The Weltstadthaus ("
global city building"), housing a department store in
Cologne,
Germany, was designed by
Renzo Piano and completed in 2005, following a lengthy legal battle concerning the structural engineering of the core building. It covers up a main traffic artery, the
Nord-Süd-Fahrt, and faces Europe's most frequented shopping mile, the
Schildergasse.
Overview
With its usual, organic shape reminiscent of a ship, but also of a stranded whale -- Kölners have dubbed it the ''Walfisch''--it provides 14.400 m² floor space, on a length of 130 m and a width of 60 m. The
atrium offers a view of five stories with a height of 36 m. The 4900 m² glass
façade is constructed from 6800 individual panes and 66 massive
laminated beams of
Siberian larch. The northern façade consists of 4.400 m² of
natural stone.
Wedged between a late Gothic church, the
Antoniterkirche, and nondescript post-war concrete, it consists of two distinct parts. A rectangular block of stone takes up the rhythms of the surrounding seventies' angular forms, while the partially encircling wood-and-glass construction flows toward the church that had looked somewhat displaced previously.
Municipal regulations prevent the
cupola from being accessible to the general public, but it is opened on special occasions. The department store is operated by the German chain
Peek & Cloppenburg, who commissioned the Piano design, which has won several prizes.
From P&C's point of view, this is one in a series of ''Weltstadthäuser'', each designed by a different architect: in
Berlin (
Gottfried Böhm),
Düsseldorf (
Richard Meier
Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934) is an American abstract artist and architect, whose geometric designs make prominent use of the color white. A winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Meier has designed several iconic buildings ...
),
Frankfurt (
RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky
Rockwood Municipal Airport is a public use airport in Morgan County and Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. It is located three nautical miles (6 km) north of Rockwood, which owns the airport, and about west of the Harri ...
),
Cologne (
Renzo Piano),
Leipzig (
Moore Ruble Yudell
Moore may refer to:
People
* Moore (surname)
** List of people with surname Moore
* Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador
* Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior officer in the British Army
* Moore Powell (died c. 1 ...
),
Mannheim (
Richard Meier
Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934) is an American abstract artist and architect, whose geometric designs make prominent use of the color white. A winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Meier has designed several iconic buildings ...
again),
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
(
Josef Paul Kleihues),
Vienna (
David Chipperfield
Sir David Alan Chipperfield, (born 18 December 1953) is an English architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985.
His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museum ...
, completed late 2011).
''Weltstadt-Architektur'' P & C website (in German)
/ref>
References
External links
''Weltstadhaus Köln'' page on the P & C website (in German)
Information on the facade structure
on the website of the structural engineering firm Knippers Helbig
Photos of the ''Weltstadthaus''
on Flickr
{{coord, 50, 56, 8.31, N, 6, 57, 10.75, E, display=title, region:DE-NW_type:landmark_source:dewiki
Buildings and structures in Cologne
High-tech architecture
Renzo Piano buildings
Innenstadt, Cologne
Landmarks in Cologne