GKS Architekten Generalplaner

Description

The project entailed virtually doubling the floor area of the Raiffeisenbank building, built in 1998. The existing functional relationships were maintained while enhancing the overall architectural impression made by the bank. The structure, structural engineering, access zones, staircases and elevator were preserved and supplemented on the respective storeys by additional floor area and rooms. The result is an exciting hybrid of old and new with a uniform-looking building envelope. Although the additive volume clearly reveals the new extension, there is barely any difference in the handling of the old and new sections. The existing building and its extension meld to form a new whole. On the public, street side, the sculptural look of the building recalls country houses with multiple additions or a row of houses in a small town or village. A new skin of vertical ribs covers all façade surfaces. This made it possible to keep the existing windows and façade while knitting the volumes together into a new whole.