Eccentric house

Eccentric House Bochum

The bunker on Universitätsstrasse, February 2007.

Exzenterhaus Unistraße

Eccentric house at night

The eccentric house (from Latin ex centro: from the middle) is a high-rise office building on Universitätsstrasse in Bochum . It is built over a previously listed seven-storey air raid shelter from 1942. The building, initiated by the Logos Group and designed by the Berlin architect Gerhard Spangenberg, is a landmark that can be seen from afar with its height of over 89 m . When it is completed in 2013, it is the highest Office building in the Middle Ruhr region .

architecture

A 15-storey building was placed on top of the 22 m high bunker located on a transport island as a foundation. Five storeys, one on top of the other, are grouped together, so that three sections are created that are twisted against each other in their oval ground plan and point in different directions. The lower section points towards the nearby green, the middle towards the Ruhr University and the upper towards the skyscrapers in the city center. Each of the three five-story sections has the same height as the overbuilt air raid shelter.

air-raid shelter

The shell of the reinforced concrete round bunker (architect Friedrich Kirchmeier ), completed in 1942, was designed for 520 reclining and 52 seats, and was occupied by more than 3000 people during air raids on Bochum. It was Bochum's only round bunker. With the dissolution of the specialist offices for civil protection, the disposal of the listed bunker Universitätsstraße was transferred to the city of Bochum. After various interim uses, the bunker stood empty with no prospect of sustainable subsequent uses.

skyscraper

In an investor competition in 1999, the city of Bochum examined various architectural and usage variants. After the initially preferred use vision of the architect Anja Schnitzler, who stood for this project in cooperation talks with the Hopf Group (Hotel im Wasserturm, Cologne ) and Christian Stratmann, the operator of the Mondpalast in Herne-Wanne , failed, the In 2004 the Logos Group was again involved in the development of the future vision for this location. As early as 1999, she had developed and presented the vision of a high-rise building as a built-up bunker. While the conception at that time only provided for 5 transparent floors on the raised bunker serving as a base, in 2004 the Logos Group planned a hybrid structure with 15 floors. With Gerhard Spangenberg, Berlin ( Treptowers ), a renowned architect could be won for the specially founded "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bunker Universitätsstraße". The construction project was carried out between 2008 and 2013 by Exzenterhaus Bochum GmbH & Co KG.

Soon after the development plans became known, a "citizens' initiative round bunker" was formed, the aim of which was to prevent the construction project. The lawsuits filed by her from 2008 onwards were unsuccessful in several instances.