N + M house

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N + M House (2008)

The Berliner Straße 77 property in Offenbach am Main is a listed residential and commercial building and is known as the N + M house . The building was the seat of the eponymous architecture firm Novotny und Mähner until the 2000s . For the renovation of the property in 2016 and 2017, the builders were awarded the city of Offenbach's 2019 Monument Protection Prize.

Construction work

The large-scale office building in the center of Offenbach was in the years 1969-70 to designs by Fritz Novotny and Arthur Mähner that here with their own office Novotny and Mähner , built under took a bank, a restaurant with a bowling alley, various shops and 32 residential apartments.

The building, designed with the claim of a monumental architectural sculpture , is structurally divided into three zones: In the ground floor and in the basement used as an underground car park , the nine-axis and four-row column system with the doubling of the second row of columns can be seen openly between the flush windows. The five office floors above protrude on all sides and have pre-screened parapets made of precast concrete that encircle the building like a ribbon. The windows are set as parallel strips of glass behind the parapets and alternate with them through transparency and reflection on the one hand and materiality and physicality on the other in the play of light and shadow. Windows and parapets are rounded at the edges and defuse the actual angularity of the building. The three-story concrete sculpture of the apartment house rises above the last office floor, set back from the parapet, which is structured by loggias , niches and balconies as well as cantilevered components and asymmetrical window cuts. The tower for stairs and elevators towers above and penetrates the structure.

The interior of the concrete skeleton structure is characterized by great functionality and flexibility, especially on the office floors. The high-quality designed entrance area with the still preserved letterbox system is remarkable.

Architectural appreciation

As an effective urban structure, the N + M House is the courageous product of a team of architects that was still young at the time and which subsequently operated successfully around the world. The model for Novotny and Mähner was concrete brutalism , as represented by Le Corbusier among others .

The justification for the classification as a cultural monument speaks of the fact that the two architects consistently developed this modern architectural style further in the 1960s and presented an individual, future-oriented design with high artistic standards. In its cohesion and structure, the massive structure looks almost like a biblical ark , with a reference to the river Main flowing by.

The building has been a cultural monument since 2015 for artistic, urban and architectural reasons.

Awards

For the renovation of the building that took place in 2016 and 2017, the owners who carried out the work at the time were awarded the city of Offenbach's monument protection prize in 2019. This recognizes the commitment that goes beyond the usual level in upgrading buildings, which is exceptional in terms of the initial state and the exemplary handling of the substance.

The award is to be handed over on September 27, 2019.

use

The office space in the building is used by the city of Offenbach for the adult education center, the youth education center and a project for career orientation and preparation. The lease runs until the end of 2037. The annual rent, including ancillary costs, is 914,000 euros. There are also 30 apartments in the building.

Web links

Commons : N + M Haus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): N + M Haus. In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen .
  2. ^ A b c Matthias Dahmer: Municipal monument award for renovators of the N + M house. In: Offenbach-Post . 23 August 2019, p. 13.
  3. Agnes Schoenberger: 914,000 euros rent per year. In: fr.de . October 23, 2017, accessed August 24, 2019 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 23.5 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 47.4"  E