Marburg building system
The Marburg building system is considered to be the first precast construction concept in German university construction. For the natural science institutes of the Philipps University of Marburg on the Lahn Mountains , grid concrete elements were developed in 1961–63 / 65. Until the 1970s the Marburg system influenced later university buildings from Darmstadt in the south to Hamburg in the north of Germany.
Background of the university reform
After the Second World War , the question of education was also discussed anew in the Federal Republic. Science should now be committed to truth and democracy again. In a series of articles in 1964 , the philosopher and educator Georg Picht conjured up the "German educational catastrophe ": Only increasing numbers of high school graduates and students could secure Germany's economic strength. The sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf even declared education a civil right. The baby boomers increasingly pushed their way to the universities. The proportion of first-year students in their age group rose from 6.2% in 1952 to 15.4% in 1970. As a result, the federal government also provided the universities with ever more generous resources. Around 1968 there was finally a demand to restrict access to studies. A possible “academic glut” should be prevented.
Development of the precast system
The rooms of the Marburg University were hardly destroyed in the war. Only when the number of students skyrocketed around 1960 did people think more about new buildings. However, there was not enough space in the narrow valley of the city. Therefore, in 1961, the ministry decided on the one hand to build on the Krummbogen on the Lahn. In addition, medicine and natural sciences were outsourced to the Lahnberge, with the exception of the physics department, which remained in the Upper Town. The ridge northeast of the city received an S-shaped access road. An extensive facility was to be built here by 1977. For this purpose, the local university building department designed a flexible, variable precast concept with architects such as Kurt Schneider, Helmut Spieker and Günter Niedner. Precast reinforced concrete parts were developed based on a grid module size of 60 × 60 cm. Girder beams were supported on the characteristic four-part pendulum supports. Standardized finishing elements made of metal and plastics were inserted into this grate structure. The filigree buildings were also given circumferential escape balconies . The system was supplemented by individual massive buildings made of in- situ concrete . The chemistry lecture hall, for example, was built in this form.
Implementation on the Marburger Lahnberge
In 1964, the field factory was set up on the Lahn Mountains . The standardized elements for the local construction sites were manufactured here. By 1966, the new university building office and the preclinical research units were built in the Marburg system. The precast elements were then adjusted slightly. The natural science institutes with the New Botanical Garden and a comprehensive infrastructure (from the electrical and telephone exchange to the district heating plant) were established by 1977 . The individual scientific institutes were deliberately placed side by side on an equal footing. The gray concrete structures were enlivened by the smooth white and dark finishing elements and individual colored accents. In the mid-1970s, the tastes and needs of users also changed on the Lahnberge. The Marburg system was adapted one last time for the new university hospital (inauguration in 1984). External architects were finally commissioned for later buildings. With the current plans for the "Campus Lahnberge", the buildings of the Marburg system are under discussion today.
History of impact and today's significance
The Marburg system was developed as a model for the Lahnberge. It was only occasionally implemented elsewhere, e.g. B. for the petrol station and service area Großenmoor near Fulda. But the concept was considered exemplary in its time. It has often been described as being as inexpensive as it is flexible and aesthetic. The Marburg system influenced new university buildings such as the new buildings in Darmstadt, Hamburg, Tübingen and Dortmund. In 1961–63, the Marburg planners set themselves apart from the half-timbered romanticism of Marburg. At the same time, however, they expressly related their skeleton construction to the Hessian half-timbered construction . Other influences are likely to be found in traditional and modern Japanese architecture, e.g. B. at Kenzo Tange . In Marburg itself, the energetic deficiencies of the Lahnberg were emphasized for a long time. In specialist circles, however, the Marburg system is once again enjoying great recognition as an innovative testimony to post-war modernism .
Danger
The university buildings in Marburg, which were built with the Marburg building system, are acutely threatened. Although they are under monument protection , the university is planning to demolish the largest of them, the building of the former chemistry department, for 2020. University President Krause sees no financially viable option for renovation or other use. Taking into account the preservation of historical monuments, only the building authority building, the first one built in this architectural style at the time, is to be renovated and used for documentation.
Individual evidence
- ↑ See, inter alia, Marburger Bausystem 2011, pp. 15-17.
- ↑ Cf. Universitätsbauten 2003, pp. 16-17, 31, 94.
- ↑ See the master plan for the "Campus Lahnberge".
- ↑ In addition to specialist articles in building magazines such as "die bauwelt", the Lahnberge buildings (still under construction) were praised in the late 1960s and early 1970s by sociological publications and nationwide architecture guides, cf. including German architecture 1970, pp. 147–148; Marburger Bausystem o. J. (detailed list of literature at the end of the publication).
- ↑ The planners themselves did not mention this reference to the construction time, but formal and color parallels suggest this conclusion in retrospect, cf. including Roman Hillmann, Precast Aesthetics. The emergence of one's own expression in buildings made of prefabricated reinforced concrete parts, in: denkmal! Moderne 2007 ( memorial from December 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 5.6 MB), pp. 80–87.
- ↑ See, inter alia, Manfred Hitzenroth : Previously ultra-modern, now ailing discontinued models ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Oberhessische Presse February 6, 2012.
- ↑ See, among others, Roman Hillmann, precast aesthetics. The emergence of one's own expression in buildings made of prefabricated reinforced concrete parts, in: denkmal! Moderne 2007 ( memorial from December 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 5.6 MB), pp. 80–87; Silke Langenberg: Marburger Bausystem - origines, modifications, historie et avenir , in: Franz Graf, Yvan Delomontey (eds.), Architecture industrialisée et préfabriquée: connaissance et sauvegarde, Lausanne 2012, pp. 208–213.
- ↑ University plans to demolish the chemistry building ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Oberhessische Presse from March 11, 2014
literature
- Silke Langenberg (Ed.): Openness as a principle. The Marburger Bausystem , Sulgen 2013.
- Georg Picht: The German educational catastrophe. Analysis and documentation , Freiburg im Breisgau 1964
- Wolfgang Pehnt: German architecture: 1960-1970 , London 1970, pp. 147–148
- Marburger Bausystem , Marburg undated [probably 1976]
- Ellen Kemp et al. (Ed.): Marburg. Architecture guide , Petersberg 2002
- Werner Fritzsche among others: University buildings in Marburg 1945-80. Building history and properties of the Philipps University (publications of the University Library Marburg 116), Marburg 2003
- Adrain von Buttlar, Christoph Heuter (ed.), Denkmal! Modern. architecture of the 60s. Rediscovery of an Era (PDF; 5.6 MB) , Berlin 2007
- Silke Langenberg: Buildings in the boom years. Architectural concepts and planning theories of the 1960s and 1970s , Dortmund 2011 (2nd edition) [zugl. Dissertation, TU Dortmund, 2006]
- Karin Berkemann : The "Marburg Building System". On the first precast concept in German university construction, in: Denkmalpflege und Kulturgeschichte 2011, 4, pp. 14-21
- Heiko Krause: Marburgs-Uni-Bauten-als-Exportartikel , in: Oberhessische Presse, October 22, 2012