Outline Concept
“The Landscape of Encounters will enhance European traditions of transparency and communication, and promote social responsibility on the part of economic authorities. It reflects our values and our identity.

The bank’s traditional windows are gone, replaced by electronic communication, leaving only a cold, reflective, hermetic wall, the symbol of economic success. Public buildings convey meaning - this one especially symbolises unification, heritage and evolution. This particular medium should reflect our values and our identity through a new concept of public service.

Den Graham is one of most influential artists and social surveyor: ‘Removing the wall bares the underlying construction. When the barrier is removed, elements are revealed that were previously hidden from view, its structure becomes visible - not its physical but its social structure. It ceases to be private and becomes a public presentation of the interior’.

Three vertical elements are inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s ‘endless column’, the greatest visual metaphor for the transformation of cultural heritage into modern form. There is not only a symbolic connection to the work of the great artist; the actual shape of the tower has been created to provide flexibility, to cater for diverse working styles and to foster interaction and communication.

Inspiration for the outer surface has been found in Isamu Noguchi’s work with lighting. The traditional Japanese architectural material, paper, has been transformed into double translucent membrane, allowing both light and sound to permeate.

Grossmarkthalle is a covered landscape, something comparable to a rain forest. A place where the climate changes naturally. The temperature is more constant and the light controlled. As a result visitors and spectators entering from an open landscape will not be confronted with a radical climate change.”