall Professor Blthoff argues that people should not get so worked up when it comes to new media. At the end of the day, you dont travel any differently with the new applications than you would with a travel book. The traveler accesses the same information, its just easier to get and probably more up-to-date.
Training strangeness
If you ask Ansgar Bittermann, it is people who are the decisive factor when encountering a new city. The psychologist has developed a series of online and cellular phone trainings (www.globalemotion.de) that enables participants to learn not only how people from different cultures express themselves, but also to better recognize their emotions. The goal is clear: People are unsettled when they come into contact with foreign-looking faces, and nothing good comes out of people feeling uncertain. Our program triggers positive expectations. We take the strangeness out of strangers, i.e. potential enemies. People stop viewing foreigners as one homogenous group. It is only when a person can view a Chinese person as an individual and not as a group that it becomes possible to become part of this environment. We give China a face, if you like. That alone makes many people change their behavior. That indeed would be an augmented reality. 7
TEXT: FRANOISE HAUSER
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FASCINATING
STRUCTURES
An interview with entomologist Bert Hlldobler about ants eco-housing and air-conditioning systems, the disadvantages of hierarchical organizations, and discrimination among insects and humans.
Bert Hlldobler is one of the worlds great researchers on experimental behavioral psychology and social biology. His work on social insects, especially ants, brought to light new understanding about animals chemical communications systems and sense of orientation, the dynamic of social structures as well as the evolution of animal communities. Since 2004, when he was conferred emeritus status, Hlldobler has taught at Arizona State University in Tempe near Phoenix, Arizona, where he was one of the founding members of the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity. Together with Edward O. Wilson, he won a Pulitzer Prize in1991 for The Ants. The two wrote a second book in 2008, The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies.
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Professor Hlldobler, are ants the architects of the animal kingdom? I dont think the word architect is quite right. But many species of ants and termites build quite amazing structures. The most complex structures that we know of are those built by Atta leafcutter ants. These are enormous subterranean creations, descending up to eight meters
world. Were completely in the dark about how ants manage to build perfectly straight tunnels below ground. Were just beginning to research this. Do the nests of certain ant species always look the same? The nests of certain species are at least so similar that nest specialists among entomologists can determine which species of ant has built the nest simply by looking at it. Thats one of the things that biologists find so fascinating about ants. When we describe different species, we usually look at distinctive features on the body for instance. But here we can say simply by looking at the product, what sort of animal built it similarly to the way we can determine when manmade buildings were constructed based on their style. Whereas diffe-
Similarly to the way we can identify buildings based on their style, different species of ants can be identified by their nests.
below the earth and taking up a space of 50 square meters. Their tunnels, which can be up to 90 meters long, lead directly from their building to their feeding areas. That is truly fascinating. But we are far from understanding everything about the building projects in the animal
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rences in our creations are culturally determined, ants have always tried as much as they can to adapt their constructions to their habitat. Can you give an example of how ants adapt to their habitat? In Europe Formica ants have built these wonderfully large architectural marvels in hills. These are sophisticated constructions reaching more than 2 meters high. We only see the hill. But when you get to open such a nest after strong rains, you realize that the rain has only penetrated a few centimeters. That means that the tiny twigs and needles have been combined together to form a real shelter. The nests are truly insulated. Why? This is how ants can keep their nests warm after the winter break, when it is still relatively chilly outside. Warm-blooded animals have to burn fatty tissue to create warmth, which remains relatively constant thanks to the good insulation formed by hills. This technique which basically is the same as a well-insulated eco-house devised in its own way by nature makes it possible for hill-building ants to settle almost anywhere in the world up to the polar circle. What other feats of construction by ants fascinate you the most? Another example is the air-conditioning system developed by Atta leafcutter ants. For around 12 million years, these ants have lived in harmony with fungi and other microorganisms. The mushrooms, which are literally cultivated by the ants, produce a great deal of carbon dioxide deep down in the nest and this must be released. That can only happen thanks to the nests architecture, which allows for the carbon dioxide to stream out while the warm air and cold air sink in. We still dont know how this really works. One aspect is probably the wastage compartments for mushroom waste in the nest: Since these are a few degrees warmer they clearly drive the warm air upwards. Are fixed abodes a prerequisite for socially highly organized life to develop at all? Highly developed social systems tend to have relatively complex nest structures. But it isnt always the case. Army ants in Africa and South America dont have any sort of fixed nests whatsoever. Instead they form bivouacs with their bodies, usually in hollow trees they are specialized nomadic hunters and are socially highly developed at the same time. How do ants decide whether and where they should move? Ants decisions are dictated by external factors. There are species with small colonies of perhaps only 100 ants living in hollow oak trees. But these nests are destroyed relatively quickly then the ants have to move. A sophisticated process then ensues that is uncannily like our own manner of collectively making decisions: the so-called quorum sensing. The ants send out scouts to explore different locations. When a certain critical number of scouts collect in a potential nest, the entire colony moves there. The quorum, meaning the mass, decides. We still dont understand everything about these sorts of decisionmaking processes in the ant world. Are there other examples that show how ants or other social insects have found solutions to problems that also concern us? Tons. We recently held a joint symposium, in which designers, architects and computer specialists among others participated. The architects are interested in how termites manage to build especially robust walls that
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3 networks or clusters. Some economists are surprised that nature millions of years ago managed to turn the idea of a cluster into reality, forming clusters that are network driven and not controlled by one directive force. But we shouldnt view ants as a role model for everything in our world as a social biologist there are also bitter truths that Ive drawn from my research. Which ones? Whenever you find highly developed social systems in nature that display within their communities a great willingness to cooperate, youll also find high levels of discrimination and the exclusion of other communities of the same species. Simply because it is no longer individuals but communities that are competing for limited resources. Such a system, in which the community is everything and the individual doesnt count, is not one we should strive toward. Is there also a biological dimension to discrimination among humans?
I believe that the tendency still slumbers within us, something passed down to us from prehistoric humans. For them, discriminating against members of other communities had to do with survival. We must recognize that and learn how to deal with this evolutionary legacy. To paraphrase the philosopher David Hume: What is doesnt dictate what ought to be. We are social beings, primates. But our communities are,
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Question_1 The Pompidou Center was his breakthrough. Since then the architect from Genoa has left traces almost everywhere in the world, including Osaka, Parma, and Berlin. Recently he wanted to plant 90,000 trees in Milan the conductor Claudio Abbado linked his return to La Scala on this condition. The architect was not able to implement this plan. Milan had a money shortage, declared the mayor. Thus the person in question plunged into a different project: In London he is working on the highest skyscraper in Western Europe. What is his last name? 7 4 Question_2 London holds the world record: The subway network comprises 408 kilometers of line. No wonder that a competition could become popular here of all places: For the so-called Tube Challenge participants must visit all London Underground stations of which there are currently 275 in the shortest time possible. Londoners took their tube to heart right from the start. The city was already groaning under the traffic in the middle of the 19th century. On January 10, 1863, commuters could breathe a sigh of relief; the first underground transport line was opened between Farringdon and Paddington. What is the name of this line? 6
Question_3 There is no other film in which the city under the city plays such a major role as it does in the classic The Third Man. At the end of the film, Orson Welles as the villain Harry Lime flees through the sewers of Vienna and finally is shot by his old friend Holly Martins. Martins discovered that Lime had been selling diluted medication that permanently harmed children. What was the medication that Harry Lime was selling in post-war Vienna? Question_4 Its total weight is approximately 180 tons. Its effect is elegant and fragile. No wonder, the glass pyramid at the entry of the Louvre in Paris consists of hundreds of diamond-shaped and triangular glass segments. The model for the structure, created by the Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei between 1985 and 1989, was the Great Pyramid of Giza. Who commissioned the architect to design a new entry for the largest museum in the world? What is his last name? Question_5 Urban development and supply have always been closely related. Where water supply is concerned, the Romans with their aqueducts have left a special legacy, in terms of architecture and technology. These water lines carried water as far as 100 kilometers, usually underground, sometimes however also via gigantic bridges in larger cities of the Roman Empire. One of the best preserved aqueducts from the time of the Romans is in southern France and is 49 meters high. What is the French Dpartement that this aqueduct is named after.
Five winners of a 100 voucher for amazon.de will be drawn from all contestants who sent in the correct solution.
Solution from the page forum_worth knowing: The person wanted for Who was it: Le Corbusier
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TK
Global views can be the German photographers view of his temporary home in Shanghai or the debate between proponents and opponents of globalization. This magazine deals just as much with journeys across intercultural borders as with border-crossing bridges. It is about scientists and development engineers who apply new processes and use new materials to open up new avenues for technology in an increasingly networked world and, thus, help fight such global problems as water shortages. And it is also about entering new markets. Internationality means pursuing common approaches across national borders and reaching common goals via different avenues and learning from each other in the process. 7
Environment is everything that surrounds us and shapes our existence from climate change, as one well-known researcher relates in this magazine, to the elements sun, wind and water in their capacity as equally useful and unpredictable forces of nature, from demographic change to the manifold stressors influencing our social surroundings. A steel mill where environmental protection is high up on the agenda is just as much an issue as the cultural interpreter who is looking for the right tone in this globalized world. The way we confront the environmental challenges of today reflects a diversity of technical solutions like the storage of greenhouse gases, energy extraction from plants or the ways we protect ourselves against natural disasters.7
To have perspectives means to have a future, to present perspectives means finding goals for which the effort is worthwhile, to provide new impulses, to identify and develop future potential with technical solutions for mankinds most pressing challenges, precisely like promoting an environment that is open for new ideas, and in which each individual can reach his potential. From the idea, to the innovation, to technology assessment in this magazine tinkerers as well as futurologists have a voice, it deals with products that can revolutionize our everyday life, as well as the shaping of the living spaces of the future. The astronaut, Thomas Reiter, reports how a change in perspective can affect our value system. 7
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Publisher: ThyssenKrupp AG, Dr. Jrgen Claassen, ThyssenKrupp Allee 1, 45143 Essen, Telephone: +49 201 8445-0 Project Management at ThyssenKrupp: Barbara Scholten The contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Excerpts may only be reproduced with attribution and if a sample copy is provided. Publishing house and editorial offices: F.A.Z.-Institut fr Management-, Markt- und Medieninformationen GmbH, Mainzer Landstrasse 199, 60326 Frankfurt/Main, Telephone: +49 69 75 91-0, Fax: +49 69 75 91-1966 Managing Directors: Volker Sach, Dr. Andr Hlsbmer Project Management: Ludger Kersting Editors: Anke Bryson (responsible), Alexander Schneider Art Director: Wolfgang Hanauer Authors: Sarah Bautz, Anke Bryson, Christina Hhn, Christoph Neuschffer, Tim Schrder, Alexander Schneider, Margit Uber, Jan Voosen, Inka Wichmann Photos: archinform (9295), CAEPSELE (2223), Cinetext (8489), CPG Group (72), Phil Fisk (1415, 19), Fnoxx (89), Fotolia.com (3639, 81, 100), Google Earth/Digital Globe/ MapLink/Tele Atlas (45), Historisches Archiv Krupp (6265), Wolfgang Hanauer (Illustrationen 3637, 9293), layar (9295), livingarchitecture.com (1618, 2021), Norbert Michalke/Agentur Focus (9799), Picture-Alliance/dpa (67, 2835, 4045), Stadtbildstelle Essen (6265), The Image Bank (9697), Frank Vinken (73), wikitude (9295) Lithography: Goldbeck Art, Frankfurt/Main, Printing: Kuthal Druck, Mainaschaff
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