Philosophicum (Frankfurt am Main)

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Construction of the Philosophicum
Frankfurt Philosophicum-Graefstrasse
The Philosophicum in 2012

The Philosophicum is a listed building in the functionalism style on the Bockenheim campus in Frankfurt am Main . It was the seat of the philosophical faculty of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . The building at Graefstrasse 74 and 76 is used for student apartments. As part of the conversion of the Bockenheim campus after the university moved to the Westend campus , demolition is being discussed. The Philosophicum was built from 1958 to 1960. It is a steel frame building designed by Ferdinand Kramer together with F. Dunkl (University Building Authority) with unclad external supports. The stairwells and gable panels are made of reinforced concrete. The Philosophicum was part of the overall plan for the university buildings that Kramer had drawn up in 1952.

The building

The building is 79.05 meters wide, 10.58 meters deep and 32 meters high. With its 8 floors, it was the university's first skyscraper. The gross floor area is 8,600 square meters. For reasons of space, Kramer had opted for a high-rise solution. The Philosophicum was one of the first uncovered steel frame buildings in Germany. A welding process not previously used in Europe was used. Previously, the only unclad steel frame building was the office building of the VW repair workshop Voets in Braunschweig, which was built in 1955. This technique was untested and was only approved after trials that tested how the steel girders would behave in the event of a fire. In the usual method of lining the steel girders with concrete, the concrete protects the steel from heat. The construction method was quick and inexpensive because there was no such cladding. The steel skeleton was built in just three weeks.

The floor plan of the house consists of a rectangular seminar building, structured by supply towers on the street side. The escape staircase is presented to the outside of the facade based on the American model. When it came to the shape of the floor plan, Kramer was based on the Inland Steel Building in Chicago . The architectural group Skidmore, Owings and Merrill , who planned this building, built the US embassy in Germany from 1952 to 1954 using a steel frame construction. This also included the American Consulate General in the nearby Siesmayerstraße (design by SOM with Otto Apel and Franz Mocken ).

If you enter the building through one of the four entrances, the inside of the house is just as achromatic as it is outside. Only the doors are green, blue and red to identify the individual institutes. The rest of the building and the furniture are not painted in color. The house is a typical example of post-war architecture. The deliberate renunciation of decorative elements and the emphatically functional structure were intended to underline the break with the era of National Socialism .

  • Inland Steel Building

  • American Consulate General in Germany

  • External stairs

  • back

reception

Together with the buildings of the university library, the cafeteria and the Institute for Nuclear Physics, the Philosophicum was also recognized by the Hessian Ministry of Finance in 1965 as an “exemplary building”. The building was presented in the trade press, but the concepts were not taken up and copied. Unclad steel frame buildings with unclad external supports were no longer built after the end of the 1950s.

In public, Kramer's buildings met with some violent opposition and were perceived as ugly. This is still the case today. The ratings are, for example, "strikingly ugly buildings from the sixties" and "the aesthetic value of many Kramer buildings and especially the gray high-rise Philosophicum is difficult to convey".

The architecture literature, on the other hand, highlights the advantages of the house. This is how the house stands out

  • the contrast of the massive supply towers against the lightness of the seminar building,
  • the strict grid structure, which is interrupted on the top floor by exposed concrete surfaces,
  • the escape stairs as an expression of the aestheticization of technology,
  • the light-dark contrast between the dark windows and white parapet panels, which turns into a negative at night when the windows are lit and the parapet panels are dark.

Since 2000, a number of Kramer buildings, including the Philosophicum, have been listed as a cultural monument by the State Office for Monument Protection. The corresponding notification to the owner for the Philosophicum dates from this year.

Discussion about reuse or demolition

When the university moved to the Westend campus, the building was cleared. In the meantime it was used as a furniture store and was empty. The structural condition was bad. The state of Hesse sold the building to the mostly municipal housing company ABG , which was supposed to develop a mixed-use urban quarter, the so-called culture campus, on the campus. ABG Holding commissioned the engineering office Bollinger und Grohmann to examine the possibility of converting it into a residential building. The engineering office put the cost at 15.2 million euros, which means that such a conversion would not be economical. State curator Heinz Wionski contradicted this assessment. In addition, the Philosophicum project group has been promoting the preservation and social conversion of the Philosophicum as a residential project for up to 150 people as well as social business for several years . Around July 1, 2012, the building was occupied to draw attention to the lack of living space and the preservation of the building. After the voices in politics and the public for the preservation increased, a decision on the future of the building was due at the end of 2013 / beginning of 2014.

On March 31, 2014, the Philosophicum project group agreed with the previous owner, the municipal housing association ABG , to buy the Philosophicum. The building was to be sold to the project group for 6.1 million euros. This meant that two other prospective buyers did not get a chance, who had offered a significantly higher purchase price than the project group at 7.1 and 7.8 million euros respectively. After the project group did not manage to obtain a confirmation of financing from a bank by the agreed deadline of June 30, 2014, the sale failed.

After the failed sale to the project group, investor Rudolf Muhr created a student dormitory with 270 apartments in the Philosophicum. Muhr is already an investor in another high-priced apartment complex with so-called serviced apartments and smart apartments in Frankfurt am Main on Adickesallee / Eysseneckstraße. Both dormitories are called "The Flag".

Philosophicum project group

The Philosophicum project group was an association of around 130 people in Frankfurt am Main who campaigned for the preservation and revitalization of the Philosophicum. The project group planned to create affordable living space for 150 people and space for social use in the listed former seminar building. For this she worked with the tenement house syndicate . After the purchase of the building failed, the group is aiming to buy a house in Frankfurt's Bahnhofsviertel.

literature

  • Astrid Hansen: Ferdinand Kramer's university buildings in Frankfurt, 2001, ISBN 3-89739-190-2 , pages 101-105
  • Heike Kaiser: Monument topography city of Frankfurt am Main . Supplements. Limited special edition. Henrich, Frankfurt am Main 2000 (materials on monument protection in Frankfurt am Main 1), pages 6 and 11
  • Jochen Jourdan: Ferdinand Kramer catalog of works 1923–1974 (no page numbering; pictures 288–292)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Astrid Hansen: The Frankfurt University Buildings , page 245
  2. ↑ Astrid Hansen quotes on page 230 a letter to the editor in the FAZ that speaks of “modern barbarism”.
  3. ↑ It's in the way . Comment in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on January 15, 2012
  4. ^ Astrid Hansen: Ferdinand Kramer's University Buildings in Frankfurt, 2001, ISBN 3-89739-190-2 , page 243
  5. ^ Heike Kaiser: Monument topography city of Frankfurt am Main. Supplements; The owner notification is mentioned in the foreword on page 6
  6. ^ Conversion of the Philosophicum expensive . Article in the FAZ from January 15, 2012
  7. ↑ New dispute about the Philosophicum . Article in the Frankfurter Neue Presse (FNP) on September 10, 2012
  8. ↑ Usage concept of the project group ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on their homepage @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / philosophicum.org
  9. ↑ Report by the Frankfurt police press on the occupation of the building on presseportal.de
  10. ↑ Kulturcampus Bockenheim application from the CDU and the Greens of July 16, 2013
  11. ^ Initiative buys Philosophicum article in the Frankfurter Rundschau from March 31, 2014
  12. ↑ ABG sells Philosophicum to the article project group in Journal Frankfurt on March 31, 2014
  13. ↑ Philosophicum goes to project group Article in the Frankfurt Neue Presse on March 31, 2014
  14. ↑ The Philosophicum project group and ABG Holding agree on the conclusion of a contract ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 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. Press release of the Philosophicum project group from March 31, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / philosophicum.org
  15. ↑ Project group is awarded the press release from ABG Frankfurt Holding dated March 31, 2014
  16. ^ Claus-Jürgen Göpfert: Philosophicum Initiative buys Philosophicum; in: Frankfurter Rundschau from March 31, 2014, online
  17. ^ Claus-Jürgen Göpfert: Kulturcampus: Philosophicum purchase burst; in: Frankfurter Rundschau from July 1, 2014, online
  18. ^ Claus-Jürgen Göpfert: Philosophicum: Initiatives see scandal; in: Frankfurter Rundschau from September 12, 2014, online ( memento of the original from November 23, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fr.de
  19. ↑ Student Apartments in Frankfurt, Bockenheim (Philosophicum). The Flag, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Large flat share against vacancy. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. July 25, 2017. Retrieved November 23, 2018 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 '9.3 "  N , 8 ° 39' 1.7"  E