Stefan Blach, partner at Studio Libeskind has been confirmed as the opening speaker at GPD 2019. The announcement will surely be received with open arms in Finland as Mr. Blach is currently the partner in charge of the ambitious Central Deck and Arena in Tampere, Finland. The project is ambitious, forward-thinking and beautifully designed, elements that the studio has been well-known for in their contribution to architectural discourse since their inception.
Central Deck and Arena project in Tampere, Finland is an urban scale development on top of existing railway tracks in the heart of the city. The mixed-use program includes a multi-purpose ice hockey arena with Hotel, five residential towers with podium, including retail and offices.
© TMRW
The arena, which occupies one fifth of the complex, has the capacity to accommodate 11,000 fans. With its shopping arcade, bars and restaurant at deck level, the arena redefines its pivotal function as a hub for diverse urban activities. There is a total of approximately 63,000 m2 of mixed-use program area and 48,000 m2 of arena space, including a practice field and wellness center. With an estimated €500 million price tag, the development is set to become a permanent and integral part of the city.
© TMRW
© TMRW
Mr. Blach has over 30 years of experience in coordinating design teams and consultants for a wide range of cultural, residential and commercial developments including the Grand Canal Theatre project in Dublin, the Kö-Bogen retail and office complex in Düsseldorf and museums in Dresden and China. Learn more about Studio Libeskind from their website HERE
Discover more about these fantastic projects below:
OCCITANIE TOWER (Toulouse, France)
Set to be the first skyscraper in Toulouse, the Occitanie Tower’s curvaceous form is interrupted by a spiral of greenery that rises from street level up to the 40th floor. © Luxigon
Set to be the first skyscraper in the city, the tower’s curvaceous form is interrupted by a spiral of greenery that rises from street level up to the 40th floor. The 150 m tower includes 11,000 sq. m of office space, a Hilton hotel, up to 120 apartments, a restaurant with panoramic views, commercial space for shops, and offices on the ground floor for the railway company SNCF.
Integrated into the overall form of the building, the façade and public platform is a continuous vertical landscape. This vertical green ribbon referenced the lush waterway of Canal du Midi that winds through the city. Trees will line the platform of the building and a ribbon of gardens will curl around the glass facade to its full height.
The tower will be built on the site of the former postal sorting centre at Gare Matabiau. Situated east of the city centre, and away from the Garonne River, the building will have views towards the Pyrenees, that are less than 100km away. The project is projected to become the gateway to the city’s growing business sector.
Construction start date is set for 2019 with completion by 2022.
KÖ-BOGEN DÜSSELDORF (Düsseldorf, Germany)
Kö-Bogen is a large-scale office and retail complex that is a dynamic new attraction in the heart of Düsseldorf, forming the cornerstone of Koenigsallee boulevard towards Hofgarten park. © KrischerFotografie
By artfully connecting the city’s central park and historic commercial center—and by expanding public space and inserting landscape elements—Studio Libeskind produced a mixed-use commercial complex that is a dynamic new attraction in the heart of Düsseldorf, Germany.
Kö-Bogen, or the `King’s Bow,’ is a large-scale office and retail complex whose sinuous form hugs the point where the Königsallee Boulevard, Düsseldorf’s primary avenue, converges with the newly created Hofgarten promenade. The complex sits on two plots, comprised of two structures—one to the east, the other to the west—separated on the ground by a central pedestrian passageway and joined above by a two-story bridge. The façade is intricately patterned: horizontal from some vantage points, vertical from others, and conceived so that the arrangement of stone and glass panels and aluminum louvers express a homogenous reading.
The central public passageway serves as a new pedestrian path connecting the commercial area of Schadowstrasse with the Hofgarten.
“Daniel Libeskinds Kö-Bogen ist weltbestes urbanes Gebäude (architektur international)”— Goldene Stadtreperatur / “Daniel Libeskind’s Kö-Bogen is the world’s best urban building.” – Golden City Development
The project was completed in 2013.
BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE AND GRAND CANAL COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT (Dublin, Ireland)
Located on the Dublin waterfront, the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre is a 2,000-seat theater at the heart of a multi-use complex that has been instrumental in revitalizing the Grand Canal docklands. © Hufton + Crow
Located on the Dublin waterfront, the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, formerly the Grand Canal Theatre, is a 2,000-seat theater at the heart of a multi-use complex conceived for by the City of Dublin as part of a plan to revitalize its docklands. Studio Daniel Libeskind completed the theatre in 2010 and an office complex called the Grand Canal Harbour development a year later.
The theater overlooks a public plaza designed by Martha Schwartz Associates. Like a grand outdoor lobby, the plaza invites the public to view the soaring glass façade of the theater much like a glass curtain, which tilts back in space in diagonal pleats. The public can gaze into its Piranesian interior of horizontal ramps and diagonal pilotes.
The design concept for the theater is, in fact, stages—the theater’s ‘real’ stage and the plaza as another, equally real but more provisional and changing stage. At night, when the second floor lobby of the theater is crowded with theater-goers and the theater’s tilting façade and plaza are illuminated, the latter ‘stage’ offers a particularly dramatic experience.
The Bord Gáis Energy Theatre is flanked on the street side by two office buildings designed by Libeskind. The two office blocks comprising the commercial development provide sustainable and sophisticated work environments.
The project was completed in 2010.
GPD Conference abstracts can be accessed immediately and sorted by company, speaker or proposed session HERE