Mädler-Haus: on the Use of Geometrically Flexible Design in Architectural Reconstruction Projects

 

Cristiano Ceccato, AA Dipl MSc(CS) DIC MIEEE

Assistant Professor, School of Design

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong, China

sdchris@polyu.edu.hk

 

Abstract

This paper illustrates the usage of flexible design techniques in order to overcome geometrical problems in architectural construction and reconstruction projects. The ideas expressed were borne both from the author’s ongoing research in the field of Generative Design, and experience gained on a critical reconstruction project in Berlin, Germany, in 1998-99.

 

Generative and rule-based design methods argue the power of rule-based and parameter-driven design techniques; however, much of the research in this field is still in its infancy, and the opportunities for application are still few and of minor consequence. The reconstruction project for the Mädler-Haus in Berlin therefore represented an excellent opportunity to develop a simple, yet effective design system, which, by using single parameter flexibility, was able to harmonise a seriously fragmented building.

 

The Mädler-Haus is an early modernist building from 1908 which, after serious destruction and neglect, had been eroded down to its shell of façade and wall structure when it was targeted for high-end reconstruction in 1998. The extents of the damage were such that in the main staircase, no two flights had any longer the same angle of climb; in such circumstances, the only way of resolving stair construction is to custom-engineer each banister to the geometrical state at each location. This paper illustrates how this inefficiency in design and manufacturing was eliminated in the Mädler-Haus by producing a geometrically flexible banister which relied on the flexibility of the angle of climb in order to overcome the constraints of geometrical errors in such structures.

 

1. Mädler-Haus – Historical Notes

The Mädler-Haus is a very important building in the context of Berlin’s 20th Century history, as well as in its relationship to the emergence of the modern movement. Historically, the building has been witness to the many tumultuous events in Berlin’s history and their resulting impacts on its urban structure, both of which were symbolic of the events throughout Europe at the time. Architecturally, the building is a good example of the type of turn-of-the-century North German design that combined Schinkelian purity with new construction ideas and techniques to produce a distinctly proto-modernist architecture (Balfour 1990).

 

The Mädler-Haus was originally erected in 1908 as a department store for the textile and clothing magnate, Moritz Mädler. The building cost the “imperial” sum of 550,000 Gold Reichsmark, a fortune in those days, in particular in view of the buildings limited size, about 3500m² over six floors. The high cost was not only due to the fact that the building made extensive use of expensive stone such as the Weiberner Tuff façade with its delicate mouldings and statuettes, but mainly because the architect Robert Leibniz introduced new construction techniques and architectural principles which set the Mädler-Haus apart from its contemporaries. Leibniz had made a name for himself as a church architect, and he also designed the famous Hotel Adlon on Berlin’s Pariser Platz. Through the construction of churches, with their lofty proportions and high windows, Leibniz had acquired and aesthetic for generous, uplifting spaces. In the Mädler-Haus, the architect produced a generous building with a revolutionary functionality: the requirements for flexibility and open spaces in the department store were fulfilled by using a table construction principle of floors and columns, a novelty in 1908 and almost twenty years before Le Corbusier publicised the idea.

 

The Mädler-Haus was largely destroyed during World War II (see Balfour 1990), burning out completely to its shell and with grave devastation to its façade. After serious destruction and further neglect, the structure had been eroded down to its shell of façade and wall structure. The East Berlin government did little to the building except “patch up” the lower floors in order for some shops and offices to open. The building was further reconstructed through the 1980s, when it housed both the East German Arts Trade commission and a Chinese restaurant for Communist Party members. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a first refurbishment attempt was aborted when the developer declared bankruptcy. The Mädler-Haus remained in its unfinished state until its status was finally resolved in 1998, when it was targeted for high-end reconstruction.

       

Mädler-Haus in 1920                                Mädler-Haus in 1946

 

2. Geometrical Problems

The Mädler-Haus presented serious challenges to the reconstruction team in 1998. The World War II bombardments had shifted and misaligned the entire building geometry, and the subsequent patchwork refurbishments had only been executed as low-cost, tactical operations. This layering of deconstructing orders onto the building resulted in a tangle of conflicting geometries and a haphazard patchwork of materials. Given that there were no traces of the original 1908 interiors, it would have been preferable to preserve the original façade while removing the rest of the building structure (Entkernung) and replacing it with a new one. However, this was ruled out due to financial limitations of the project, and it was opted to work with the existing core, and resolve the major geometrical problems.

 

The extents of the structural damage and misalignment in the Mädler-Haus were such that in the main staircase, no two flights had any longer the same angle of climb; in such circumstances, the only way of resolving stair construction is to custom-engineer each banister to the geometrical condition present at each location. This paper illustrates how this inefficiency in design and manufacturing was eliminated in the Mädler-Haus by producing a geometrically flexible banister which relied on the flexibility of the angle of climb in order to overcome the constraints of geometrical errors in such structures.

                                        

Mädler-Haus Stairs, during reconstruction                                         Entrance, 1997

 

3. Rule-based Design

The detailed discussion of Generative design methods and techniques is beyond the scope of this paper, and are described elsewhere (Dawkins 1986, Frazer 1995, Ceccato 1998, 1999). Generative and rule-based design methods argue the power of rule-based and parameter-driven design techniques; however, much of the research in this field is still in its infancy, and the opportunities for application are still few and of minor consequence. In the rule-based design, determinant parameters are sought which establish rules that generate designs (Frazer 1995). In this sense, the reconstruction project for the Mädler-Haus in Berlin permitted the development of a simple, yet effective design system, which, by using single parameter flexibility, was able to harmonise a seriously fragmented building.

 

 

4. Variable Geometry: Pivot and Shear

The problem of the geometric misalignments in the Mädler-Haus staircase consisted primarily in variations in slope angle and location of turning points on each landing. This was the primary determinant factor in the staircase’s banister design. Normally in such cases, an overall banister design is developed for the entire staircase, but its details must be adapted for every flight in order to accommodate geometric differences. In the case of the Mädler-Haus , this would have effectively resulted in twelve different detailed banister designs over six double-flight floors.

 

It should be noted here that the architectural ambition of the Mädler-Haus reconstruction project was to recast a severely fragmented, disjointed building as a new architectural structure, legible as a single entity. Whether this was in fact achieved is left for others to decide; however, it was clear that the fragmented execution of multiple geometric variations of a staircase banister design would not have contributed to binding the house together, as well as weakening the design itself.

 

The problem of the staircase geometry and banister execution was examined carefully, in order to establish which, if any, guiding principles, or rules (Frazer 1995), were inherent in the problem. These were quickly revealed, as a combination of variable and constraint:

 

(1)    Since the slope varied on each flight, the changes in angle were those which determined the banister’s geometry. This angle was set to be freely determined by the slope as a variable.

(2)    German construction law determines that the banister height in public buildings above 15 meters in height must be of 1100 mm. The Mädler-Haus’s façade elevation height is the traditional Berlin 22 meters (Balfour 1990), thus necessitating the 1.1 meter railing level, which was fixed as a constraint.

 


Consequently, the following system rules are determined:

 

Variable: Slope angle φ                                                                                                (1)

Constant: Banister height h = 1100 mm                                                                        (2)

 

In architectural terms, this requires a system capable of maintaining a constant height (banister height, constraint) while being able to tackle any slope (staircase angle, variable). The geometrical implication of this rule is the principle of shear:

 

 

 

 

 


                        φ = 60˚                                    φ = 45˚                                                φ = 30˚

                        h = const.                     h = const.                                 h = const.

 

This simple solution permitted the efficient design of a stainless steel banister system which consisted of a fixed-height (1100 mm) vertical frame (‘sword’) which contained a set of vertically placed pivoting elements. Through these pivots a round-section steel rod would be threaded to provide banister railing; the spacing of the railing was at 120 mm, again a German construction law safety requirement. The final architectural design reflects many of the aesthetic elements in the new Mädler-Haus design, including extensive play with geometry and angles.

 

In order to implement this precise steel design, a specialist contractor was sought who was able to directly produce the original CAD-based design into CAM manufacturing; in this case, the required precision and complexity of the pivot system required CNC laser-cutting of steel for the veritcal ‘swords’ and CNC lathing of the pivots themselves. However, the design’s efficiency was manifested by the fact that the contractor only had to produce a single vertical element design as opposed to twelve, as it adapted (Frazer 1995) itself to the geometric conditions at each location. Assembly then just consisted of installing the vertical elements and threading the railing rod through the pivot slots.

           


Shearing pivot in vertical ‘sword’                            Variable Geometry banister system             Variable Geometry vertical element

5. Conclusion

The Mädler-Haus presented an excellent opportunity in which to map the theories of rule-based design, however simple, to geometrical constructions as executed through CAD/CAM, thus resulting in an early application of an emerging approach to architecture. Of course, the pivot & shear solution implemented in the Mädler-Haus cannot be solely attributed to the application of rule-based design theory, nor does it represent a watershed design of far-reaching consequences. It does, however, prove that a design approach based on simple, clear rules, which exploits the power of a selected degree of freedom within a design (in this case, shear), can lead to elegant and efficient architectural solutions, both in functional and economic terms.

 

Bibliography

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CECCATO, C., “Microgenesis”, in Soddu, C., ed., Proceedings of the Generative Art 1998 International Conference (Milano, Italy: Politecnico 1998)

CECCATO, C., “The Architect as Toolmaker”, in Gu, J., and Wei, Z, eds., Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Computer Aided Design Research in Asia (Shanghai: Scientific and Technological Literature Publishing 1999)

CECCATO, C., “Evolutionary Design Tools for Mass-Customisation”, in Bermudez, J., et al., eds., SIGRADI: Proceedings of the Third Conference on Computer Aided Design Research (Montevideo, Uruguay: Universidad de la Republica 1999)

DAWKINS, R., The Blind Watchmaker (London: Penguin Books 1986)

FRAZER, J. H., An Evolutionary Architecture (London: Architectural Association 1995)